Peking University, Beijing, March 31st, 2009: On the evening of March 27th, the May 4th Multi-function Hall was filled with fervor as students from Harvard University and Peking University batted in the final game of the 5th Annual PKU—Harvard Chess Match. The competition was intense as members well-matched each other. PKU finally won with the total score of 6-4.
After the match, team members from both universities held entertainment activities. Harvard Chess Team President Sebastian, sponsor teacher Prof. Blitzstein, as well as Zhu Kai, Director of PKU Youth League Committee for Culture and Sport all spoke at the event. They said that the Annual Chess Match is more than sharing chess skills but also cultural exchanges; not simply competition but also collaboration. Harvard University has already eagerly invited PKU to the 2010 Chess Match to be held on the Harvard campus. Miss. Zhao Xue and Huang Xi, world champions of Women’s Chess, had a friendly chess match with students from Harvard. In this special manner was the four-day PKU-Harvard Chess Match concluded.
PKU—Harvard Chess Match was launched in 2005 and since then the two universities held this match in turn. It is a traditional competition through which students from PKU and Harvard practice their skills and enhance their friendship. Last October when PKU chess team was at Harvard University for the chess match, The Harvard Crimson published a detailed front page report on the games. As a longstanding excellent team, the Harvard Chess Team has preformed outstandingly in past matches. Last year they received the champion title in the Ivy League Chess Match as well as the 103rd Harvard—Yale Chess Match. In the past five years, the games between Harvard and PKU have been very intense, both teams have taken victories.
Harvard University is now on spring vacation in March this year. Seven members from Harvard have arrived in Beijing for this year’s games. Other than the matches on Wednesday and Friday night, PKU volunteers accompanied Harvard students to visit the campus and share the Chinese culture through trips to the Great Wall, Summer Palace, Forbidden City and other famous tourist sites.
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