The Chinese Chess Championships are taking place in Xinghua, Jiangsu Province,
from April 16th to 24th 2013. Games start at 8:30am CEST.
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Report after five rounds
Wei Yi, who is thirteen (he was born on June 2 1999), keeps having impressive
results all around the globe. After securing his grandmaster title in the
recent Reykjavik Open, he is now leading the Chinese Chess Championship
alongside super-GM Wang Yue. The tournament is still very close, however,
as three strong grandmasters are in pursuit only half a point behind. The
field includes twelve of the best grandmasters in China and is an eleven
round round-robin. This year will crown a new champion for the country,
as the three time victor of the past years, Ding Liren, is busy testing
his mettle against the world elite in the Alekhine Memorial. Ding Liren
currently holds the record for being the youngest person to win the Chinese
Chess Championship, we will see if Wei Yi can continue on his path and break
that record.
Among the pack of people with three points is ex-Women's World Champion
Hou Yifan, who will be trying to regain her world title in September of
this year against Anna Ushenina. She will coincidentally be defending her
title in the same city this tournament is being held, which also happens
to be her home town! Here we have a smashing victory by Yifan against Yu
Yangyi:
[Event "ch-CHN 2013"] [Site "Xinghua CHN"] [Date "2013.04.17"] [Round
"2.1"] [White "Hou, Yifan"] [Black "Yu, Yangyi"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B60"]
[WhiteElo "2617"] [BlackElo "2675"] [Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount
"61"] [EventDate "2013.04.16"] [SourceDate "2013.03.08"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3
d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 Qb6 7. Nb3 e6 8. Bd3 Be7 9.
O-O O-O 10. Qd2 a6 11. Rae1 Qc7 12. Re3 b5 13. Rg3 $5 {This maneouver
has been seen before, but it's not the most topical way of dealing with
Black's setup.} Ne5 14. f4 Nxd3 15. cxd3 Nh5 16. Rh3 Nf6 17. Qe2 e5 18.
Rg3 Kh8 $2 {Underestimating White's attack.} 19. fxe5 dxe5 20. Rxf6 $1
Bxf6 21. Nd5 Qd8 22. Bxf6 gxf6 23. Qh5 {Black is positionally crushed
and he is facing a strong attack. The threat of Qh6 must be dealt with
immediately.} Rg8 24. Qxf7 Qf8 (24... Rxg3 25. hxg3 $16 {Left Black in
a bad position as he is unable to defend f6, but it was the best chance.})
25. Rxg8+ Qxg8 26. Qxf6+ { Now the game is over, White has regained her
material and Black's king is too weak.} Qg7 27. Qd8+ Qg8 28. Qe7 Bg4 29.
Nf6 Qg6 30. Qxe5 Bd1 31. Nh5+ 1-0
Thirteen-year-old Wei Yi has shown very cold blooded chess as he continually
evades and counters all of the strong attacks his aggressive opponents have
been throwing at him. For example look at his king movements in his game
against Li Chao:
[Event "Xinghua CHN"] [Site "Xinghua CHN"] [Date "2013.04.18"] [Round
"3.2"] [White "Wei, Yi"] [Black "Li, Chao b"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C48"]
[WhiteElo "2530"] [BlackElo "2686"] [Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount
"59"] [EventDate "2013.04.16"] [SourceDate "2013.03.08"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3
Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nd4 5. Bc4 Bc5 6. Nxe5 Qe7 7. Nf3 d5 8. Bxd5 c6
$5 {The computer's recommendation but a novelty. Many games had followed
8... Bg4.} 9. Nxd4 Bxd4 10. Bb3 Ng4 11. Qf3 $1 {The best move. White allows
Black to capture f2 with check, disrupting his development and king safety,
but relies on his extra pawn to give him an advantage.} Bxf2+ 12. Ke2
Bh4 13. h3 Ne5 14. Qe3 b6 15. d3 Ba6 (15... h6 {was probably necessary,
to keep poking at White's queen with Bg5.}) 16. g3 Bf6 17. Kf2 O-O-O 18.
Kg2 Rhe8 19. Qf2 {White's king is now safe, and the extra pawn will soon
play an important factor. Wei Yi finishes the game off very cleanly.}
Kb7 20. Bf4 Bxd3 21. cxd3 Nxd3 22. Qe2 Nxb2 23. Qxb2 g5 24. Bxg5 Bxg5
25. Rad1 f5 26. exf5 Bf6 27. Rxd8 Rxd8 28. Qe2 Qb4 29. Ne4 Rd4 30. Bc2
{It's hard to say exactly where Black went wrong.} 1-0
Struggling: GM Zhao Jun, rated 2589, now at
2.0/5
Standings after five rounds
Women's Championship
In the women's section Ding Yixin (above), a 21-year-old WGM who will celebrate
her 22nd birthday during round ten, seems to be running away with the event
as she now has a commanding full point lead over her closest rivals. However
she still hasn't played the toughest opposition, while Guo Qi, one of her
closer suitors, has already played Shen Yang and Wang Jue. Probably the
most important players missing from the women's section, besides Hou Yifan
who is playing next to the girls but not with them, are Ju Wenjun, who recently
scored a GM norm in the Dubai Open, and GM Zhao Xue, China's number three
female.
Standings after five rounds
Today both sections have a rest day and the games will continue tomorrow
with a crucial round as the leaders Wei Yi and Wang Yue face each other.
