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Chinese chess players seen at the finals of 2022 National Amateur Board Game Championship opened in Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang province on Nov 26. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

The finals of 2022 National Amateur Board Game Championship opened in Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang province on Nov 26.

Since its inception in 2015, the contest has grown into one of the largest board game events for amateurs in China.

This is the second year in a row that Shaoxing has been selected as the host city of the event, which, once again, featured five categories of board games - go, Chinese chess, chess, draughts, and gobang.

This year, more than 460,000 players registered for the contest, which featured 2.52 million matches during the preliminary rounds. Both the number of registered players and matches are significantly higher than the previous edition, according to Du Qiang, general manager of Hangzhou Ezhan Digital Technology Co Ltd, one of the competition's sponsors,

Shaoxing might be best known for its yellow rice wine, but the city also has a long history in board games.

Two administrative areas under its jurisdictions - Shangyu district and the county-level city of Shengzhou - have been dubbed the hometowns of weiqi, or go, making Shaoxing the only prefecture-level city in with two hometowns for the game in the nation.

Its Yuecheng district is also known as the hometown of chess in China.

The hosting of board game events, including the National Amateur Board Game Championship, is expected to further raise Shaoxing's profile and stimulate local sports consumption, noted a local official.