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lifetime ban

recently, the chinese chess association announced the punishment of athletes including wang tianyi and wang yuefei for their violations.

the notice stated that the chinese chess association, together with relevant parties, conducted an in-depth investigation and found that wang tianyi, wang yuefei and other athletes had engaged in illegal activities such as buying and selling chess pieces and manipulating competitions over a long period of time and with high frequency. the nature of the violations was extremely bad and the circumstances were extremely serious, causing serious damage to the development of chess. according to the "sports law of the people's republic of china" and the regulations promulgated by the chinese chess association, the chinese chess association has imposed a lifetime ban on wang tianyi and wang yuefei and revoked all honors such as the grandmaster title.

after the notice was issued, china newsweek learned that wang tianyi had previously been approved for arrest by the hangzhou procuratorate and the case would be heard in court in the near future.

as the actual whistleblower in the wang tianyi case, chinese chess grandmaster liu dahua, who is 74 years old this year, pointed out to china newsweek that he is particularly saddened that chinese chess, a national cultural treasure, has become a "tool" for a small group of chess scum to buy and sell wins and losses, and to accept bribes for profit.

wang tianyi, who was banned for life by the chinese chess association, had always ranked first in the chinese chess rating for the past 10 years. he denied through a live broadcast that he was involved in buying and selling chess pieces and using software to cheat.

chinese chess association issued a notice

"if there is anyone who reports with real name, i admire you"

public information shows that wang tianyi was born in 1989 and is 35 years old this year. he started learning chinese chess at the age of 6 and was promoted to chess master at the age of 16 by winning the 16-year-old group championship of the national chess youth championship. at the age of 23, wang tianyi won the national chess individual championship, becoming the 16th male national chess champion in china and promoted to chess grandmaster.

since 2014, wang tianyi has ranked first in the country for 10 consecutive years. in 2023, wang tianyi's rating reached 2802 points, a record high since the implementation of the rating system of chinese chess.

in the eyes of chess lovers, wang tianyi is an absolute "winner in life". he was admitted to the prestigious peking university by playing chess, and also gained considerable income and social status through his chess skills.

cai yi, a lawyer at beijing deheng law firm and chess master, recalled to china newsweek that in 2008, when he was the captain of peking university's chess team, he was commissioned by the school to scout out talented players at the chess winter camp held at peking university. the 19-year-old wang tianyi was in the winter camp.

"at that time, wang tianyi's chess style was steady yet aggressive, which was more advantageous among young players. he seemed to be extremely talented at that time," said cai yi.

in 2004, young wang tianyi competed in the 13th asian chess championship. photo/visual china

due to his outstanding performance in the winter camp, wang tianyi got the opportunity to be admitted to peking university with a reduced score and became cai yi's junior.

when wang tianyi emerged in the chess industry, he was followed by controversy. cai yi recalled that as early as 2011, some chess players suspected that wang tianyi relied on software to win games.

"wang tianyi entered the adult competition at the time when the software became popular all over the world. his chess style at that time became more aggressive than when he was a teenager. the reason why everyone suspected him was that after the game, through the software review and disassembly, it was found that wang tianyi's chess style was different from that of ordinary people, and the thinking structure was very similar to that of the software."

a chess player once said that when the match with wang tianyi was at its most intense and tense, wang tianyi suddenly asked to go to the bathroom at least before two key moves, and sometimes stayed there for more than 10 minutes at a time.

wang tianyi showed disdain for outside doubts, and even changed his social media name to "alien", deliberately creating an image of himself as "no school, no teacher, and a visitor from outer space". this way of "self-deification" made cai yi quite dissatisfied.

cai yi told china news weekly: "it is widely reported that wang tianyi has no teacher, which is completely wrong. in addition to his first coach sun yaoxian, his teacher was actually the beijing chess academy. in his early years, fang shiqing was wang tianyi's long-term teacher. other teachers such as wang guodong, li peng, and zhang qiang also taught him for a short period of time. how could he be self-taught? in addition, during wang tianyi's chess career, in addition to the beijing chess academy, there were also high-quality resources from the hangzhou chess academy, and many companies also supported him."

before the 2023 hangzhou asian games, wang tianyi was embroiled in the "recording gate" scandal.

the incident was caused by a verbal fight between wang tianyi and chinese chess grandmaster hao jichao during a live broadcast. hao jichao was banned for allegedly insulting wang tianyi's girlfriend during the live broadcast.

shortly after hao jichao was banned, a recording of more than 12 minutes was exposed on the internet. the industry is convinced that the two people in the recording are hao jichao and wang yuefei. in the recording, the two talked about buying and selling chess pieces, cheating with software, manipulating ratings, etc. wang tianyi's name was also mentioned many times in the conversation.

cai yi pointed out that wang yuefei is also a grandmaster of chinese chess and a teammate of wang tianyi's hangzhou team, but in fact he is his agent for his on- and off-court affairs.

