Organized by the Croatian Go Association, the Croatian National GoChampionship 2016 was held in Confucius Institute at the Universityof Zagreb on the morning of May 14.
Together with the national Go champions in the past years, ZhaoDeyong, counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Croatia, ZoranMutabzija, president of the Croatian Go Association (Hrvatskaudruga za igo), and Yan Lidong, Chinese director of CI Zagreb,attended the opening ceremony.
This is the first time for CI Zagreb to host a national sportsevent in Croatia. The championship drew dozens of Go playersnationwide. During the competition, the Croatian Go Association andCI Zagreb organized Go Workshop for school children, who learned toplay the board game, in addition to the Chinese language andculture. President Zoran Mutabzija, who has won the nationalchampionship several times, is scheduled to participate, on behalfof Croatia, in the World Go Championship to be held in China earlyJune. Pointing out that Go was an ancient game originated in Chinaand that China continued to play an important role in the world ofGo, he hoped to cooperate further with CI Zagreb in the board gameso as to promote sports and cultural exchange between Croatia andChina.
Since its establishment, CI Zagreb has organized many differentworkshops on Chinese culture, such as Chinese chess, Chinesepainting, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese martial arts, and Chineseshadow boxing. The hosting of the National Go Championship isbelieved to increase the visibility of ZI Zagreb in the country.