广州棋院

The Guangzhou Chess Institute stands at 289 Hengzhigang Road in Yuexiu District, with Baiyun Mountain to the north and Luhu Lake to the west, on a site of about 12,205 square metres. It is the city's governing body for board and card games and was the chess venue of the 2010 Asian Games. Its predecessor, the Guangzhou Chess Arts Society, was founded in 1956; it was renamed the Guangzhou Municipal Chess Institute in 2005, took its present name in 2007, and in 2010 was also designated the Guangzhou Board and Card Games Administration Centre. It is a department-level public institution directly under the municipal sports bureau, guides the five associations for go, xiangqi, international chess, bridge and card games, and handles training, competition, administration and international exchange. The architecture is the most distinctive thing about it: the design uses the idea of a courtyard to draw the hillside landscape into the building group, closing and opening the garden spaces through the relationship between building and hill, building and building, building and landscape, so that white walls, grey tiles, covered walks and bamboo groves succeed one another in layers; it is often called the most cultured of the Asian Games venues. From 13 to 26 November 2010 the go, xiangqi and international chess competitions were held here, the first time all three board games appeared at a single Asian Games. The building was fitted with a competition hall, playing rooms, broadcast and arbiter areas rather than large spectator stands, and spectators followed the games through demonstration boards and television. Afterwards it returned to everyday use: classrooms in the main and side buildings run children's coaching, grading tournaments and mass events such as the Mayor's Cup, while the competition hall can host national and provincial championships as well as launches, cultural exhibitions and small salons. For organisers the appeal is cultural atmosphere and quiet, suiting brand salons, home matches of the Chinese Go league, board-game themed exhibitions and small award ceremonies; the limitation is that the rooms are built for play, not for large performances or dense crowds. The site is on Hengzhigang Road, served by the Hengzhigang Road North and Hengzhigang terminus bus stops, about half an hour by car from the city centre.