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The 6th Hainan Danzhou tournament is being held from the 2nd to 11th of July 2015 in Danzhou. Located on an island on the southern-most region of China, this tournament requires special attention from chess fans because all the super-strong Chinese players who have been splashing chess news pages with their fantastic performances in the past year or so are playing here.
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.
Apart from these three big stars, the tournament also features: the first Chinese player ever to cross 2700, Wang Yue; a member of the Gold winning Chinese Olympiad team and back into 2700, Ni Hua; the youngest grandmaster in the world at the age of 13 in 1998, Bu Xiangzhi; and the two promising and upcoming youngsters Wang Chen, who is still an IM, and the reigning World Junior Champion Lu Shanglei. These eight Chinese players have been joined by Cuba’s number two Batista Bruzon, and India’s number five Krishnan Sasikiran.
The opening ceremony was well attended
The participants of the 6th Danzhou Hainan: Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi, Wang Yue, Ni Hua, Bu Xiangzhi,
Batista Bruzon, Krishnan Sasikiran, Lu Shanglei and Wang Chen (Ding Liren is missing)
The vice mayor of the Danzhou Zhang, who made this event possible
The drawing of lots ceremony
The tournament has a total prize fund of 320,000 Yuans (approximately US $51,560) and a first prize of 100,000 Yuans (US $16100). After two rounds this is how things stand.
Three players lead the event with a score of 1.5/2: Wei Yi, Wang Yue and Yu Yangyi
While there have been only three decisive games out of the ten that have taken place, the talk of the town is definitely Wei Yi’s win over Batista Bruzon in round two. The game was so well played by 16-year-old youngster that people have started calling it the game of the century or the game of the decade – or as the Indian GM Vishnu Prasanna puts it: “the longest combination he has ever seen.”
Wei Yi who is only 16 years one month and two days old, already
has a live rating of 2728 and is 27th on the live world rankings
I could just show you Wei Yi’s brilliancy along with the analysis. I am sure you will be awestruck by the Chinese GM’s tactical abilities. But if you want to learn something from this game you should try putting yourself in the shoes of the Chinese grandmaster. Hence, I have selected five positions from the game and posed questions to you. If you look at the game after trying to solve them you will be in a much better position to appreciate Wei Yi’s play.
Wei,Yi (2724) - Bruzon Batista,Lazaro (2669) [B40]
6th Hainan Danzhou GM Danzhou CHN (2.4), 03.07.2015
Position after 21…Nxd5
This is where it all began. Black has just taken the knight on d5.
What should White play? (thinking time: two minutes)
Position after 23…Kxf6 (variation from the game)
The black king looks exposed and weak. How should you finish him off?
(thinking time: three minutes)
Position after 24…Kxd5
The black king is running away! How do you stop him?
(thinking time: two minutes)
Position after 25…Kxe4
The king has been lured forward. There are two moves that win now, both them related to the control of a crucial square. Wei Yi found one of them. Can you find both? (thinking time: five minutes)
Click for the solution
Position after 28...Ke4
White can give a discovered check over here. But unfortunately his own queen
is also attacked. What did Wei Yi come up with? (thinking time: two minutes)
The above answers are not comprehensive. If you have any doubts, please go over the game on our JavaScript board below or download the PGN file and look at it on your ChessBase software. You can find all the detailed analysis in it.
Magnus Carlsen, here I come!
We sent the game to Garry Kasparov in Skype and received a one-word commentary from him: “Impressive!" Garry, who chooses his words carefully when it comes to appreciating someone’s play, surely liked what he saw! Incidentally the game reminds us of the following historic classic, known as "The Immortal King Walk":
If you haven't had enough of the Wei Yi game, here is an this 18-minute video by ChessBase author Simon Williams, whose enthusiasm and especially metaphors reach historical heights (really, Simon, weasel poo on a doorknob?):
And here is half an hour of analysis by Tryfon Gavriel:
Also you may want to listen to Domnic Lawson speaking about the game on BBC4 (starting at 1:49:55)
The tournament is extremely interesting from the point of view of predicting the winner. With Wei Yi’s scintillating form he looks like a favourite here, but players like Yu Yangyi and Ding Liren will surely give him a tough fight. What do you think? Write your opinions and predictions in the comments section below.
Pictures taken from the official website
LinksThe 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. |
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