On January 12, 2025, an important meeting was held in Beijing to discuss issues related to sportsmanship and discipline in the world of Chinese chess. At this meeting, the Card and Chess Sports Management Center announced disciplinary actions against 41 Chinese chess players. This news has caused a significant stir within the Chinese chess community and the entire sports industry. Back in September 2024, Wang Tianyi and Wang Yuefei were already penalized for improper behavior, but this latest incident, involving a larger number of individuals with far-reaching consequences, is truly shocking. Chinese chess, with its profound cultural heritage as a national treasure, has unfortunately become embroiled in such scandal, which is both regrettable and heart-wrenching. Do you still remember Xu Yinchuan, known as the "Young Jiang Taigong"? In 2014, at the peak of his career at only 39 years old, he suddenly announced his retirement from the world of Chinese chess. This decision shocked many fans at the time, leaving them puzzled. Over a decade has passed, and Xu Yinchuan has never revealed the true reason behind his retirement. However, it now seems that we are beginning to understand why he made such a decisive choice. When Chinese chess competitions have turned into arenas where players engage in improper means to buy and sell rankings, disregarding the principle of fair competition, Xu Yinchuan's decision to leave may have been a wise one. It is speculated by some fans that at least ten people approached Xu Yinchuan to sell him chess games, which he sternly rejected. Ultimately, he chose to retire…

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…

On January 12th, Beijing time, the results of the Chinese Xiangqi recording incident investigation were announced, with 41 players severely punished for gambling. The official announcement from the Chinese Xiangqi Association stated: "After investigation, it was found that 41 people, including Zhao XinXin, had engaged in various degrees of misconduct such as buying and selling chess games through bribery and corruption, causing serious harm to the development of xiangqi." Notably, Wang TianYi and Wang YueFei were given lifetime bans and had all their titles revoked last September for similar offenses. It's important to note that Chinese Xiangqi is not a mainstream sport within the sports field, yet the number of individuals involved in gambling is surprisingly high, and they are all professional players. This has significantly impacted the development of Chinese Xiangqi. If it weren't for the emergence of the Xiangqi Recording Incident, this situation might have continued for many years before being discovered. Regarding the behavior of buying and selling chess games, which violates the spirit of sports ethics, the Chinese Xiangqi Association has made its stance clear: "Once verified, we will firmly punish and show no tolerance." So what kind of punishment did these 41 gambling-involved players receive? According to the details of the punishment announced by the Chinese Xiangqi Association, almost all grandmasters were wiped out, which can be described as a complete crackdown. Three players, Zhao XinXin, Wang Yang, and Zheng WeiTong, received lifetime bans. Wang Kuo was banned for 7 years and 6 months, Sun YiYang for 7 years, Zhao JinCheng for 6 years, and…