On December 3, the opening ceremony of the 2021 China Sports Lottery "Good Luck 'Chess' Coming" National Chess Folk Chess King TV Championship Was held in Wanning, Hainan.
Zhu Guoping, director of the Chess and Card Center of the General Administration of Sports, secretary of the Party Committee, and chairman of the China Chess Association, Zhang Chi, director of the National Sports Lottery Center, secretary of the Party Committee, and vice chairman of the China Chess Association, Xu Ming, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the National Sports Lottery Center, Ye Chun, vice president of the China Sports Newspaper General Agency and chairman of Huaao Starry Sky, Liu Pingjiu, second-level inspector of the Hainan Provincial Tourism and Cultural Department, Guo Liping, director of the Chess Department of the Chess and Card Center of the General Administration of Sports and secretary general of the China Chess Association, and other leading guests attended the opening ceremony.
Jointly organized by the National Sports Lottery Center, the Chess and Card Center of the General Administration of Sport and the Chinese Chess Association, the tournament began in March this year, the competition venue is located in more than 7,700 physical stores in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country, nearly 20,000 people participated in the audition stage, and the number of matches reached 190,000.
From September to October, the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) held prefectural and provincial competitions. From townships, districts and counties to prefectures, cities and provincial capitals, the tournament covers a wide range and lasts for a long time, attracting a wide range of chess enthusiasts.
The 30 contestants who participated in the finals were all provincial champions who stood out through the selection of the sea selection, the prefectural and provincial competitions. Among the contestants, there are college students who are flourishing, and there are also workers from all walks of life who are struggling in the front line; some are participating in the competition for the first time, and some are continuous "fighting"... Everyone has many stories about public welfare sports lottery and chess, which is very representative and can be said to be the leader of the grassroots chess king.
Although the players are all from the private sector, the organizational level of the final is completely in accordance with the standard of professional competitions, and the Chinese Chess Association has sent national judges for the competition. At the same time, the Nanhai Notary Office of Haikou City, Hainan Province, is responsible for notarization to ensure the openness, fairness and transparency of the competition to the greatest extent.
At the opening ceremony, Director Zhu Guoping delivered a speech, he believes that as a national public welfare lottery, China Sports Lottery has long been concerned about and supported the development of chess, especially the development of mass chess activities. Since 2019, the Chinese Chess Association and the China Sports Lottery have joined hands to build more than 100,000 physical sports lottery stores throughout urban and rural areas into chess competition venues, providing a platform for the majority of chess enthusiasts to exchange skills, enhance friendship and show their style, and truly move the chess venue to the people.
With the support of the China Sports Lottery, the National Chess Folk Chess King TV Championship has been held for two consecutive years and is deeply loved by chess lovers and lottery buyers. In the future, the Chinese Chess Association is willing to work with the China Sports Lottery to give full play to their respective advantages, to make the National Chess Folk Chess Championship into a simple, popular, easy to participate and more interesting folk events, to provide a stage for more chess lovers to show themselves and meet friends with chess, so that more people can understand the original intention and mission of public welfare sports lottery.
It is worth mentioning that Jiang Chuan, a grandmaster of chess, also came to the opening ceremony and shared the Chinese chess culture and chess artists. Subsequently, as the representative of the chess king, Chen Jianmiao, the king of chess in Beijing, elaborated on his story and the promotion process of the Chinese sports lottery.
The grand finals will be held from December 4 to 5, and the overall winner will be determined through round-robin and knockout round-robin matches. The competition is presented to the audience in the form of offline competition and online live broadcast, and will be broadcast live through 18 platforms such as the public welfare sports lottery WeChat public account, Huya, Central Video, Douyin, and Kuaishou.
In addition, Sports Lottery will also produce a 3-episode feature film TV program for the Chess Championship around this event, including the progress of the event, the story of chess players, and the hard work of sports lottery practitioners to the event, and the feature film will fully demonstrate the historical and cultural heritage of the sport of chess, as well as the contribution of the sports lottery to the promotion and popularization of chess.
In the 27 years since the unified issuance of the China Sports Lottery, it has raised more than 610 billion yuan in public welfare funds, actively promoting the development of various social welfare undertakings and sports undertakings. From 2011 to 2020 alone, more than 18.3 billion yuan of sports lottery public welfare funds were invested in national fitness, so that more people can participate in sports.
From the construction of national fitness venues to the installation of fitness equipment, from fitness venues into the community to support rural fitness, from the popularization of sports knowledge to the publicity of the concept of national fitness, you can see the figure of the sports lottery public welfare fund. Providing support for the people to participate in national fitness activities is the main direction of the use of the Sports Lottery Public Welfare Fund, and it is also the unchanged theme of the Sports Lottery brand activities.
The Folk Chess King TV Championship has received extensive participation and positive response from chess fans, and the China Sports Lottery will provide a stage for more chess lovers to show themselves next year, so that more and more "folk chess kings" will be born from the sports lottery shops around them, and look forward to the participation of more chess fans.