Wei Yi and Guo Qi are Chinese Champions 2016

by Johannes Fischer
5/2/2016 – The Chinese Championships 2016 took place from 17th to 28th April and were played in Xinghua. Most of the top Chinese players were absent but with an Elo-average of 2586 the tournament was strong. Elo-favorite Wei Yi still cruised to a smooth victory. He did not lose a single game and won with 7.5/11. New Chinese Women's Champion is Guo Qi. She scored 8.0/11.

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Wei Yi - Chinese Champion 2016

With a rating of 2700 Wei Yi started the Championship as number one seed and as favorite. But even though the best Chinese players did not take part in the Championship, the field still was strong. Six players had a rating of 2600 or more, and six had a rating of 2500+. But Wei Yi dominated the tournament from beginning to end. After seven rounds he had won four games with White and had drawn all his games with Black, the majority of them rather quickly. With 5.5/7 he clearly the field and finished the tournament with four draws - this peaceful finale was enough to win the tournament with 7.5/11, a one-and-a-half point margin and to become Chinese Champion 2016.

 Here's one of his games with White in which one inaccurate move by the opponent allowed Wei Yi to mate him.

 

All Games

 

Guo Qi, Chinese Women's Champion 2016 (Aeroflot Open 2016, Photo: Amruta Mokal)

Things were less clear in the Women's Championship. In round two Guo Qi suffered a catastrophe in the opening and an early setback, but she recovered and won one game after the next by patiently outplaying her opponents. In the end she won the tournament with 8.0/11 and finished half a point ahead of three players with 7.5/11.

Opening catastrophe

 

Attacking left, right and center

 

All Games

 

 

Official tournament page...


Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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