When Rocío and Choco sat face to face they did not know each other. When they got up from their chairs, they would never forget their faces. This is how the fifth edition of the Chinese Championship in the Sevillian town of Gines ended: 10 minutes and 52 seconds in which luck and mental game landed on a table. “It was a magnificent final”, says Antonio Gámez, president of the Cultural-Sports Association of the Chinese Game of the City of Gines, “with many rounds and very disputed”. Rocío arrived without having lost a single hand. Her opponent came after ten years without playing. Up to here they had spent a total of five days of competition with almost a hundred participants, mainly from Seville, but also Huelva. And all to play a game that, according to the association, was invented by a shepherd from León almost three centuries ago, Felipe Valdeón Triguero, from Bercianos del Real Camino. Rules Each player has three coins or stones, hence the Chinese . In each round he must hide in a closed hand an indeterminate number of the pieces with which he is playing. Next, everyone extends their hands and must try to guess the total number of coins or stones that have been drawn among all the participants. The rules of the game are few, but strict and a referee is in charge of monitoring them in each game. The most important is that no two players can say the same number. In the Gines championship, it must also be added that you can only play with the official currency in which the seal of the organization is on one side and that of the local business association on the other. “It’s a game of mental skill,” says Antonio Gámez, “finding out what the opponent is wearing requires psychology.” A poker that anyone can play, but in which “mental strength is needed because the games can be very long”. In fact, in this edition the three rounds of the youth championship lasted 45 minutes. “There are people who have a head, who remember the games of a year ago…”, says the president of the association, “you know if you got a lot or a little”. However, in the end, luck has the last word in this game and, in fact, of the five editions that have been held, two have been won by first-time players. “I used to play with my family,” says Choco , this year’s winner, and although he had not played for almost a decade, he studied his opponents well. “I asked who had won the last tournament, I watched it and I learned from it.” In this game the throws are studied, but also the looks. “There are opponents who talk to you to get you out of the game or look you straight in the eye,” says Miguel Ángel Chacón, alias Choco. In the final, Rocío, his opponent, put her hand on the table, bringing it quite close to his. “The ideal is to stay out of their game,” says Choco, “and keep the winning mentality.” The final ends the formality, but not the game. Throughout the year members of the association play Chinese, but instead of prizes “we play a round of beers.” Despite being born far from Seville, the game is very popular in some towns in the province of Seville, especially in Salteras, where a championship has been held for three decades.