Unstoppable Ni Hua crushes the Australian Open

Ly Moulthun vs Ni Hua playing each other in the penultimate round of the tournament

Ni Hua was black and his opponent had proved his mettle previously by winning the Sydney Open in 2014 ahead of strong players like Van Wely and Nisipeanu. In such cases there is a strong feeling of playing it safe and making a draw and ensuring that you were the champion irrespective of the last round result. After all, $6000 is not bad! Many of us would think this way but not a champion like Ni Hua. He played the most ambitious line of the Ragozin, went into an extremely complicated middlegame and after a brutal exchange of punches in the endgame emerged victorious. It was a game that proved what a fighter this Chinese player was. More than the results he was focused on the struggle; more than the first place, he valued a good game of chess.

After the tenth round victory Ni Hua raced to 9.5/10 and in the last round he had nothing to lose. He beat IM Bobby Cheng in smooth positional fashion to end the tournament with a phenomenal 10.5/11.

No mercy even in the last round! Ni Hua vs Bobby Cheng (1-0)

And guess the number of points by which Ni Hua won the tournament? 2.5 points! Such a score is simply unheard of in modern day tournaments.

Ni Hua received the first prize of $6000 after scoring 10.5/11 and with a performance of
2859, he gained a hefty 15 Elo points. This propels from 2689 to 2704! Quite a breakthrough.

With a score of 8.0/11 Murtas Kazhgaleyev (left) and Max Illingworth finished equal second and
went home with a check of $2150 each

How he did it

The question which one may ask after seeing such a performance by the winner is: How did he make it possible? It is true that Ni Hua was by far the strongest player in the competition. Yet to simply knock out the competition in such fashion is not something that we see every day. I analysed all the games of Ni Hua in depth and came to following conclusions:

1. His choice of openings was usually safe and he played the ones which he had analysed at home. In no game did he get a bad position from the opening.
2. Tactical mistakes were simply absent from his play. Ni Hua would not choose the best continuation on many occasions but he never made any huge mistakes or blunders.
3. Fighting it out right unto the end. He never agreed to premature draws. Even in his game against Rustam Khusnutdinov which ended in a draw he played it till he was forced to give a perpetual check. This fighting spirit and stamina were the main reasons why Ni Hua was so successful in the tournament.
4. Luck! It is said that no player has ever won a tournament without good fortune. In the tournament Ni Hua had two bad positions. He was even ready to repeat the moves against Max Illingworth in the sixth round and in the tenth round Moulthun Ly had the window of opportunity to win the game for just one move. Both of them missed their chances and the Chinese player won both the games.

Let’s have a look at the three remaining games of Ni Hua in rounds seven, eight, and nine. (Report up to round six can be seen here)

Ni Hua vs James Morris (round seven)

Khusnutdinov vs Ni Hua (round eight)

GM Rustam Khusnutdinov can be proud that he was the only man who could stop Ni Hua.
He was the only one who had any chances of catching the Chinese till round nine but a tenth
round loss to IM Bobby Cheng relegated him to fourth in the final standings.

In an interview Ni Hua gave at the 2014 Asian Continental, the Chinese grandmaster was asked whether he had plans of retiring:

“I am becoming old already and this is time to think what to do further. In China players of my age don’t play chess. This is not a joke. This is a common problem not only for me, but also for Bu. For example, he is some years younger than me. We always discuss with my friends what we are going to do. Wang Yue for instance is already planning to start coaching. Wang Hao also has in mind to try himself as a trainer. So, when you are not young anymore, you really have to find another chess related activity, and this is coaching. Of course there are many young players and kids in China who like to know how to play chess. I hope if we decide once to change our profession, we will have a job. But frankly, coaching is boring.”

In April 2014 when the Asian Continental was held Ni Hua was doubtful about his chess career. He was rated 2654 back then. Since then he won the Capo d’Orso and Forni di Sopra tournaments in Italy, the Montcada Open in Spain, a member of the gold winning Chinese team at the 2014 Olympiad, a member of the Chinese team that beat Romania in the Romania-China match and finally this Australian Open victory. All these positive performances have taken him from 2654 to 2704 so perhaps the Chinese is now hopeful of improving his his career high rating of 2724 attained in April, 2009.

Final standings

Pictorial impressions from Australia

Brazilian player Pedro Paiva, posing with the winner, broke 2300 in the tournament and will
now receive his FIDE Master title (photo from his Facebook page)

The best woman prize was won by Heather Richard who scored 6.0/11

WGM Julia Ryjanova from Russia scored 7.5/11 and finished eleventh in the main prize list

All smiling and energetic before the start of the game…

…Serious and focused once the game begins!

James Morris had a successful tournament. He not only finished fifth
in the Open, but also won the blitz tournament.

The Illingworths

Commentator for the tournament GM Ian Rogers with Russian GM Vasily Papin

Australia’s biggest talent, IM Anton Smirnov

Are you planning to come back to Australia in 2016?

The Australian Open which was the highest prize money event to be ever held in the country was a successful one. The 2016 edition will surely witness more grandmasters participating and if Ni Hua does plan to return he will surely have much stiffer competition!

All pictures by Cathy Rogers

The Chinese are winning just about everything. Clockwise from the top left: Olympic gold medal in 2014, Yu
Yangyi’s brilliant win at Qatar, Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi taking gold and silver at the World Juniors, Zhao Jun
winning Hastings 2014/15, Zhao Xue champion at New Zealand Open 2015, young Ding Liren is on fire at
Tata Steel A and Wei Yi is one of the favourites to win Tata Steel B!

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN (courtesy of TWIC) 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 there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.