after this recording was exposed, there was a strong call in the chess industry for a thorough investigation of wang tianyi. on august 4 of that year, wang tianyi announced that he would give up the hangzhou asian games due to health reasons. in october of the same year, just after the hangzhou asian games closed, wang tianyi publicly announced his comeback and responded to the "recording incident" in a live broadcast.

in the live broadcast, wang tianyi said that because he has been ranked first in the country for many years, it is normal to have "enemies" in the circle. "i want to see what you can do to me. what real-name reporting is at best a real-name suggestion. i admire anyone who makes a real-name report."

wang tianyi responded to the "recording scandal" and denied buying and selling chess pieces, and called out to liu dahua. photo/video screenshot

shortly after wang tianyi called on the whistleblowers to come forward in a live broadcast, liu dahua stood up.

liu dahua's real-name report/video screenshot

as a contemporary of hu ronghua, chinese chess grandmaster liu dahua is known as the "oriental computer". in 2007, liu dahua once set a new world record by winning 83 games, drawing 47 games and losing 9 games in a round-robin match against 139 opponents. after 2023, he served as the honorary chairman of the hubei chess association.

on the evening of october 17, 2023, liu dahua made a public report with his id card, but the target of the report was not wang tianyi, but guo liping, deputy director of the chess and card center of the general administration of sport of china in charge of chinese chess (now transferred to the deputy director of the health qigong management center of the general administration of sport of china).

liu dahua said in his report that guo liping had long been shielding and condoning the evil forces in the chinese chess world, using computer software and modern technology to manipulate the outcome and prize money distribution of various large-scale domestic competitions. guo liping turned a blind eye to the scandals in the chess world, and instead suppressed and retaliated against the coaches and athletes who stood up to expose the scandals...

subsequently, liu dahua's disciple and chess master dang fei also made a real-name report through social media, and stated in the report that he had transferred some evidence to relevant departments and requested a thorough investigation.

a relevant insider told china newsweek that although liu dahua and dang fei did not publicly report wang tianyi, the relevant departments still intervened and promoted the follow-up investigation of the matter.

it was precisely because of this real-name report that wang tianyi’s long-term scandal of buying and selling chess pieces was finally exposed.

what is the motivation for buying and selling chess games?

after wang tianyi was banned for life, many chess fans still doubted his motives for buying and selling chess pieces and suspected crimes: "he has been ranked first in the national ranking for 10 years. did he achieve this by using software, buying and selling chess pieces?"

some chess enthusiasts said that wang tianyi is a well-known fast chess player who has won many championships. in a game of only about 10 minutes, it is almost impossible to win by cheating in front of the opponent and the referee without any flaws. in the work of coaching, it is also necessary to lead the team to dismantle the chess game for a long time and often explain the chess in the live broadcast room, all of which cannot be done entirely by "software".

in response to the fans' questions, a chess player told china news weekly that due to the rapid development of technology, even fast chess games have the opportunity to cheat. "real chess masters do not need to use software to guide the whole game. a maximum of two auxiliary prompts are enough for a game." in addition to the traditional morse code, cheating information transmission methods include implanting bluetooth sensor chips in teeth and wearing hidden sensors.

in the chinese chess open held in early september, chess player lü lin often stamped his feet during the game, which aroused the suspicion of the referee. later, it was found that a "small cube" with a vibration function was installed on the sole of his shoe. although lü lin argued that the device was a drone battery, he was eventually convicted of cheating.

wang tianyi competes in the 2023 national rapid chess championship. photo/wang tianyi alien

the chinese chess association's announcement did not mention wang tianyi's use of software to cheat, but his related behaviors such as buying and selling chess pieces were reported because of conclusive evidence and were not short-term or small-scale behaviors.

after the news of wang tianyi's arrest was made public, liu dahua said that wang tianyi bought chess pieces in order to maintain his first-place ranking in the country. the aforementioned chess player said that because the record of ten consecutive championships set during the hu ronghua era is difficult to replicate in today's era, wang tianyi can only "boast" by being ranked first for consecutive years, creating this title and halo with "a gap in recognition within and outside the industry" and attracting sponsorship income from outside the industry.

in the 2023 chinese chess rating ranking list, wang tianyi ranked first with 2802 points, zheng weitong ranked second with 2754 points, and starting from third place, the gap between the other grandmasters and wang tianyi was about 200 points or more.

the chess player told china newsweek that the outside world does not know that the difference of 200 points is actually very large. the chinese chess rating system uses the elo formula to calculate the points. simply put, according to the elo formula, a high-ranking player can only win a few rating points when winning against a lower-ranked player, but will lose a lot of rating points if they draw or lose to a lower-ranked player.

unlike go, which almost never has a draw, chinese chess has a draw (a tie) outcome. many chess players have developed some fixed routines of defending and pursuing a draw after training with software assistance, which is called a "draw" in the industry. as a result, even players with high ratings cannot guarantee a stable win against opponents who are ranked lower but deliberately seek a draw, and thus cannot obtain ideal ratings.

