Danzhou: Wang Yue and Ni Hua going strong

The 6th Hainan Danzhou tournament is being held from the 2nd to 11th of July 2015 in Danzhou. The major attractions of the tournament are the top rated Chinese player and the guy who has worked with Magnus Carlsen Ding Liren; the winner of the Capablanca Memorial and the strongest open tournament ever held, the Qatar Masters Yu Yangyi; and the youngest person in the world to break into 2700 Wei Yi.

Danzhou GM: Wang Yue and Ni Hua going strong

The Dortmund super GM ended a few days ago. But the good news for chess fans is that there is no dearth of high quality chess events happening in the world at the moment. In the Chinese island province of Hainan, a category 17 event with an average rating of 2674 is in progress. Eight Chinese players, one Cuban and one Indian are participating in the 6th Hainan Danzhou GM tournament. The event became a center of attraction for the world audience thanks to Wei Yi’s brilliant win over Bruzon Batista in the second round. Since then things haven’t gone well for the 16-year-old Chinese phenom, who currently sits on the sixth place with a score of 3.0/6. Two players have clearly made a run towards the finish line and are way ahead of others. One of them is Wang Yue (5.0/6) and the other is Ni Hua (4.5/6)

Wang Yue has played superb level-headed chess in the tournament, and is leading the pack with a score of 5.0/6. With some elegant endgame technique he has beaten two 2700+ oppoents : Ding Liren and Wei Yi. Let us consider one of the positions from his fifth round battle against Ding Liren.

Wang Yue-Ding Liren, White to play

Opposite coloured bishop endgames are notorious for their high drawish tendencies. Once the defender is able to blockade the pawns on the opposite colour of opponent’s bishop there is not a thing in the world that the attacker (side with more pawns) can do to break it up. Something similar seems to have transpired in the above position. The black bishop takes care of the queenside and the king is holding the pawns on the kingside. But Wang Yue understands that the fortress is not completely impenetrable. He finds a very pretty idea with 55.Bd1! Kh6 56.b4!! cxb4 57.Bb3!

Now that’s what you call life imprisonment!

The white king will now make his way to the kingside and escorts one of his pawns to the queening square while Black can do nothing at all.

To beat a King’s Indian expert like Ding Liren (left) in his favourite opening is quite a feat

Wang Yue further consolidated his lead with a sixth-round victory over the Cuban number two Batista Bruzon. Here’s an interesting position that occurred in the final moments of the game:

Batista Bruzon-Wang Yue, White to play. Evaluate 47.Rgxg6

Bruzon had been suffering throughout the game and suddenly saw his chance to unleash some tactics. He snapped off the pawn with 47.Rgxg6. The point of his combination was very nice. If you took the rook with 47…fxg6 then White would have at least a draw. But we all know Wang Yue. He loves simple solutions. Hence, in the initial position after 47.Rgxg6, he took the queen with 47…Qxc3. Bruzon had, of course, anticipated this move and went 48.Rh6+ Kg7 49.bxc3

Black to play – what is the winning move now?

Just when it seemed that it would end in a draw, Black played 49…f6! and the poor guy on h6 is trapped! White resigned. You can play through the game on our JavaScript board.

The master of imprisoning his opponent’s pieces: Wang Yue

The other player who is having a wonderful run at the tournament is Ni Hua. He has scored three victories in the event, but they have come against the three players who are currently languishing at the bottom of the table: Sasikiran, Lu Shanglei and Wang Chen. Considering the fact that Ni Hua has to play against Ding Liren, Bu Xiangzhi and Wei Yi in the last three rounds, it seems highly improbable that he would be able to catch up with Wang Yue, who is already half point ahead and has relatively easier opponents in Yu Yangyi, Sasikiran and Wang Chen.

In the past year or so, the Berlin Wall has developed as one of the most solid openings for black players against 1.e4. But recently, we are seeing some holes in the wall. Wesley So breached it in his last round encounter with Vladimir Kramnik in Dortmund, and Ni Hua played a nearly flawless game against Krishnan Sasikiran in the fourth round.

With 4.5/6, Ni Hua is half a point behind the leader
and a full point ahead of the third placed Ding Liren

Though the above win against Sasikiran was superb endgame play by Ni Hua, a position that made a deep impression on me with regards to the clarity of thinking of these top rated players is the following:

Batista Bruzon – Ni Hua, Black to play. What would you do?

It should be quite obvious that White has a very pleasant position here. In addition to the strong bishop on c3, he has a centralized queen, and also a rook already placed on the open d-file. The threat of Qg4 is quite serious and hence something must be done against it. Mortals like me would have preferred to play 20…Rfd8 21.Qg4 Bf8. While this is not bad, Ni Hua’s solution is much better. He readily accepted the doubling of his kingside pawns with 20…Bf6! After 21.Bxf6 gxf6 ...

... White went ahead with 22.Rd3. Completely unfazed, Ni Hua continued with 22…a4! He had complete faith in the defensive capabilities of his position because of the resource Qe5 that is now available thanks to the f6 pawn. In the end he was able to easily hold the draw. While this example might seem nothing spectacular, the Chinese player’s defensive and objective play is something to learn from.

In relation to voluntarily accepting doubled pawns in front of your king, I would like to show you an example from the recent book released by Quality Chess – Positional Decision making in chess by Boris Gelfand.

Aronian-Gelfand, Dresden Olympiad 2008, Black to play

In the game Gelfand continued with 16…Rc8 but in the book, he says: “My alternative was 16…Qd7!?, which also makes sense. I am not afraid of the doubled pawns. Without knights I cannot see how White is going to create any real pressure against them at all.” Indeed, wise words from a wise man. This small explanation can help you to overcome the prejudice of not breaking up the pawns in front of your king.

The spacious and well lit playing hall

The initial moments of the game that went viral all over the world: Wei Yi-Lazaro Bruzon (1-0)

Sasikiran Krishnan-Wei Yi ended in a draw. The Indian player has been having a hard time in the tournament and currently has minus two.

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Pictures by Liang Ziminge

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.