In the game of chess, battles are usually confined to the 64 squares of a board. However, China’s national Xiangqi champion, Yan Chenglong, has managed to add a whole new dimension to the game. The champion was stripped of his title as he chose a bathtub to be the stage for a celebratory act that flushed away his triumph.
Yan Chenglong, a chess player of 48, clinched the coveted title of Xiangqi King at a Chinese chess tournament on December 17. The nation cheered for its new chess prodigy, only to have their joy turn to disbelief as the Chinese Xiangqi Association (CXA) announced a plot twist.
The CXA declared that Yan would be dethroned and his prize money confiscated due to “inappropriate celebrations.”
What were these celebrations, you ask? Well, it turns out that Yan, in a moment of unbridled exuberance, allegedly decided that the hotel bathtub was the perfect place for victory defecation.
In a statement that surely left many scratching their heads, the association condemned Yan’s behaviour, citing damages to hotel property, violations of public order and good morals and a negative impact on the reputation of Xiangqi. The association deemed Yan’s actions as “of extremely bad character,” a phrase one doesn’t often associate with chess champions.
To add a sprinkle of scandal, rumours circulated online that Yan had resorted to unconventional means during the competition. The whispers claimed that Yan utilised anal beads equipped with wireless transmitters to send and receive signals, potentially gaining an unfair advantage. The CXA, however, was quick to clarify that they couldn’t prove this claim.
Despite the allegations and the subsequent dethroning, Yan maintained his innocence. In an interview with local media, he argued that a bout of diarrhoea on a fateful night left him with no choice but to use the hotel bathtub as a makeshift toilet. He admitted that it was “very wrong” but vehemently denied any involvement with anal beads, dismissing the accusations as “nonsense.”
“I’ve been playing chess for more than 40 years, I like it. People who know me know I can’t cheat, and I don’t need to cheat,” Yan declared, defending his decades-long clean chess record.
The chess community, however, was not ready to let Yan off the hook. The incident was promptly dubbed the “bathtub door” episode, and screenshots of shocked fellow competitors’ reactions flooded messenger app group chats.
Yan, who had been a talented Xiangqi player since childhood, with a career spanning over three decades, found himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The CXA slapped him with a one-year ban from Xiangqi competitions and stripped him of the 100,000-yuan prize (over Rs 11 lakh) that could have been his crowning glory.
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