Karamay and Taiwan’s New Taipei have made an agreement across the board to take part in more exchanges on the popular Chinese strategy game, Go.

The Karamay Weiqi Association and New Taipei Weiqi Culture Association signed the cultural exchange deal in Karamay city, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Aug 19.

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation and exchange, promote and foster young talents, and take part in more competitions and related activities.

Go is a popular game in Asia and increasingly throughout the world, particularly after Google’s artificial intelligence software AlphaGo made world headlines earlier this year when it beat master Go player, Lee Se-dol.

He Shengbiao, the president of the Karamay Weiqi Association, expressed his excitement about the agreement and said that he envisioned a new era for the development of Go in Karamay.

“The agreement marks a huge step forward Go culture and exchanges between Karamay and the rest of the country,” He said.

The Taiwan delegation led by Zhang Sanlang, president of the New Taipei Weiqi Culture Association, visited the Karamay Weiqi Center, the largest weiqi institute in Northwest China. The Karamay bureau of culture and sports established the center for residents to learn and play the game in 2014.

Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. As one of the Chinese essential arts that originated more than 5,500 years ago, it is still the oldest board game continuously played today.

Edited by Owen Fishwick