Hou Yifan dismantles Evgeny Najer in Shanghai

Russians in Shanghai: Hou Yifan dismantles Evgeny Najer

Shanghai is the largest Chinese city by population in the world – more than 24 million!

The Russian-Chinese ‘Match of Friendship’ on December 13-15 in Shanghai was, in fact, a chess festival where a Scheveningen between the Russian and Chinese school teams was held alongside an exhibition rapid-and-blitz match between the 2015 European Champion GM Evgeny Najer and the world’s strongest female player Hou Yifan. This was followed by a simultaneous exhibition by the players to the juniors of both the countries.

The federations and the Charitable Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko, who are the sponsors of the festival, dedicated the ‘Friendship Match’ to the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Allied forces, of which both China and the then USSR were a part of, in the World War II. It is only fitting that to pay tribute to the countless people who died for their countries, a new generation of citizens fight a new war, only that this one is on a chessboard.

This joint effort between the two countries is a culturally significant activity, other than the obvious sporting value such a match is bound to generate.

While Russia has been a century-old superpower in chess, China has made phenomenally quick inroads into the elite circles, team events and, of course, the women’s championships as well.

9.5-4.5: Hou Yifan subjected Najer to a bloodbath, mercilessly hounding him in the rapid-and-blitz matchup

Unfortunately only three games are available, the rest seem to have been lost in transmission

GM Evgeny Najer (2674) proved no match for the strongest female player in the world

GM Hou Yifan, the smile of an assassin?

Or of a former child prodigy: the budding chess star in 2008

In that year, at the age of 14, Yifan became the Chinese Women's Champion for the second consecutive time (9.0/11 points); she gained her GM title in August at the age of 14 years 6 months 2 days, making her one of the youngest grandmasters in history, as well as the youngest female ever; and she competed for the second time (!) in the Women's World Chess Championship in Nalchik, Russia, where she beat IM Elena Sedina, IM Lilit Mkrtchian and GM Humpy Koneru, only to narrowly lose in the final to Alexandra Kosteniuk.

To instill a sense of cooperation among the children the Russian officials had gifts for the Chinese kids…

...while the Chinese officials had their own method for making their guests feel more comfortable.

Hey, you look awesome too!

A very important reason behind the Russian dominance over the years and the Chinese successes in the recent past lies in the inter-school team championship tournaments these countries organize. In Russia, thousands of Russian schoolchildren gather to compete in the qualification stages of Belaya Ladya scholastic tournament.

Payenerskaya Pravada, 1968: Petrosian, Botvinnik, Smyslov and Tal inviting
schools to form chess teams and compete in Belaya Ladya [Photo: FIDE]

This year, the all-Russian Belaya Ladya scholastic tournament went international: the strongest school teams from Armenia, Belarus, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Moldova took part in the final stage of the championship to determine the winners. Next year onwards, there will be a new country sending their best team to this legendary tournament.

Mark Gluchovsky, the Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, Maria Morozova, the CEO of the Charitable Foundation of Gennady and Elena Timochenko, and Yang Junan, the President of the Chinese Chess Association, signed a memorandum of cooperation

This tournament is the only large-scale international scholastic team event in the world. The Russian Chess Federation, the Chinese Chess Association, and the Charitable Foundation of Gennady and Elena Timchenko, which supports the annual Belaya Ladya, signed a memorandum of cooperation, thus allowing the winner of the Chinese Scholastic team championship a spot in the Finals of the Belaya Ladya tournament.

In this edition of the Friendship Match, the Russian team, consisting of the 2015 Belaya Ladya champions St. Petersburg 2nd Gymnasium and a few other young players aged below fourteen, managed to beat their Chinese counterparts quite easily with the score reading 12-4 in their favour.

On the final day, Hou delivered a simultaneous exhibition to the school team of Russia…

… while Najer returned the favour by playing with his Chinese fans

Friendship matches of such ilk go a long way in building cooperation and mutual
understanding between the countries and carry a significant cultural and sporting value

All photos from Shanghai are from the official qipai.org.cn site