On May 13, the press conference of the first "Beihai Xinyi Cup" World Go Open was held in Beihai, Guangxi; Liu Jing, Deputy Secretary General of China Go Association and Director of Professional Competition Department, Li Caicai, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of Beihai Tourism and Sports Bureau, Li Binshi, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of Beihai Transportation Bureau, Wang Jingqi, Chairman of Beihai Xinyi Cruise Co., Ltd., and Lin Ruhai, Executive Vice Chairman of Guangxi Go Association and President of Beihai Go Association attended the meeting.
At the press conference, Li Caicai, secretary of the Party Leadership Group and director of Beihai Tourism, Culture and Sports Bureau, introduced the development of tourism, culture and sports in Beihai and the preparatory work for the first "Beihai Xinyi Cup" World Go Open. Director Li said, "Beihai, located at the southernmost end of Guangxi, is China's famous" hometown of South Pearl ". In recent years, we have insisted on building a "high-quality and charming Beihai" as the main focus, combined with the unique coastal tourism resources and ecological advantages, closely focused on the goal of building a "modern sports city with characteristics", vigorously developed the sports tourism industry, and formed a football project as the leader and water projects as the characteristics Weiqi is a diversified sports tourism industry with a bright spot. It has made every effort to promote the coordinated development of sports industry, competitive sports and mass sports, and created a new situation of high-quality development of Beihai sports. It has been awarded the National Outstanding Contribution Award for Sports in 2023 by the General Administration of Sport of China. I believe that with the active participation and joint efforts of all sectors of society, we will take the opportunity of the first "Beihai Xinyi Cup" World Go Open to build a platform for exchange and cooperation, tell stories about Beihai, and promote the integrated development of "sports+culture+tourism".
Nearly 200 people signed up for the qualifier. World champions Ke Jie, Tang Weixing, Jiang Weijie, Shi Yue and other professional chess players arrived in Beihai to participate in the qualifier. The first "Beihai Xinyi Cup" World Go Open is divided into two stages. The preliminary contest will be held from May 13 to 17, 2024. The tournament and the final will start in April 2025, which is also the first international enclosure event held in Beihai so far. At that time, there will be 64 players competing for the championship and runner up in the final stage of this competition. There will be 24 contestants in the preliminary contest in China and 26 contestants in the international preliminary contest, a total of 50 contestants in this contest. The above 50 contestants and the other 14 seed contestants form a team for this competition. "
Then Liu Jing, Deputy Secretary General of the China Go Association, also introduced the work of the qualifying competition to everyone present: "Dear leaders, guests, media friends, good morning! It's my pleasure to meet you in the beautiful Beihai to welcome the opening of the first" Beihai Xinyi Cup "World Go Open in 2024. Here, on behalf of the China Go Association, I would like to extend a warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to all of you for your coming, and express sincere thanks to friends from all walks of life who have always cared about and supported the cause of Chinese Go! Next, I would like to briefly introduce the work of the first "Beihai Xinyi Cup" World Go Open.
This competition is in the form of open competition. Domestic professional chess players and amateur chess players of 7 or more stages can apply for the competition. The championship prize is 1.8 million yuan, the runner up prize is 600000 yuan, and the total prize is up to 5940000 yuan. It is worth mentioning that this is the world competition hosted by China. It is the first time to break through the boundaries between professional and amateur. As long as the amateur reaches the level of 7, you can apply for the competition. This is no longer the way to limit the number of places previously, which has also made a positive exploration for promoting the development of event classification in the future.
The competition is divided into two stages: the preliminary contest, the current contest and the final contest. There are 64 players in the tournament, including 14 seed players, and the rest are selected by countries and regions. It is particularly emphasized here that in addition to traditional countries and regions such as Japan, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Europe and the United States, there is also a special place for the tournament in Southeast Asia. This is because the North Sea is close to the Beibu Gulf and is an important node to Southeast Asia, We hope that we can take advantage of regional advantages, through this competition and other exchange activities, radiate the Go culture to Southeast Asian countries, promote closer cooperation in the ASEAN region, and thus promote the development of the Go cause more widely.
In the upcoming China qualifier from May 13 to 17, 24 winners will be selected for the tournament, including 22 in the open group and 2 in the women's group. From the perspective of registration, the competition was warmly welcomed and highly valued by the vast number of chess players. A total of 194 people were registered for the preliminary contest in China, including 155 people in the open group and 39 people in the women's group, including 10 world champion chess players such as Ke Jie Jiuduan, the first domestic ranking player, and 12 amateur chess players such as Fu Li, ranging from 14 years old (Xing Hongcheng, amateur 7) At the age of 52 (Duan Rong, seventh paragraph), young and old chess players compete together to show their style on the stage of the World Series. This tournament and the final stage are planned to be held in April next year, when elite Go players from all over the world will gather in Beihai, where we will also witness the birth of the first "Beihai Xinyi Cup" World Go Open champion
The first "Beihai Xinyi Cup" World Go Open is the first international Go tournament held in Beihai so far. It is sponsored by the China Go Association, the Sports Bureau of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and the People's Government of Beihai, undertaken by Guangxi Social Sports Development Center, Beihai Tourism and Sports Bureau, Beihai Transportation Bureau, and Beihai Xinyi Cruise Co., Ltd., co organized by Beihai Social Sports Development Center and Beihai Go Association, and supported by Guangxi Go Association.
The preliminary contest in China is divided into 24 groups, including 22 open competitions and 2 women's groups. The open group will be held from May 13 to 15, and the women's group competition will be held from May 13 to 17. The world champions who participated in the qualifiers this time include Ke Jie, Shi Yue, Tan Xiao, Tang Weixing, Yang Dingxin, Dang Yifei, Xie Erhao, Jiang Weijie, Zhou Ruiyang and Liang Jiaxi.
The tournament and finals are planned to be held in Beihai in April 2025, when a total of 64 top players from China, South Korea, Japan, North America, Europe and other countries and regions will gather in Zhucheng to compete for the first Beihai Xinyi Cup. The total bonus of the event is up to 5.94 million yuan, including 1.8 million yuan for the champion, 600000 yuan for the runner up, 250000 yuan for the top four, 160000 yuan for the top eight, 80000 yuan for the top 16, 50000 yuan for the top 32, and 30000 yuan for the top 64.
