Wang Yue sweeps in Xinghua

Wang Yue took a commanding lead of the tournament with thee important consecutive wins in rounds seven, eight and nine against Hou Yifan, Li Shilong and Zhou Weiqi respectively. Going into the last round he had an impressive two-point lead over a big pack of players with 5.5, and a near 2800 performance. Despite his last round loss to Zhao Jun he still won the event with a point and a half lead. Fighting spirit was definitely one of the reasons Wang Yue was able to pull through at the end, as he ground down his opponents in very long endgames, including a 104-move marathon against Zhou Weiqi. Wang Yue admitted he was tired after playing so many long games. The following is an example of one of those games, as he beat Hou Yifan in a long endgame.

The race for second place was very close, as four players had 5.5/10. At one point it seemed that Hou Yifan would clinch clear second after obtaining a winning position against Zhou Weiqi. However a series of blunders quickly turned the game around and Yifan was relegated to a big tie for third place.

Ma Qun and Li Chao both drew their last round games to end with 6/11 and that was enough for a tie for second place – which Ma Qun got on better tiebreak.

Final Standings

The happy winners: Wang Yue and Ding Yixin are presented with their trophies

Not bad either: Guo Qi and Mao Qun clinched second by edging Shen Yang and Li Chao on tiebreaks, respectively

Bu Xiangzhi is not a big fan of Hou Yifan's first move

Hard at work: Wang Yue's hat trick catapulted him to first place, here he has a winning edge against Hou Yifan

Wei Yi had a good tournament but couldn't keep up with the winner

Women's Section

Ding Yixin chose an extremely sharp Najdorf variation against Wang Jue in the last round, when a draw was probably sufficient to win the tournament. Interestingly the game was drawn anyways, while Shen Yang – the only girl capable of catching Ding Yixin – drew her own game against Tan Zhongyi. Guo Qi beat Kuang Yinghui to leapfrog over Shen Yang on tiebreaks.

Shen Yang breaks 2400 again with this tournament

Ding Yixin's Najdorf was not the most solid choice, but it worked

Final Standings:

Links

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