therefore, some "experts" have the desire to "buy to win" in order to pursue the ranking of the rating points. because the relevant departments have not yet reported the specific number of games wang tianyi bought, it is currently impossible to determine which games in the 2023 chinese chess rating rankings were "bought" by wang tianyi.

unlike "experts" who buy chess pieces, "experts" who sell chess pieces accept money from the other party and deliberately lose the game, but the reason for selling chess pieces is that there are still people willing to buy them.

public data shows that the evaluation criteria for chinese chess grandmasters have been adjusted three times in the past 30 years, and the promotion conditions have become increasingly relaxed. for chess players who are under pressure to achieve results in the short term, need to meet the contract targets of their team, want to compete in international competitions next year, and have promotion needs, they have the motivation to buy chess pieces.

the aforementioned chess player pointed out that the main scenario for "experts" to buy chess pieces is the round-robin league, while the main scenario for "experts" to sell chess pieces is the knockout cup competition. in some key chess games involving the final results that can be rated, there have been many "dramas" such as "the old champion lost to the new champion", and the subtleties in each are not difficult to understand.

liu dahua publicly stated that the amount of money wang tianyi was suspected of buying chess pieces for was 800,000 yuan, and the amount of money he sold chess pieces was actually much more. the aforementioned chess player said, "the outside world always thinks that the field of chess seems to be very poor, but in fact, such competitions involving honors and levels are not without transactions of hundreds of thousands or even millions per game. if someone wins a level of honor, they can earn it back next year through contract renewals, sponsorships, etc."

cai yi told china newsweek that over the years, wang tianyi and wang yuefei have built an "interest group" that analyzes various information such as rankings and situations to accurately know what level of results and outcomes almost every chess player wants at the moment. they then send middlemen to find the target players, ask them for their ideas, hint that they can sell the chess pieces, and listen to the target players' bids.

some young chess players are inexperienced and, because they did not understand the "hints", were arranged by the "interest group" to play against masters, which resulted in them losing again and again. finally, they were forced to compromise with the "interest group" and were eventually "dragged into" and became part of the buying and selling chess game.

liu dahua told china newsweek that he reported the incident under his real name because the "interest group" had long dominated and controlled the chess world. "if the cancer is not eradicated, what future will young chess players have?"

“smartness in the wrong place”

in fact, cai yi believes that wang tianyi is definitely a top-notch chinese chess player in terms of chess ability, but it is despicable to construct a "dominance" and "self-myth" in this way. after wang tianyi was banned for life, liu dahua sighed: "wang tianyi's intelligence was used in the wrong place."

as early as 2012, wang tianyi was exposed for violating the rules. in the year when he was promoted to grandmaster, at the 7th national farmers games held in nanyang, henan, many registered professional chess players were exposed for pretending to be farmers and changing their names to participate in the competition. wang tianyi was one of them. at that time, he changed his name to "wang tianyi" and wang yuefei also changed his name to "wang yuefei". at the same time, this was the first time outside the chess circle that the two names of wang tianyi and wang yuefei were linked together.

cai yi believes that wang yuefei has big problems in both chess skills and character, and wang yuefei has a lot to do with wang tianyi's final misguided path. cai yi said that he had repeatedly advised wang tianyi to stay away from wang yuefei, but wang tianyi was introduced to the beijing team by wang yuefei in 2011, and since then, he has been "deeply bound" to wang yuefei in terms of transfers and various matters, and it is difficult to stop.

wang yuefei participated in the 2008 national chess super tournament. photo/visual china

according to the economic observer, wang tianyi was taken away by the relevant authorities around his birthday on april 23 this year. according to the aforementioned chess player, wang yuefei was taken away for investigation in march this year after he was believed to have lost contact. since the chinese chess association has no right to "check the accounts", wang tianyi's long-term secret buying and selling of chess pieces was only discovered after the public security organs intervened and opened a "breakthrough" from wang yuefei. wang tianyi was eventually arrested, and there must be solid evidence of his related transaction chain.

it is worth mentioning that wang tianyi was banned for life by the chinese chess association and has been arrested by judicial authorities. however, there are still many fans of wang tianyi who are "crying out for justice" on social media.

but in fact, after this incident, the image and commercial value of chinese chess have suffered a "severe blow", and the holding of some competitions have been affected to varying degrees. for example, the 4th shanghai cup chess masters open, which ended in jiading, shanghai on september 21, only had a veteran group in the men's event.

the notice issued by the chinese chess association still leaves many questions to be clarified. for example, who else did wang tianyi and wang yuefei "buy chess pieces" and "sell chess pieces" to; if buying and selling chess pieces is a common phenomenon, how serious is it; and how will other players who are also suspected of violating regulations and laws be dealt with...

author: ye zhufeng

editor: hu kefei

operations editor: ma xiaoyi