The 4th 'Hainan Danzhou Super Grand Master Chess Tournament' finished on May 29 in Danzhou City, Hainan province, China.
This traditional round robin tournament, with a total prize fund of 300,000 yuan, gathered ten top Chinese GMs, not including the country’s top-rated player, Wang Hao, and the former women world champion, Hou Yifan, who are both preparing their midterm exams at Beijing University.
The final winner was top seed GM Ding Liren (2707), who win the tournament for the first time with 7.0/9. Ni Hua had been the leader until the seventh round when the two players collided for a crucial clash.
Ding Liren faces then leader Ni Hua
With this win, Ding move ahead of Ni Hua and never looked back.
Ding Liren in the middle, won outright with 7.0/9. In second was Bu Xiangzhi
with 6.0/9, edging out Ni Hua on tiebreak.
Zhou Weiqi took 4th place with 5.5/9, which is his best result in the past four years
Wei Yi (top), Yu Yangyi (right) and Xiu Deshun (bottom) all scored 4.5/9. Wei Yi
had an outstanding comeback with 3.5/4 in the final four rounds.
The head coach of the Chinese National team, Ye Jianghuan, and the chief
arbiter Liang Zhihua
GM Wen Yang was not at his best and ended with 3.0/9
Zhou Jianchao and Lu Shanglei both ended with a disappointing 2.0/9
Lu was the newcomer at the Danzhou tournament. Unfortunately for him his pet
Dutch defense yielded zero points.
IM Lou Yiping and GM Xu Yuhua were a driving force to share the event with the
young audience. Xu Yuhua was Women World Champion from 2006-2008 and
recently obtained a masters degree in literature.
In the simul held by the organizer on the rest day after round six, we saw the former women world champion Hou Yifan who flew in from Beijing. She was joined by the ten grandmaster participants, together with whom they played a staggering 800 students from local primary and middle schools.
Hou Yifan always ready with a smile
The grandmasters played the students wearing the traditional garments of Hainan island
The organizer set up a challenge event for Hou Yifan. The top three winners from the Danzhou school chess league had the right to challenge her in a five-minute blitz. The children had the right to choose the color and Hou Yifan to take a piece from the board. In this game, Hou Yifan played without her kingside rook.
Photos by Liang Ziming
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About the authorLiang Ziming has been a chess journalist for sina.com since 2003, and the spokesperson for the Chinese Chess League since 2011. In 2007, he translated Kasparov's book "How Life Imitates Chess" into Chinese together with the former Women World Champion Xie Jun. |
LinksThe 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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