It was a battle between the teacher and his protégé as China's Chu Bingjie topped his mentor Dai Yong 3-1 in a penalty shootout to win the World Chinese Pool Masters trophy in Qinhuangdao, north China's Hebei Province, on Thursday.

Earlier, the Grand Finals saw an intense contest between the pair. Chu was eager to show just how much he had learned as he faced Dai for the title in the coastal city.

Chu's strong 2019 season included grabbing top honors at the Linyi stop of the Masters before he lifted the trophy at the Shijiazhuang Open in October, and he continued with his sublime form by taking a 13-8 lead before the break.

But Dai showed why he has been able to pick up 28 national titles in multiple categories over the last 15 years, as the veteran rattled off five frames without reply, to tie things at 13-13.

Chu regrouped soon and sunk the ten-ball on his way to claim two of the next three frames for a 15-14 edge.

Dai put his experience to work once again as he took four straight from his one-time student to snatch his first lead of the match at 18-15. Chu battled back, however, and downed the eight-ball to level things at 18-18 with five minutes remaining.

The duo went for a penalty shootout, where Dai missed on the eight. That opened the door for Chu, who cleared the table to take the extra session 2-1, and seal the title 19-18.

After his emphatic win, Chu said: "I had a big lead in the first session, but my advantage was erased after the break, and I started thinking too much about the problems with my breaks. That gave my opponent a chance to catch up and take control. I could have given up, but then I was able to close the gap. Of course, I knew it would be very hard to win this trophy since I was facing my teacher, and he knows me very well."

As the winner, Chu took home one million yuan (144,000 U.S. dollars) in prize money and became the event's fifth different champion in eight years.

The Grand Finals played out over six days and included 96 players from 32 global competition zones. The organizers have long used Chinese pool, which is also known as Chinese eight-ball, to help promote the host nation's culture to the world at large, and its popularity has been on the rise in recent years.