Soldiers in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have been braving the freezing weather to invent a new kind of winter game that both taxes the mind and strengthens the muscles - ice chess. Photo: screenshot of Pear Video on Sina Weibo.

"Horse, go forward!" Soldiers in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have been braving the freezing weather to invent a new kind of winter game that both taxes the mind and strengthens the muscles - ice chess. 

Using blocks of ice that are carved into chess pieces and a giant chess board drawn on the icy surface, soldiers have been engaged in heated games of chess, moving 12.5-kilogram pieces around the board. 

"We filled the washbasins with water which then froze into round blocks of ice to make the chess pieces. There are 32 pieces in total, which took us around 10 days to make when we were off duty," a soldier said in a video posted on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, which has gone viral among curious netizens who have been calling for similar games to be promoted in their hometowns, though for some southerners, this might not be feasible. 

"The chess setting reminds us of an ancient battleground. Since we move the pieces not with our fingers but the whole body, we can immerse ourselves into the game's characters, yelling and fighting as if in a real battle," said the soldier. 

Global Times