It must be said that the Chinese sports world is indeed plagued with scandals. Recently, another major scandal has emerged in the domestic sports arena. The State Sports General Administration's Card and Chess Sports Management Center officially announced the investigation results of the "Recording Gate" incident in the world of Chinese chess. Nearly the entire Chinese chess community has been implicated, with as many as 43 people being punished in the past two years, including five players who have been banned for life. In addition, 34 others have been given bans of varying lengths, and four have been publicly criticized.
In recent years, China's sports world has increased its anti-corruption efforts. The Chinese football world has become a major focus, with former national team coach and well-known player Li Tie being taken away during a coaching training session before the start of the Qatar World Cup, thus opening the curtain on the anti-corruption campaign in Chinese football. After this, almost all the top-level officials in the Chinese Football Association were implicated, along with other figures within the football circle, leading to a relatively cleaner phase for Chinese football.
Apart from the domestic football scene, many insiders from other sports projects have also been taken away, including both former directors of the Volleyball Sports Management Center who are under investigation. In fact, besides these popular competitive sports, some relatively unpopular competitions also have their fair share of problems. This is the case with Chinese chess, which has experienced significant issues in the past two years despite not being particularly high-profile.
In April of the previous year, some online recordings and texts related to the Chinese chess world suddenly appeared, claiming that chess players such as Wang Yuefei and Hao Jichao were discussing agreements to buy and sell chess matches. Half a year later, Chinese chess grandmasters Liu Dahua and Dang Fei directly reported their real names on the network platform, demanding a thorough investigation into some abnormal situations in the Chinese chess world. After the real-name reporting by Liu Dahua and others, the Card and Chess Center established an investigation team to investigate and verify the reported content. Subsequently, the public security department also got involved. In April last year, the public security department initiated a review of clues involving suspected criminal acts by multiple chess athletes. In September last year, Wang Tianyi, known as the number one person in Chinese chess, and Wang Yuefei were officially announced by the Chinese Chess Association to have been banned for life and had all their technical titles, including the title of Grandmaster, revoked due to long-term buying, selling, and manipulating matches. They were prohibited from participating in any chess events or activities organized or authorized by the Chinese Chess Association and its member units.
After Wang Tianyi, a major figure in the industry, was given a lifetime ban, many thought that the "Recording Gate" incident in the chess world had ended. However, it is far from over. Recently, the Card and Chess Sports Management Center officially released a notice stating that Zhao Xinxin and 41 others were involved in buying and selling chess through bribery and other means to varying degrees, and they have been punished accordingly. Among them, Zhao Xinxin, Wang Yang, and Zheng Weitong have been banned for life and had their technical titles revoked by the Chinese Chess Association, prohibiting them from engaging in or participating in any chess events or activities organized or authorized by the Chinese Chess Association and its member units.
Furthermore, the chess player Wang Kuo has been banned for 7 years and 6 months, Sun Yiyang for 7 years, Zhao Jincheng for 6 years, Zhang ShenHong for 4 years and 6 months, Zheng Yihong for 4 years, and Dang Fei, Li Shaogeng, Zhao Dianyu, Nie Tiewen, and Wu Junqiang for 3 years. Thus, adding the previously banned Wang Tianyi and Wang Yuefei, a total of 5 people have been banned for life, and 43 people have been punished in this "Recording Gate" incident. With so many people and top-level chess players being punished, it can be said that the chess world has been "cleaned out."