Sam Sloan, the runner-up for the New York Libertarian Party's Gubernatorial Nomination in 2010, participated in The World Championship Of Chinese Chess (Xiangqi), which was held from November 20-26, 2011 at Hotel Borobudur in Jakarta, Indonesia.
78 players from 24 member National Federations contested the World Championship. Each Federation was entitled to enter one (1) team leader, two (2) male players and one (1) female player. This quota did not apply to non-Chinese/Vietnamese players.
Sam Sloan was one of the players who received an invitation to represent the United States. Regarding his invitation, Mr. Sloan said:
I am easily the strongest known player of Chinese chess in the USA who is non-Chinese. Therefore, I was entitled to receive and did receive an invitation to participate in this tournament.
It is true that there are 50 million players of Chinese chess in China and only two are invited to this event. In fact there are two former World Champions who are here only as spectators. They are Liu Da Hua and Zhow Go Rong. They are easily stronger than all but a few of the players in this event...Nevertheless, this is a real World Championship, as the current champion and highest rated player in China and the world is here, as is the number two player in China.
After two rounds of play, there were 13 players tied for the lead with scores of 2-0. Sam Sloan was amongst them, having defeated Dmitry Rumyantsev of Russia in the first round and Chein Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) in the second round. .
The 13 players who tied for first were:
庄宏明 CHONG Heung Ming Philippines
阮明昭 JUAN Ming Chao Chinese Tiepei commonly known as Taiwan
李锦欢 LEI Kam Fun of Macao
邝伟德 Kon ISLAND of Hong Kong
梁达民 LEUNG Tat Man of Hong Kong
黄俊铭 NG Jun Ming of Singapore
蒋川 JIANG Chuan of China
庄力铭 CHENG Kah Siong of Brunai
吴宗翰 WOO Tsung Han of Singapore
许银川 XU YinChuan of China
武明一 VU Minh Ngat of Vietnam
李必炽 Michael LEE of USA West
斯隆 Sam Sloan of USA West
Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; pinyin: Xiàngqí), also known as Chinese chess, is a two-player Chinese board game. It is one of the most popular board games in China. The game represents a battle between two armies, with the object of capturing the enemy's general (king). Distinctive features of xiangqi include the cannon (pao), which must jump to capture; a rule prohibiting the generals from facing each other directly, and areas on the board called the river and palace, which restrict the movement of some pieces. Pieces are placed on the intersections of the lines on the board, rather than within the squares. The name xiangqi means "elephant game", a reference to the bishops.
Sam Sloan is the author of the book 'Chinese Chess For Beginners' and was the winner of the 1988 World Championship of Chinese Chess for Non-Chinese in Beijing, China. He has been recognized as a "Foreign Master" of Chinese Chess by the World Chinese Chess Federation. In 2006, he served on the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation. Sam Sloan is currently an active member of the Libertarian Party of Queens County. He ran for an At-Large Representative position at the Libertarian Party National Convention held in St. Louis, Missouri in 2010.
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