IV Hainan Danzhou tournament starts

The fourth edition of 'Hainan Danzhou Super Grand Master Chess Tournament' started on May 21 in Danzhou City, Hainan province, China.

Like the previous three editions, this tournament is still a ten-player single round-robin tournament with a total prize fund of 300,000 yuan. The ten GMs playing in this traditional tournament are Ding Liren (2707), Yu Yangyi (2675), Bu Xiangzhi (2662), Ni Hua (2646), Wen Yang (2618), Zhou Jianchao (2607), Zhou Weiqi (2590), Lu Shanglei (2551), Xiu Deshun (2534) and Wei Yi (2530), with an average rating of 2612.

China’s top player Wang Hao is now resting after having just finished the super tournament in Norway. The former Women World Champion Hou Yifan, who played in the past three years, is also not participating, turning the tournament into a pure men’s tournament for the first time. GM Wang Yue is also missing for personal reasons.

The time control for this tournament is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. Draw offers are not allowed before move 30.

The opening ceremony, held in the banquet hall of HNA New World Hotel Danzhou, was attended by Mr. Yang Junan, Chairman of the Chinese Chess Federation, Mr. Ye Jiangchuan, the General Secretary of the Chinese Chess Federation, Mr. Lin Dong, Mayor of Danzhou city, as well as dozens of guests and journalists and hundreds of students from the local primary schools and middle schools.

Players and VIPs posed together in the opening ceremony

The officials of the Danzhou government (right, Mayor of Danzhou city, Mr. Lin Dong)
kicked off the tournament with a beautiful crystal chess set.

In the drawing of lots ceremony conducted by the Chief Arbiter Ms.Liang Zhihua (left),
each player was asked to choose a box in a glass jar on the stage. GM Bu Xiangzhi,
the winner in 2010 and 2012, chose number seven.

Top seed GM Ding Liren chose number eight

Former women world champion GM Xu Yuhua and IM Lou Yiping give a presentation
to local primary students

The first two rounds saw seven decisive games, which promises a fierce competition for this tournament. Top seed Ding Liren has had a good start with two wins, one over Lu Shanglei and another over Wei Yi.

The veteran GM Ni Hua (above) is also in a good form, beating Xiu Deshun and Lu Shanglei.

The defending champion GM Bu Xiangzhi started with a draw against Wei Yi with
his pet Petroff Defense with black and won a tough game over Zhou Jianchao in
an unbalanced endgame after Zhou missed a good drawing chance in the end.

After a draw against Bu Xiangzhi, the promising star Wei Yi found himself in a very
passive queen and rook endgame in round two against Ding Liren. Although he
defended hard, Wei Yi failed to balance the position and finally got mated in a rook ending.

Ding Liren won an incredibly complicated game against Lu Shanglei

In the game with Lu Shanglei in the first round, Ding Liren as black chose his recent favorite Caro-Kann and got a big advantage by successfully dominating the center. After several inaccurate moves by Lu Shanglei, Ding comfortably won pieces and the game.

IM Lou Yiping annotates Liren-Shanglei:

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.