news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

it finally came out after much anticipation.

on september 19, 2024, the chinese chess association officially announced the case involving mr. wang tianyi, "the number one chinese chess player."

i can finally calm down and record my experiences over the past few months.

the chinese chess association announced on september 19:

in april 2023, the "recording scandal" in chess attracted public attention. the chinese chess association attached great importance to it and conducted an in-depth investigation with relevant parties.it was found that wang tianyi, wang yuefei and other athletes had engaged in illegal activities such as buying and selling chess pieces and manipulating competitions. the violations lasted for a long time and were frequent. the nature of the violations was extremely bad and the circumstances were extremely serious., which has caused serious damage to the development of chess.

the chinese chess association said:

"after research, wang tianyi and wang yuefei were banned from playing for life, and all technical titles awarded by the chinese chess association, including grandmaster, were revoked. they were also prohibited from participating in all chess events and activities organized or authorized by the chinese chess association and its member units."

at this time, it has been 1 year and 5 months since the chess "recording gate" incident, 11 months since mr. liu dahua, a veteran of chinese chess, reported it under his real name, more than 4 months since mr. wang tianyi was taken away by hangzhou police, more than 2 months since our first report on the matter was issued, and less than a month since the second report was issued.

i knew nothing about mr. wang tianyi beforehand. it was several of my old friends who like playing chess who started introducing me to mr. wang tianyi from may 2024, saying that he was a "rare" genius in the chinese chess world. for ten or eleven consecutive years, he ranked first in the country, and he alone accounted for at least 50% of the traffic in the entire chinese chess world - some friends even said that he could account for about 80% of the traffic.

then, recently, there have been rumors that mr. wang tianyi has "got into trouble", and he has not made a public appearance for a while - before that, he would broadcast live videos almost every week. chess fans are very concerned about him and are using various methods to find out his whereabouts, even using a program called "qinfutong" to find and confirm the detention center in hangzhou where he is detained.

my friends also told me that around april 2023, a shocking scandal broke out in the chinese chess world, called the "recording gate."

the so-called "recording scandal" is, in simple terms, a recording of a conversation between two chinese chess grandmasters, mr. wang yuefei and mr. hao jichao, which began to spread on the internet. in the recording, the two mentioned mr. wang tianyi and talked about mr. wang yuefei and mr. wang tianyi's involvement in "buying chess pieces" and manipulating chess competitions, and they also seemed to mention using "special means" to cheat in the competition.

this has caused the chess community and some chess fans to begin to wonder how wang tianyi managed to stay ranked first for ten consecutive years. is wang tianyi's real chess ability really superior to others?

there is a veteran figure in the chinese chess world, mr. liu dahua, who in october 2023, used his id card to report ms. guo liping, then deputy director of the chess and card sports management center of the general administration of sports of china, on the internet and in his real name.

mr. liu dahua said, "for a long time, she (guo liping) has been harbouring and condoning the evil forces in the chinese chess world, openly using computer software and modern scientific and technological means to manipulate the results and prize money distribution of various large-scale domestic competitions, making chinese chess, a cultural treasure of the chinese nation, degenerate into a tool for a small group of scum in the chess world to buy and sell wins and losses and accept bribes for profit."

mr. liu dahua also said that ms. guo liping did not investigate or inquire into the shocking scandal in the chinese chess world, but instead suppressed and retaliated against the athletes and coaches who stood up to expose the scandal.

regarding the issue of using "special means" (computer software, technological means) to cheat, my friends also told me a story like this.

there was a chinese chess grandmaster named zheng weitong, who was always beaten by mr. wang tianyi and was known as the "eternal runner-up". once, mr. zheng weitong even wore a signal jammer and went to compete with mr. wang tianyi.

these information and stories aroused my interest, so i started to look up some basic information and contacted my friends in zhejiang - because it was said that mr. wang tianyi's crime occurred in zhejiang.

i was very surprised to hear that two friends in the zhejiang system reported that the authorities had issued a very strict "gag order" on mr. wang tianyi's affairs, and no one was allowed to disclose or inquire about any news about him.

this makes me even more interested.

so, i started mobilizing more friends to help.

hard work pays off. i learned about mr. wang tianyi's involvement in the case and the progress at the time from three reliable and relatively direct channels - of course not from chess fans.

so i wrote my first report and published it on june 26, 2024, titled “involving non-state personnel in bribery china's no. 1 chess player wang tianyi under investigation》it was published with the title.

the core information of this report is roughly as follows:

1. mr. wang tianyi was taken away on april 23, 2023, his 35th birthday;

2. the case-handling units include the economic investigation department of the hangzhou police;

3. mr. wang tianyi is suspected of crimes including bribery by non-state employees;

4. ms. guo liping, deputy director of the chess and card sports management center of the general administration of sport of china and in charge of the chinese chess project, who was reported by mr. liu dahua under her real name, has been transferred out of the chess and card sports management center. regarding liu dahua's accusations, ms. guo said that she needs to wait for the official reply from the organization and believes that there will be a conclusion in the end.

after the report was published, some things continued to happen that made me feel angry and amused.

first of all, there are all kinds of criticisms and doubts about me on the internet, including personal attacks. there are many such videos and self-media articles on the internet.

