1st Hangzhou Women Grandmaster Tournament

by Liang Ziming
7/18/2011 – The 1st Hangzhou Women Grandmaster Chess Tournament can easily be ranked as a women chess super tournament with a fantastic lineup includes many of the cream of the crop in women chess, such as Hou Yifan, the Kosintseva sisters, recently-wed Dzagnidze (congratulations), and others. Ju Wenjun has taken the early lead with 3.5/4. Here is the report by chess reporter Liang Ziming.

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The 1st Hangzhou Women Grandmaster Chess Tournament

The 1st Hangzhou Women Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2011 is a round-robin tournament, taking place from July 13th to July 24th in Tianyuan Tower in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. Ten top women players compete in this event, including:

1. GM Hou Yifan CHN 2575
2. GM Nadezhda Kosintseva RUS 2560
3. GM Tatiana Kosintseva RUS 2557
4. GM Nana Dzagnidze GEO 2537
5. IM Anna Zatonskih USA 2522
6. WGM Ju Wenjun CHN 2515
7. IM Dronavalli Harika IND 2513
8. GM Marie Sebag FRA 2510
9. GM Zhu Chen QAT 2485
10. GM Zhao Xue CHN 2470

The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes to the end of the game with a 30-second increment from move one.

Tournament Schedule

13th July Opening ceremony
14th July Round 1
15th July Round 2
16th July Round 3
17th July Round 4
18th July Round 5
19th July Day Off
20th July Round 6
21st July Round 7
22nd July Round 8
23rd July Round 9 & Closing ceremony


The playing venue, the five-star Tianyuan Tower

The playing venue, Tianyuan Tower, was built in accordance with the five-star standard. It is a part of the Hangzhou Branch of China Qiyuan, and affiliated to Hangzhou Tourism Group Co., Ltd, under the Hangzhou municipal government. China Qiyuan is an official agency responsible for board games and card games such as go, bridge, chess and Chinese chess under the All-China Sports Federation of the People's Republic of China. It oversees the Chinese Weiqi Association, the Chinese Chess Association, the Chinese Xiangqi Association and the Chinese Contract Bridge Association.


Ten beauties on the stage with their lot number on fans in the opening ceremony


The players are welcomed by the FIDE Vice President, Chu Bo, and the Vice General
Secretary of the Chinese Chess Association, Tian Hongwei, at the opening banquet.


The official tournament mascot “XiXi”

The name XiXi (West-West) comes from the names of three major tourist resorts in Hangzhou city: Xi Hu (West Lake), Xixi National Wetland Park and Xiling Seal Engravers Society.


The former women world champion GM Zhu Chen and her daughter
Dana present a sweet Wenzhou folk song in the opening ceremony.

Wenzhou is a big city of the Zhejiang province and is also the hometown of Zhu Chen.


WGM Ju Wenjun and IM Dronavalli Harika sing a popular Chinese song which they
spent two hours rehearsing before the opening ceremony.


A beautiful Georgian folk song "Georgia" from a newly-married couple – GM Nana
Dzagnidze and her husband.

The round one saw five draws including a long fighting game of 119 moves between IM Dronavalli Harika and GM Zhao Xue, and a miraculous draw between Zhu Chen and Anna Zatonskih.

In the round 2, all three Chinese players GM Hou Yifan, GM Zhao Xue and WGM Ju Wenjun scored a full point by defeating GM Marie Sebag, GM Zhu Chen and GM Nana Dzagnidze respectively, while the Kosintseva sisters drew their games with IM Dronavalli Harika and IM Anna Zatonskih.


Nana Dzagnidze lost to Ju Wenjun in the second round


Hou Yifan's win over Marie Sebag was quite spectacular

[Event "1st Hangzhou WGM"] [Site "Hangzhou CHN"] [Date "2011.07.15"] [Round "2"] [White "Hou, Yifan"] [Black "Sebag, M."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B53"] [WhiteElo "2575"] [BlackElo "2510"] [Annotator "GM Xu Yuhua and IM Lou Yiping"] [PlyCount "63"] [EventDate "2011.07.14"] [SourceDate "2011.07.18"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. Bxc6 Bxc6 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. Bg5 e6 9. Qd3 Be7 10. Nd4 Qa5 11. Bd2 Qc7 12. O-O-O O-O 13. f4 Rab8 14. f5 Bd7 15. g4 Rfc8 16. g5 Ng4 17. Rhf1 Qc4 18. Qh3 {[#]} Ne5 (18... Qxd4 19. Qxg4 exf5 20. Qf4 {would leave a very unclear position.}) 19. Nf3 $2 (19. Bf4) 19... b5 $2 (19... exf5 20. Nxe5 (20. exf5 {[#]} Nd3+ $3 21. cxd3 Qxa2) 20... dxe5 21. exf5 b5 {with an initiative for Black.}) ({Or prettier:} 19... Nd3+ 20. Kb1 ( 20. cxd3 Qxa2 $17) 20... Nxb2 21. Kxb2 b5 22. Ka1 b4 $15) 20. f6 Bf8 $2 {[#]} 21. g6 $3 fxg6 (21... Nxg6 22. Ng5 h6 23. fxg7 Bxg7 24. Nxf7 $18) 22. Nxe5 dxe5 23. f7+ Kh8 24. Rf3 h6 25. Bxh6 gxh6 26. Qg4 g5 27. Qh5 Kg7 28. Rh3 Kf6 29. Rxd7 b4 {[#]} 30. Qxh6+ $3 Bxh6 31. Rxh6+ Kg7 32. f8=Q+ 1-0

All photos by Liang Ziming and Nie Feng

Standings after four rounds


Links

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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Liang Ziming has been a chess journalist since 2003 and the New Officer for the Chinese Chess Association since 2011. In 2007, he translated Kasparov's book "How Life Imitates Chess" into Chinese together with the former Women World Champion Xie Jun.

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