World Women's Team Championship in Ningbo

The 2nd Women's World Team Chess Championship took place in Ningbo, China, from September 2nd to 11th 2009. The time controls were FIDE: 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest with a 30 second increment per move.

World Women's Team Championship in Ningbo

Photographic impressions by GM Ye Rongguang

On the free day many of the participants of the Women's Team Championship visited the famous museum and Dongqian Lake, a popular scenic spot since ancient times. It lies 10 km off Ningbo city proper and is at 20 square km the largest natural freshwater lake in Zhejiang province.

IM Elina Danielian of Armenia poses with the Song staues

Photographing the US team: Rusudan Goletiani, Anna Zatonskykh, Tatev
Abrahamian, Alisa Melekhina (Irina Krush missing)

Adventurous: Lilit Mkrtchian, Siranush Andriasian and Valentina Gunina

We must learn how to pronounce her surname: Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska...

Addendum: Kajetan Wandowicz of Wroclaw, Poland, has rushed to our assistance: it's pronounced Kah-ree-nah Sh-chep-kovs-kah Ho-rovs-kah. The only real problem is the start of the second name: the Russian consonent Щ which is transcribed in English as "shch" is to be found in expressions like "fresh chips".

... getting back on the photographers who seem to concentrate their attention on her.

Dignitaries, functionaries, arbiters and seconds

The arranged draw

In our previous report we mentioned that there had been suspicion of match fixing in the final round. Vietnam had a commanding position against China One, when suddenly draws were agreed and the Chinese team took Gold. suspicion was aroused by the following game:

Pham Bich Ngoc (2145) - Huang Qian (2424) [A15]
2nd WTeam w Ningbo CHN (9), 11.09.2009

In this position, three pawns up and with a decisive attack, the Vietnamese girl played 37.Bc5 and offered a draw, which her Chinese opponent naturally accepted. With all games in this encounter drawn China One was able to nudge ahead of Russia (and Ukraine) to take first place. Vietnam remained in hopelessly in last place.

One of our readers pointed out another anomaly in the final round:

Pham Le Thao Nguyen (2301) - Zhao Xue (2542) [A46]
2nd WTeam w Ningbo CHN (9), 11.09.2009
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.Bf4 c5 4.c3 b6 5.e3 Be7 6.h3 0-0 7.Be2 Bb7 8.0-0 d6 9.Nbd2 a6 10.a4 cxd4 11.exd4 Nbd7 12.Re1 Re8 13.Bd3 Nf8 14.Bg3 Qc7 15.Qe2 Ng6 16.Ng5 Qc6 17.Ndf3 Qd7 18.Nh4 Nxh4 19.Bxh4 Nh5 20.Be4 Bxe4 21.Qxe4

21...h6?? Huh? 22.Nf3?? The Vietnamese player misses 22.Qh7+ Kf8 23.Qh8 mate! But didn't she play 21.Qe2xBe4 to threatens mate on h7? The game continued 22...Bxh4 23.Nxh4. Very suspicious.

However, before going into a paranoid frenzy we consulted a GM who plays in the Chinese league and who knows most of the players as team mates. He wrote: "I think Zhao Xue must have played 19...h6 20.Nf3 Nh5 21.Be4 Bxh4 (probable, although it is conceivable that this and the next move are transposed) 22.Nxh4 Bxe4 23.Qxe4, reaching the same position as the game. People do sometimes miss mates, but I very much doubt that a respectable GM also put a piece en prise on move 19 (and blundered her h-pawn with check)."

With this explanation we consider this mystery solved: notation error in the bulletin. The game continued 23...Nf6 24.Qd3 b5 25.axb5 axb5 26.Nf3 Qc6 27.Nd2 Nd5 28.Qf3 Reb8 29.Qe4 Rb6 30.f4 g6 31.g4 Rxa1 32.Rxa1 Ra6 33.Rxa6 Qxa6 34.f5 Nf6 35.Qg2 Qa1+ 36.Nf1 exf5 37.gxf5 g5 38.Qe2 Qa6 39.Ne3 Kg7 40.Kh2 Qc6 ½-½.

For those who are interested in the matter at hand, the relevant article in the FIDE Handbook dealing specifically with the regulations for "08. Women's World Chess Team Championship", states:

We are slightly puzzled, since we seem to recall that results of matches in team events (leagues, team championships and even Olympiads) have often been openly agreed in the past – or is our memory deceiving us?

There is another point to be considered: the draw agreement was apparently reached during the round – at least two players have confirmed this. One could perhaps, somewhat generously, say that the above rule only applies to prior agreements, which this wasn't, but there remains the vexing point of who can actually take the decision. We continue to read the FIDE Handbook on Women's World Chess Team Championship:

The draw agreement was probably made between the two captains – IM Li Wenliang for the China One team and Dang Tat Thang for the Vietnamese. Certainly the players at the board did not discuss the matter in the middle of the round. Problem is that according to 1.6.4 the captain of the team should be a player or a reserve player, which Li and Dang were certainly not. In the poignant words of Loretta's grandfather in Moonstruck: we are confused.

Ranking crosstable

Links Official tournament site (rudimentary) All games in PGN To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.

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