Nanchang, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The 2021 National Chess Men's First Division Regular Season Tournament ended in Nanchang Bay, Jiangxi Province, on november 7. Guangdong Country Garden won the regular season championship, and Guangdong team Zheng Weitong maintained a complete victory in the regular season and was awarded the "Most Valuable Chess Player" in the regular season.
In the final round of the regular season, Guangdong and Sichuan Chengdu Yijin Holdings team met in the final two, Meng Chen was Zheng Weitong's last opponent in the regular season of this league, and finally Guangdong won 6:2. With the victory over Meng Chen in the play-offs, Zheng Weitong was named the "Most Valuable Chess Player" of the regular season with 22 consecutive wins.
In several other matches, Heilongjiang Changsheng defeated Beijing Weikai & Jinhuan Construction Beijing-Hebei United 6:2, Henan Chuhe Hanjie Tianlun team swept Jiangsu Haite team 8:0, Shenzhen Yichuan Chess Club team drew 4:4 with Hangzhou Environment Group team, Zhejiang Sports Lottery team lost 0:8 to Xiamen Xiangyu team, and Shanghai Golden Bund team lost 0:8 to Zhejiang Mintai Bank team.
Since May, from Jilin Yushu to Nanchang, Jiangxi, a total of 22 rounds of the Xiangjia League regular season have been staged this season, and after the first 21 rounds, Guangdong and Sichuan have won the championship and runner-up in the regular season in advance. According to the rules of the competition, the two teams have locked up a place in the final four and will skip the first three rounds of the playoffs to advance directly to the semifinals. The remaining top 10 teams qualified for the playoffs, and Zhejiang Mintai Bank won third. Xiamen team, Henan team, Beijing-Hebei united team, Hangzhou team, Shenzhen team, Shanghai team and Jiangsu team ranked fourth to tenth. The 11th-ranked Heilongjiang team and the 12th-ranked Zhejiang sports lottery team were relegated.
Guo Liping, director of the Chess Department of the Chess and Card Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sport and secretary general of the Chinese Chess Association, concluded in her closing speech that the new format of winning and losing every game of chess in the regular season of the Xiangjia League this season has effectively stimulated the fighting spirit of chess players to fight and win. The league increased investment in live broadcasting, improved the application standards of live broadcast technology, and presented the chess game more intuitively and concretely in front of fans through short video platforms, and the ratings data continued to brush new highs.
The playoffs of the league began on the evening of the 7th, the first four rounds of the one-round system knockout round, the champion and runner-up final will have two one-game system matches, also using the new format of "must win and lose". The final battle of the season will be staged on the 11th. (End)