In September 2003, The Kings and Queens rapid chess tournament was held in Yong Chuan. It was won by the tandem pair of Nigel Short and Zhao Xue, who took the title a full point ahead of their nearest rivals, Yasser Seirawan and Zhu Chen. After the Kings and Queens tandem chess matches the players flew to Jinan to play normal chess in the Three Arrows Cup. The Beijing Chess Challenge Match was held later in September in the China Resources Hotel, Beijing, which had an international team versus two Chinese teams: International Team players: Evgeny Bareev g RUS 2721, Nigel Short g ENG 2701, Yasser Seirawan g USA 2626; Chinese Team A players: Ye Jiangchuan g 2683, Zhang Zhong g 2658, Xu Jun g 2626; Chinese Team B players: Bu Xiangzhi g 2588, Zhang Pengxiang g 2567, Ni Hua f 2533.