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On July 20 2017, the Opening Ceremony of the Jiayuguan 2017 China-Russia Chess Grandmaster Summit Match was held in Kaitong Hotel in Jiayuguan. The match, played between Alexander Grischuk and Yu Yangyi, was a 4-game classical match held in the city of Jiayuguan, a very important city in the Silk Road economic belt in China's "Belt and Road" strategy.
This match was organized by the Chinese Chess Association and the People's Government of Jiayuguan city. The Sports Bureau of Jiayuguan city, the Beijing Huayi culture development center and the Heilongjiang Longyi Sports Industry Development Co., Ltd were the co-hosts.
Excellent trailer made to promote the match
Mr. Ding Jusheng, the mayor of jiayuguan City, delivers a welcome speech
Former Women World Champion Xie Jun talking to Alexander Grischuk in the Opening Ceremony, and providing some context and explanations
In the Opening ceremony, GM Alexander Grischuk said that he was very happy to invited to this match. “There are good relations between China and Russia. I'm happy to be a small part of the friendship between Russia and China, even though it's very small."
GM Yu Yangyi said that in China there is an old saying goes ‘One who fails to reach the Great Wall is not a hero’. “Jiyuguan is the start of the Great Wall. I'm happy to be here to play a match against Alexander Grischuk who is a great player from the chess kingdom. I think this match will leave me a memorable impression.”
As one might note, the Chinese Chess Association had created several matches in the past years for the top Chinese players like Ding Liren, Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi and Hou Yifan. GM Ye Jiangchuan, the head coach of the Chinese Chess Team, said "It's very helpful for Chinese chess players to play against the world’s elite players. I really hope one day our players will have the chance to play for the World Chess Title.”
Mr. Wang Yan, the Party Secretary of Jiayuguan, announced the opening of the match...
...and made the ceremonial opening moves with Mr. Yang Wei, director of the sports bureau of Gansu Province.
In the first game, Grischuk drew with Yu in a Petroff Defense
The former Women's World Champion Xie Jun watches the game unfold
After the first game, Grischuk commented, “This was a solid game. I had some advantage at moments, but Yu Yangyi's position was very solid. It's quite normal that game ended in a draw. Yu Yangyi agreed, noting, “I have played the Petroff Defense recently several times. He prepared very well for the opening and made some improvements during the game. There were some inaccuracies in my play but the position was somewhat balanced.
Ye Jiangchuan and the former Women's World Champion Xu Yuhua commenting the game for the spectators
The second day saw the least comabitve of the games in the match, perhaps the eye of the hurricane in view of the games three and four to follow. As it stood, a quick draw was agreed to in just thirteen moves.
Alexander Grischuk admitted this was unexepcted, though he could not argue with his opponent's decision. "I did not expect such a quick draw. The position was very equal and a bit boring. I know this line in the game of Kramnik and Giri which is a draw. Kramnik tried to play for win but got a worse position, so to avoid this, I think White has to make a draw."
Yu Yangyi said that he was surprised by the move 10. ...Nc6. He chose a line to avoid Alexander’s preparation but didn't find it ideal and then decided to simplify to get a draw.
After the relatively quiet first two games, there came a rest day in the schedule. If the match were to be tied after four games, there would have followed a playoff with two rapid games (25+10), after which, if still equal, the rules called for two blitz games (5+3), to finally reach an Armageddon game to decide the winner.
In the morning of July 22, Grischuk (above) and Yu (below) had a simul with 20 local chess kids each
Game three saw the end of the quiet draws, and Alexander Grischuk drew first blood by defeating Yu Yangyi to take the lead.
The game saw another Petroff that lasted 56 moves and Yu Yangyi lost in the rook endgame after hours of hard defense
Alexander Grischuk's scoresheet
After the game, Grischuk shared his impressions on his win. "I got a slight advantage in the opening. I think from the opening to the endgame the position was quite unpleasant for him, I feel it’s very hard to defend for many hours. And at one moment, he made a big mistake and after that the position became really bad for him to save. At move 25, he should have to play Rb6 instead of Kf8 and then I have to exchange my active rook, because if I take a7, he has Rc6, and I can’t save two pawns."
A World champion's guide to the Petroff
The great popularity of the Petroff Defence at the highest level has attracted general attention as strong players employ this opening with great success and with both colours. Unfortunately, the opinion of the Petroff as a sterile drawish opening seems to be firmly implanted in many minds. The author tries to dispel these myths and examines the most popular lines and provides a large number of ideas that will enable you to play Petroff successfully, with either colour.
Game four saw a must-win situation for the Chinese player, which he failed to produce. Instead, things soured for him, and he lost game four, leading Alexander Grischuk to conclude the match with an impressive 3-1 win.
Grischuk felt it had also been the most interesting game of the match, and that it was a fitting conclusion. "Yu Yangyi came up with a new plan to attack my kingside. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t like the standard maneuver for knight and decided put my knight on a4 as Kasparov often did. He beat me once like that. I then managed to play ...d5 and then ...d4, and after that my position is almost winning."
Yu Yangyi took his lumps philosophically, "Overall I didn't play well in this match, especially in the last two games. Grischuk showed great strength and did not give me too many chances. I'm relatively weak in the opening and middle game judgment. I think I learned a lot from this match."
In the morning of July 25, we saw an interesting game of Chess and Xiangqi between GM Ye Jiangchuan and Xiangqi World Champion Zhao Guorong. Xiangqi, a game that bears strong resemblances to western chess, is one of the most popular board games in China, far outstripping western chess in pure popularity, and ranked alongside Go as king of the board games there.
Each player had 25 minutes for the whole game without time increment. As you might not know this, Ye Jiangchuan was a Xiangqi player before switching to chess at the age of 18. Zhao Guorong won the Xiangqi World Championship many years ago.
In the chess game, Ye Jiangchuan won the game rather easily. While in the Xiangqi game, Ye Jiangchuan got a better position but could not find winning attack and finally lost on time.
After their games, Ye Jiangchuan and Zhao Guorong (above) gave a simul with local Xiangqi players
Let me share another story about a Chinese national 3-mind-game tournament which was held in last December. Eight top players in Chess, Xiangqi and Go were invited to the tournament.
Notice the players facing three boards with three games all at the same time!
Ye Jiangchuan won the tournament by defeating the Xiangqi World Champion Xu Yinchuan in the final.
In fact, former Women Chess Champion Xie Jun successfully marched into the semi-final