for example:

there are also people who send me private messages to insult me ​​through social media. a typical example is this one on weibo: “i just have a better life than you”:

such remarks not only insult me ​​but also involve my family members. what should i do?

some people also said that i wrote this article because i received a bribe of 50,000 yuan from mr. liu dahua.

i have experienced something similar in late march and early april 2023, after i spoke out about mr. zhang jike giving his girlfriend's private videos to creditors. but i never expected to encounter so-called "cyberbullying" again when reporting on the anti-corruption incident in the field of chinese chess - even though before the report, a friend in the chess circle told me that some of mr. wang tianyi's fans were quite extreme.

another "reaction" of mr. wang tianyi's supporters was to target our newspaper. they called the 12345 citizen service hotline many times, saying that we were spreading rumors and slandering them, and then 12345 transferred the call back, asking the newspaper to respond.

our newspaper started forwarding the calls to me and asked me to respond to the people who called.

this is the first time i have encountered such a situation in my 21 years as a journalist.

i was very reluctant and kept putting it off. finally, i wrote a short reply and asked my colleagues at the newspaper to do it for me. i was worried that if i called the so-called complainants directly, i would not be able to control myself...

the newspaper was forced to make such 12345 phone replies several times, and my colleagues had to work really hard.

there is something even more exaggerated. one day,three police officers also came to our newspaper office, saying that they had received a call from the police and that they had to come to the newspaper office to investigate.。

i was not there, but was received by a colleague. after hearing the basic situation, the police were also helpless, saying that they suspected that the call was made by mr. wang tianyi's fans, and they had never seen the person who called the police...

by july and august, i learned that mr. wang tianyi's case had further escalated.

i continued to ask for help from powerful friends from all sides. on august 23, we published the second draft, "suspected of both "buying chess pieces" and "selling chess pieces" "china's no. 1 chess player" wang tianyi approved for arrest》

compared with the first article, this one is more solid and contains more information, including:

1. hangzhou procuratorate has approved the arrest of mr. wang tianyi.

2. mr. wang tianyi is involved in matters involving “buying chess pieces” during competitions, that is, he or another chinese chess grandmaster, mr. wang yuefei, gave benefits to his opponents in order to win competitions and gain advantages in chess rankings; he is also involved in “selling chess pieces”, that is, accepting money from his opponents and deliberately losing chess pieces in competitions.

3. the amount of money mr. wang tianyi and mr. wang yuefei are suspected of "buying chess pieces" totals more than rmb 800,000.

4. mr. wang tianyi gave a zhejiang-born chinese chess grandmaster a "handicap fee" (benefit) of 200,000 yuan for a game. the chess grandmaster was taken away by the police for investigation three times, the third time in early july 2024, and he has been "out of contact" since then.

5. the public security organs encountered many interference factors in handling the wang tianyi case. later, the case was "upgraded" and supervised by the higher-level public security department.

after the report was released, it further attracted public attention and follow-up reports from peers.

it is said that the arrest of mr. wang tianyi topped many hot search lists at the time; there is a wechat index in wechat, and it can be seen that around august 25, wang tianyi's wechat index exceeded 200 million, approaching 250 million.

as for the reactions of mr. wang tianyi's supporters, a friend said that some have basically given up, while some still have illusions, or hopes, that the news is fake.

what’s interesting is that through these two reports, seven or eight chinese chess enthusiasts emerged among my friends, most of whom were also former “fans” of mr. wang tianyi.

mr. wang's supporters continued to call 12345, forcing us to respond.

furthermore, they will continue to write various self-media articles to attack me.

for example, questioning my "journalistic ethics":

to be honest, i read the comments below this article with great interest for quite a while. here are the top few comments with the most likes:

there are also "criminal matters" to report me:

it is said that on video websites, some people used their id cards to "report" me by real name - i have never used video websites such as douyin and kuaishou, but a friend told me that i received more criticism or attacks there.

on september 17, two days before the chinese chess association officially announced the case of mr. wang tianyi, there were still articles continuing to attack us, calling us a "third-rate tabloid."

i have once again implicated the newspaper and caused our economic observer to unfortunately become a "third-rate tabloid". this is a grave sin!

on september 19, the chinese chess association officially announced the matter of mr. wang tianyi.

i thought his fans should give up this time, but my friends in the chess circle told me that some people still don't give up. some people even said that when mr. wang tianyi "comes out" in the future, they will invest 2 million yuan to hold a "tianyi cup" competition...

another question is that in our article, we only mentioned the names of two chinese chess grandmasters who participated in the purchase and sale of chess pieces, namely mr. wang tianyi and mr. wang yuefei. the notice of the chinese chess association also only mentioned their names. the wording used by the chinese chess association was "it was found that wang tianyi, wang yuefei and other athletes had violated regulations by buying and selling chess pieces and manipulating the competition.this"wait", who are they?

as far as i know, there are more than just mr. wang tianyi and mr. wang yuefei who have been taken compulsory measures by the public security organs.

how will the chinese chess association punish other chess grandmasters who have been approved for arrest but are in detention or temporarily released on bail? if there is any punishment, will the punishment be announced to the public?