SAN FRANCISCO, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The just concluded games of Xiangqi (Chinese chess) is a huge encouragement for amateur players in California to engage in the traditional Chinese brainstorm sports with great vitality, said head of the North California Xiangqi Association (NCXA) Monday.

As a subsidiary of the North California Chinese Culture-Athletic Federation, the NCXA is committed to having more people in California, particularly non-Chinese foreign friends, to develop their interest in Xiangqi, a typical Chinese board game popular in China and many southeast Asian countries, NCXA President Yan Zhepeng told Xinhua.

He said he believed many foreign friends who love Chinese traditional culture will find Xiangqi, a board game that requires a lot of wisdom and strategy to defeat their "enemy," an interesting way to delve deeper into the Chinese heritage.

Yan cited as an example the winner of the 2018 Second North California Xiangqi Open Tournament Khoa Nguyen, an amateur player from Los Angles, who defeated many of his strong opponents in the fiercely contested matches held over the weekend in Chinatown in San Francisco on the U.S. west coast.

Nguyen was crowned with champion after a 5-1 victory, while the defending champion of last year's North California Xiangqi Open Situ Ziwen ranked second, trailed by young north American Xiangqi master Cao Zhicong in third place.

Yan said this year's games have attracted a lot of amateur players in north California and out-of-town areas including New York and Los Angles.

"Many young players have shown great potential in challenging their veteran opponents," Yan said, naming a 17-year-old high school student from a Los Angles Xiangqi club Le Anh Hao, who he said demonstrated powerful fighting skills in the games.

Yan said his association has made great efforts to keep alive the traditional Chinese sports event in Chinese communities in San Francisco and the rest of California.

"We often organize promotional activities and competitions of Xiangqi to bring a more diversified and colorful events to overseas Chinese communities, refreshing them with the memories of their cultural links to their home country," Yan said.

Last year, a dozen of amateur players of the NCXA played with national champions from the Chinese national Xiangqi team delegation in several rounds of games when the team visited San Francisco, Yan said.

"As the traditional Chinese culture is having a growing influence overseas, Xiangqi as an inseparable part of Chinese heritage will become a more popular event outside China," Yan noted.

He added that the NCXA is a member of the North American Xiangqi Federation, and the latter is a formal member of the World Xiangqi Federation.

The World Xiangqi Federation was established in April 1993 in Beijing, China's capital, at a conference attended by representatives from 20 countries and regions across Asia, Europe, America and the Oceania.