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The Three Arrows Cup in Ji Nan ended as expected: the Kings beat the Queens by large margin, 12.5 – 3.5. In the last three rounds the kings did not give the queens a chance to win a single game. The third round was especially devastating, with a 4:0 victory for the men. In the last round Xie Jun built a strong defence against Evgeny Bareev, and after 28 moves the game was a draw. Nigel Short did not give Zhao Xue a chance and won quickly. Women's world champion Zhu Chen got half point against her compatriot Ye Jiangchuan. Xu Yuhua played well against Yasser Seirawan, but in the end the American GM was too strong for her. The closing ceremony took place in the evening in the hotel.
The four men scored between 3.5 and 2.5 points, the women between 1.5 and 0.5. Yasser Seirawan and Evgeny Bareev were the best scorers of the match, both ending with 3.5 points each. That is as much as all four Queens got together. Their top scorer was Xie Jun with 1.5 points from four games.
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| Final Standings | |||
| 1. Yasser Seirawan | 2626 |
USA |
3.5 |
| 2. Evgeny Bareev | 2721 |
RUS |
3.5 |
| 3. Nigel Short | 2701 |
ENG |
3.0 |
| 4. Ye Jiangchuan | 2683 |
CHN |
2.5 |
| 5. Xie Jun | 2569 |
CHN |
1.5 |
| 6. Zhu Chen | 2495 |
CHN |
1.0 |
| 7. Xu Yuhua | 2485 |
CHN |
0.5 |
| 8. Zhao Xue | 2467 |
CHN |
0.5 |
Kings: 12.5 – Queens: 3.5 |
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Zhu Chen playing against Yasser Seirawan. The game was a draw.
Xie Jun vs Nigel Short. The ex women's world champion won this one.
Ye Jiangchuan playing against Xu Yuhua. The game was drawn
Evgeny Bareev during a game
On the rest day the players went to Mengshan Mountain, a National Forest Park, to relax there. It is located in Mengyin County, the local goverment and people there had very warm welcome the players. Seirawan took a deep breath when he got out of the van, overwhelmed by the beauitful landscape and fresh air. For lunch the players very much enjoyed the mountain dishes, Xie Jun loves especially Shang Dong food, since she come here to play a match every year.
Zhu Chen, Yasser Seirawan, Xie Jun, Ye Jiangchuan on a mountain tour
The players also played 30 something games with young players from Mengyin County. After the games Engeny said he has been surprise by strongth of young players – he lost two games. Nigel was stayed the hotal to write his colum for the Sunday Telegraph.
Yasser Seirawan gives a simultaneous exhibition for young Chinese players
The youngest chess enthusiast, world-class Russian GM Evgeny Bareev
Xie Jun doing her bit against young compatriots
18-years-old WGM Zhao Xue, who hails from the host city of Ji Nan
Chess diplomat Yasser Seirawan gives a speech (with translator)
Seirawan after the mountain tour: "The people of here are very warm and sincere, and the area has a beautiful landscape. My home city is in Sealtte, we also have the same beautiful scenery. When I come here it is like returning to my home."
GM Xu Jun turning 41 on September 17
The birthday GM being toasted by his student Zhu Chen
The sponsor of the match, the Three Arrows Group (Sanjian House and Land Property Development group) said they will sponsor the match again next year. They want to make it a traditional event – great news for chess players and chess fans. Everyone was pleased by the reports on www.chessbase.com and TWIC. The live coverage of the games saw up to 6595 visitors at peak time.
After this beautiful event the players move to Beijing, where the three international players will play the Beijing Chess Challenge Match at the China Resources Hotel from September 21 – 24. It pits them against two Chinese teams. Our reporter will cover this match for chess fans.
All pictures by courtesy of Aigo chess. More pictures to be found here
The city of Ji Nan is the capital of Shang Dong Province in the east coast of China, it is also birth place of Confucian. Ji Nan has lot of Springs from underground. GM Xie Jun and GM Zhu Chen both said the city now is more beautiful than the last year when they played the first Three Arrows Cup in the city. 18-year-old WGM Zhao Xue is from Ji Nan.
Ji Nan is the capital city of Shan Dong Province. It's 8,227 square kilometers in area, with a population is 5.3 million. Jinan is in the transition belt of the southern part of Taiyi hilly land and the northern part of Huabei Plain, the Yellow River flows from the Northwest to the Southeast. It is the semi-humid climate in warm temperate zone.
The agriculture resources are abundant, the mineral resources are abundant too. There are iron, copper, coal, limestone etc. Amongst its major industries are machinary, metallurgy, petroleum processing, electric power, textile, chemical, electrical, food and light industry. In agriculture, there is wheat, corn, peanut, bast-fiber plants and tobacco. Jinan is the national base of commodity grain. The roses and e jiao (Equus asinus L., a medical herb) are very famous. The traditional specialties are embroidery, feather patchwork, Chinese sorghum candy, carpet, braised chicken and dough figurine.
More English language information about city of Ji Nan can be found here.
These are the two main Chinese chess websites (both in Chinese). Most of the information contained in the report above was provided by Fang Zhang, a chess fan, freelance writer, dramatist, poet and historian, who lives in Belgium.
