Chinese chess masters visit Cambridge

Three of the world's leading players of Xiangqi – the ancient Chinese mind-game sometimes known as “Chinese chess” – will visit the University of Cambridge today as part of a tour of the UK.

Xu Yinchaun, Wang Yang and Zhang Guofeng, who are all Xiangqi grand masters, will be treated to a punting tour on the River Cam and tea at a Cambridge college - Trinity Hall - during a break from a week-long tour promoting the ancient strategy game. Their guided visit will be given by fluent mandarin speakers currently living and working at the University.

Although not well-known in this country, Xiangqi is one of the most popular board games in the world and has a special place in Chinese culture. It belongs to the same family of games as chess and may date back as far as the 4th century BC.

In China, it is played by millions of people and major tournaments attract press and television coverage. The game differs from Western chess in a number of ways - for example, the opposing armies are separated by a river, while cannon, elephants and foot-soldiers replace the more familiar likes of knights, rooks and pawns.

The three chess masters are promoting the game around the signing of a new contract earlier this week, which gave British-based management company World Mind Masters Ltd. the rights to organise the world Xiangqi tournament until 2009. The company has been organising free online access for anyone wishing to participate in the world tournament for the last three years.

World Mind Masters CEO Don Morris said: "These young players are all at the pinnacle of one of the world's most testing intellectual pursuits, so it seemed appropriate to take them to one of its great intellectual centres. Hopefully it will also play another small part in the University's ongoing efforts to build links with young people all over the world."