8th Russia-China match – China wins classical game encounter

by ChessBase
7/8/2012 – In the first phase of the competition, the Russian men were able to show an edge in classical games against their Chinese peers, with Dmitry Jakovenko showing the way. It was not enough though, as the Chinese women, led by Ju Wenjun and a superb comeback by Zhao Xue, scored heavily for an even more convincing win, giving China a 26-24 lead over Russia. Illustrated report.

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Date: The 8th Russia vs China match takes place July 1st - 9th, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Format: Classical chess (each member of the team gets to play all the members of the opposing team once) and rapid (two games against each member of the opposing team). No draw offers are allowed before move 40.
Scoring system: Each game is worth one point; the team with the highest combined score (women+men) will be declared the winner.
Prize fund: Each men's team receives $15,000 (non-taxable); each women's team receives $10,000 (non-taxable)
Time: Games start at 15:00 local time and the time control is 90 minutеs for thе first 40 movеs, then 30 minutеs to a finish with a 30 second increment from the start for the standard games, with the rapid games played at 15 minutеs plus 10 sесond increment.

8th Russia-China match – China wins classical game encounter


The playing hall with the teams at play. Kneeling in the middle is Alexander Motylev
who enjoys taking pictures, though the ones here are signed by Eteri Kublashvili.

In the first phase of the Russia-China match, the Chinese bounced back with an overall win in the classical games section after incurring a slight 9-11 deficit after the first two rounds. This turned out to be very much thanks to the men’s team actually winning one of the rounds, while drawing two, while the women’s team racked up three straight wins in rounds three to five.


Zhao Xue overcame a tough loss in round two against Alexandra Kosteniuk with
three straight wins for her team.


Dmitry Jakovenko was the best scoring player in the men's section

In the men’s section, European Champion justified his Elo favoritism by scoring 2.5/3 in the final rounds for a 3.5/5 score, the best of all the men. That said the top Chinese boards, Wang Hao and Wang Yue both scored 3.0/5 doing their side credit. Ultimately the Russian men took it by 13.5-11.5.


Wang Yue performed well with a +1 score and 3.0/5

The problem is that the Chinese women were merciless in the latter half of the classical games, and if they traded blows in rounds one and two, there was no such leniency thereafter. Zhao Xue bounced back from her second round loss to Alexandra Kosteniuk with three straight wins, tying Ju Wenjun as the top scorer’s in the women’s section with 3.5/5. As a result, the Chinese women won 14.5-10.5 giving the China an overall 26-24 lead entering the next phase of rapid games.


Although Yu Yangyi was unablke to shine as he might have wished, his win in round
five against Nikita Vitiugov was crucial for the overall Chinese victory in classical games.

[Event "8th RUS-CHN Summit Men Classical"] [Site "St . Petersburg RUS"] [Date "2012.07.06"] [Round "5"] [White "Yu, Yangyi"] [Black "Vitiugov, Nikita"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C15"] [WhiteElo "2656"] [BlackElo "2703"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2012.07.02"] [EventType "team-schev"] [EventCountry "RUS"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 dxe4 6. Qg4 Nf6 7. Qxg7 Rg8 8. Qh6 Nbd7 9. Nh3 {Although far from a novelty, this move fell into disuse in grandmaster play in the 80s in favor of 9.Ne2 and 9.a4. As it turns out, the young Chinese player has an interesting novelty up his sleeve.} (9. Ne2 c5 10. a4 Qc7 11. dxc5 Qxc5 12. Qd2 Nb6 13. a5 Nbd5 14. c4 Ne7 15. Ba3 Qe5 16. Qc3 Qxc3+ 17. Nxc3 a6 18. g3 Bd7 19. Bg2 Bc6 20. O-O Nf5 21. Rae1 Nd4 22. Nxe4 Nxe4 23. Bxe4 Bxe4 24. Rxe4 Nf3+ 25. Kg2 Nd2 26. Rh4 Nxf1 27. Kxf1 Rd8 28. c5 Rd2 29. Rb4 Rg5 30. Rxb7 Rxc2 31. c6 Rxc6 32. Re7+ Kd8 33. Rxf7 Rxa5 34. Bb4 Rf5 35. Ra7 Rc2 36. Be1 Rc1 37. f4 Ra5 {0-1 (37) Andreikin,D (2705)-Vitiugov,N (2726) Saratov 2011}) 9... c5 10. a4 $1 $146 {In previous games, White has spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what to do with his dark squared bishop, and while it does not lack squares, a lot depends on what he wants to do. The obvious purpose is to play it on a3, but nothing is written in stone.} cxd4 11. cxd4 Qc7 12. Qd2 b6 13. Ra3 $1 {Young Yangyi was clearly ready with this idea, and it is a far from obvious solution. It isn't so much that the rook lift is unthinkable, it is that one could easily be stuck focusing on the bishop being played here.} Nd5 14. Rg3 $1 Rxg3 15. hxg3 {Not only has White traded off one of Black's most active pieces, but he has activated his own rook on h1 not to mention given it a prime target on h7. Not bad!} N7f6 $2 {Black starts to err, and is no longer happy with the way the position has developed.} ({The obvious} 15... Bb7 {was better.}) 16. c4 e3 17. Qb2 $1 (17. fxe3 $2 Ne4 18. Qc2 Qxg3+ 19. Nf2 Ndf6 20. Rh3 Qxf2+ 21. Qxf2 Nxf2 22. Kxf2 Ba6 {is equal.}) 17... Ne7 18. Bxe3 Ba6 19. Bf4 Qd7 20. d5 Nfg8 21. Ng5 $1 {Now Black's position quickly falls apart.} exd5 22. Rxh7 Bxc4 23. Nxf7 Qe6+ 24. Be5 Nf6 25. Nd6+ Kd7 26. Bxc4 Nxh7 27. Bb5+ Nc6 28. Bxc6+ Kxc6 29. Qc2+ 1-0

Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili

Men's standings after five rounds

Women's standings after five 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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