Chinese Chess - The beauty of chess is being destroyed in China

Street chess, also known as street chess, has always been a unique cultural feature of the chess movement, prominent in the two countries of Vietnam and China. But that beauty is gradually fading away because of fraudulent tricks.

Sidewalk chess is a hobby of many people - Photo: XH

Chessboard fraud

A chess board placed on the sidewalk, surrounded by a few people, sometimes dozens of people passionately gathered. Although the way of playing and thinking are somewhat similar, those sidewalk chess boards still create a significant difference between Chinese chess and chess - the world's popular sport .

But when the money factor appears and creeps into the game, the romantic beauty of sidewalk chess is threatened.

In recent years, street chess has become a popular scam in China. Many scammers use “street chess” as a cover to take money from passersby.

A common scenario is to set up a seemingly “winning” position, have a few people in the group act as “experts” and win the first few games to build trust, then encourage passersby to place bets.

When the victims are sure of winning the bet, they are lured into the trap and lose everything. Over the past year, the Chinese press and authorities have continuously warned and reported on such scams.

The reality of solving cases shows that the methods are increasingly sophisticated and systematically organized. The most prominent case is in Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province, where the police dismantled a family-run ring that specialized in setting up "chess positions" to cheat during the period 2020-2024.

13 suspects were arrested, with a total of 34 criminal records, embezzling more than 1.5 million yuan (about 5.5 billion VND).

According to the testimony, the group had a strict division of labor - one person set up the flag, one person acted as a "support" to praise, one person created a crowd effect, making it difficult for the victim to recognize signs of deception.

This case was described by the domestic press as typical of the pattern of manipulating players' emotions and greed.

Small cash flow but unpredictable consequences

Not only in Yunnan, police in many localities have continuously destroyed similar gangs.

A year earlier, Chinese security forces had arrested scammers in Qingdao, Luzhou and other places, using the tactic of “setting up a cage and baiting” (organizing a scenario and using people to act as actors) to lure elderly people into gambling and having their money stolen.

Chinese chess is facing many scandals in China - Photo: XH

Court reports in several provinces also show that there have been criminal convictions of organizers of the "chess game" for fraud, confirming that this is no longer a folk act but has turned into an organized crime.

Authorities in many places have vowed to be unyielding. Following the busts, local police have urged citizens to be vigilant and launched campaigns to crack down on groups of chess scammers.

Investigations also revealed a complex reality: fraudsters are often mobile, small-scale and sophisticated. Most raids only capture a small number of individuals.

As a result, over the years, chess scam organizations have expanded their territory, and turned sidewalk chess into a popular money-making method, alongside gambling.

According to an article on Sohu , the gambling scams generally do not involve much money, and cannot be compared to illegal casinos. Therefore, the local police force does not focus too much on cracking down on these networks.

But the consequences of the sidewalk chess scam are huge. It gradually erodes the cultural values ​​and fine traditions of a game that has penetrated deeply into the subconscious and pride of the Chinese people.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/co-the-giang-ho-net-dep-co-tuong-dang-bi-huy-hoai-o-trung-quoc-20251008214100123.htm