I'm Elton Yuen, President of the TXA. We are member of the World Xiangqi Federation (WXF). Together with the TXA Executive Committee, we organize the TXA's activities, and manage our relations with other Xiangqi Associations around the world. 

Our club is open to anyone interested in Chinese chess. We welcome beginners, from inside and outside the Oriental community. Although our game originated in China, we are a very international club. Our members come from Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan, and China. A native-born Canadian, Bill Brydon, does much of the writing for this site. 

Our club was founded by Peter Sung in 1980. Peter is now our Vice-president, in addition to taking chief responsibility for the Xiangqi Home Page. Our team was based on a core group of strong players from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, who developed hot rivalries with New York, and clubs in other Canadian cities. These players include former Toronto champions, Steve Wong, Stephen Fung, Paul Ng and Peter. I played on these teams as well. 

Since 1993, the competitive scene has got tougher, but our team has got better. Former Chinese woman's champion, Huang YuYing, gave us perhaps our proudest moment when she won the World Woman's Champion in the 1995 World Cup in Singapore and gained her International Grand Master title. Huang also led Canada to victory in the first international Internet team tournament in 1996. Other strong players who have come in recent years include Lo Ban, a former Hanoi champion, Lu LiangCheng, a former star from Taiwan and Zheng Ximing from China. 

The last five years have seen the rise of Nguyen Phuc, from cafe veteran to one of Canada's top players. Phuc won the 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 Toronto championships, and picked up his International Master's title in the 1997 World Cup in Hong Kong. 

Canada has the best-organized Xiangqi network of any western nation. The competition is so tough that, despite having many strong players, Toronto had only recently won the individual Canadian Championship in 2002. We've won four team championships, and our third victory in 1998 Canadian Championships allows us to keep the trophy. We sent Phuc, Lu LiangCheng, and Steve Wong. 

The TXA has been visited by many of China's strongest players. During every visit, we organize a public demonstration, and post a report on the home page. In October 1998, our guests were grandmaster, Tao HanMing, and renowned women's players, Zheng GuoFeng and Gao Hua. As a result of these visits, most of China's greatest players are honorary councilors to our club. Unfortunately, the Chinese had been rejected for Visitor Visas three times since 2000 by the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. We are working very hard with other Canadian Clubs to try to resume these visits.

We work closely with Scarborough Seniors Chess Club, which is open to anyone not just Seniors. And some of our events take place at the Overseas Renaissance Association of Chinese Culture, in downtown Chinatown. The addresses are listed in this homepage.

Our mandate is to welcome all Xiangqi players, and to help anyone who wants to learn. Recently, our focus is more on training youths and kids. We had organized a lot of interest clubs, classes and tournaments for youths and kids since 2000.

If you have any questions, please contact us. We'll do what we can.

Regards,
Elton Yuen
President, Toronto Xiangqi Association