"Nothing but respect" - Interview with Ju Wenjun

by Niklesh Kumar Jain
6/11/2018 – In May, Ju Wenjun played a fine match against Tan Zhongyi to become the Women's World Champion. She took the lead early on in the match and never let it go. Immediately after the World Championship, Ju Wenjun went to play the Chinese league. Niklesh Jain and Angela Franco sent a few questions to the World Champion and she was kind enough to share her thoughts on the match and much more. | Photo: Gu Xiaobing / china2018.fide.com

After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6! leads to the so-called "Accelerated Dragon Defense". On this DVD the Russian grandmaster and top women player Nadezhda Kosintseva reveals the secrets of her favourite opening.

The 17th Women's World Champion

On 18th of May 2018, the chess world got a new World Champion in the form of Ju Wenjun. She beat the reigning Women's World Champion Tan Zhongyi in a ten-game match in China with a score of 5½ : 4½.

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The score of the match — click or tap any result to open that game

Part 1

Niklesh Jain (NJ): What do you have to say about your opponent Tan Zhongyi? How did she play?

Ju Wenjun (JW): Well, I knew Tan Zhongyi since she the year 2000. We would play the national youth championships together! She is quite talented and becoming one of the stars of Chinese chess. We are very good friends. I think maybe because she didn’t make a good start, it was more stressful for her, which made her nervous. I feel this is not her best performance. But still, she is a true fighter and she fought right until the very end! I have nothing but respect for my opponent.

Tan Zhongyi's reign as the World Champion was short, but we can be sure that she would have many shots at the title in future | Photo: Official website

NJ: How do you see your performance at the World Championship? Do you think you played well, or you feel that a lot of the things that happened in the match were dictated by pressure?

JW: I think my performance at the event was quite good. I had a very big problem in the first round — I spent a lot of time in the opening and was just left with ten minutes with a lot of pieces on the board. Somehow I managed to draw that game. But I realized my weakness of playing too slow and started playing faster and also began to understand her choice of openings. After I started to manage my time well, my results improved and I began to lead the tournament. When I feel a lot of pressure or negative feelings I listen to some music or go for walks with my coach. I think the one who is leading in the match usually has less pressure.

Ni Hua was Ju Wenjun's coach and going for long walks with him helped Ju Wenjun to gain the much-needed composure for the match | Photo: Official website

Game two

The first of the two decisive games for Ju Wenjun that gave her a solid lead in the match:

 
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Important game where Ju, Wenjun began to impose her level, taking advantage of some strategic weaknesses of her opponent. 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 3.d3 Bxc3+ 4.bxc3 d6 5.g3 f5 6.Bg2 Nf6 7.Rb1 2 LiveBook: 3 Games. A1: English Opening: 1...e5 2 Nc3 7.Nf3 0-0 8.0-0 c5 9.Nd2 Nc6 10.f4 Be6 11.e4 exf4 12.Rxf4 Qd7 13.Rb1 Rae8 14.Qf1 fxe4 15.Nxe4 Nxe4 16.Bxe4 b6 1-0 (45) Krylov,M (2476)-Volovikov,A (2271) Serpukhov 2018 7...c6 8.Nf3 Qc7 9.0-0 White has an edge. 0-0 10.Bg5N The most usual in this position is: 10.Qb3 c5 11.Ng5 Nc6 12.Qb5 h6 13.Nh3 Na5 14.f4 e4 0-1 (50) Ehlert, H (1923)-Gross,T (2152) Verden 2008 10...Nbd7 11.Nd2 h6 12.Bxf6 Nxf6 13.e4 Be6 14.Bh3 Qd7 15.exf5 Bxf5 16.Bxf5 Qxf5 17.Ne4 Qd7 18.Qb3?! Unnecessary move allowing the generation of some structural weaknesses. Also the fact that Black now holds the f-file gives her a good advantage. 18.Re1= 18...Nxe4 19.dxe4 Rf7 20.Rfd1 Qg4 21.Rxd6 Qe2 22.Rf1 22.Qb2= Qxe4 23.c5 22...Raf8!
23.c5 With the idea Rd7. Kh7 24.Qd1 Qxa2 25.Qb1 Qc4! Now the white pieces have no harmony and their position is pitiful. Even now Wenjun can afford if she wants to advance the passed pawn A. 26.Rd2 a5! Don't do 26...Qxc3 27.Qc2 Don't take 26...Qxc5 27.Qb4 27.Qb6 Qxc3-+ 28.Rb2 h5 This is the kind of positions where playing on both sides makes complete sense. 29.Ra2 a4! 30.Qb2 Qxc5 31.Rxa4 g6 Better continuation Rf3 followed by h4 32.Qd2 Kg7 33.Ra5 Qd4! 34.Qxd4 exd4 35.f4 Rd8 36.Kf2 b6 36...Rc7 37.Ke2 c5 37.Ra6= c5 38.Rxb6 Ra7 39.f5? Now the white piece player wasting her chance to equalize. 39.Rc6= 39...gxf5-+ 40.exf5 d3 41.Rc6? Another mistake by Zhongyi. but other continuations were not enough, por example if 41. Rd1 would come 41...Rc7 with idea c4-c3 etc. Ra2+ 42.Kf3 d2 43.Rc7+ Kf6 44.Rc6+ Ke7 45.Rd1 Rc2! 46.h3 c4 47.g4 hxg4+ 48.hxg4 Rc1 49.Ke2 c3 50.Rc7+ Kf6 51.Rc6+ Kg5 52.Kf3 Rg8 Weaker is 52...Rxd1 53.Rg6+ Kh4 54.Rh6+ Kg5 55.Rg6+= 53.Ke2 Rh8 54.Rd6 Rxd1 55.Kxd1 Rh1+
0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Tan,Z2522Ju,W25710–12018A21Womens World Championship Match 20182

Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.


Game three

With this win, Ju Wenjun moved to 2.5 points as compared to Tan Zhongyi's 0.5.

 
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1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Nc6 6.0-0 Rb8 7.Nc3 b5 Another way to play is: 7...a6 8.e4 Be7 9.d5 exd5 10.exd5 Nb4 11.Ne5 Bf5 12.a3 Nd3 13.Nxc4 Nxc1 14.Rxc1 0-0= 8.Ne5 Nxe5 5 E04: Open Catalan: Nf3 9.dxe5 Nd7 10.Qc2 Bb7 11.Bxb7 Rxb7 12.Rd1 Even in 2013 they had already played this very thing but without the novelty: Be7N 12...Qc8 13.a4 b4 14.Nb5 a6 15.Nd4 c5 16.Nf3 0-1 (36) Ju,W (2544)-Tan,Z (2483) Wuxi 2013 Predecessor: 12...Qc8 13.Ne4 Nxe5 14.b3 f5 15.Bb2 Nc6 16.Nd2 1-0 (38) Kozul,Z (2594)-Saric,A (2587) Zagreb 2016 13.Qe4 Qc8 14.Qg4 g5? unnecessary risk, creating weaknesses and making the white game easy. 14...Bf8= and Black has nothing to worry. 15.Qh5!
15...Nc5 15...b4 16.Bxg5 c6 17.Rd4 Rd7? 17...Bxg5 keeps fighting, although defending this position is no longer possible. 18.Qxg5 Rd7+- 18.Bxe7! Kxe7 19.Qh4+ Ke8 20.Rad1 Qd8 21.Qf4 Rxd4 22.Rxd4 The exact way to proceed, Ju reads the position very well, and realizes that simplifying the Queens would only help to refresh the black position. Weaker is 22.Qxd4 Qxd4 23.Rxd4 Ke7= 22...Qb6 23.Rd6 Excellent square for the Rook, taking advantage of the power in the column and pressing on c6. Rf8 Now the black position is sad, even moves like 23 ... Nb7 allow 24. Ne4 and knight in d6 will be extremely dangerous. 24.Ne4 White is clearly winning. Nxe4 25.Qxe4 Qb7 26.Rxc6 Kd7 27.Qd4+
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Ju,W2571Tan,Z25221–02018E04Womens World Championship Match 20183

The Catalan is one of the most solid openings for White. It forms part of the large and strong fianchetto family in which White builds his strategy mainly around the bishop on g2. Grandmaster Victor Bologan covers all of Black’s replies to the Catalan, some of which can even transpose to other openings such as the Tarrasch System and the Queen’s Indian. Suffice it to say that the Catalan rules!


Game four

Tan Zhongyi shows great mental strength and pulls one back!

 
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Angela Franco (AF): Which was your favourite game of the match?

JW: My favourite was the fifth game, which I won with black pieces.

 
Tan Zhongyi vs Ju Wenjun, Game 5
Black to move

I am very happy that [in the above position] I played h6 and stopped her idea of Bg5.

 
Position after 16.Bc2
 
Position after 27...Nf5
 

In this position [left], I went for the move Bd7! It is a good move because if 17.fxe4 then Bg4! 18.Nf3 and dxe4 wins the piece.

I also liked the idea of the knight coming to f5 [right] and I felt that I was just dominating the game.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb3 a5 6.a4 Bb4+ 7.c3 Bd6 8.0-0 0-0 9.exd5 cxd5 10.Na3 Nbd7 11.Re1 h6 12.Nb5 Bb8 13.d4 e4 14.Nd2 Nb6 15.f3 Re8 16.Bc2 Bd7 17.Rb1 exf3 18.Nxf3 Ne4 19.Ne5 Bxe5 20.dxe5 Bxb5 21.axb5 Rxe5 22.Be3 Re6 23.Bd4 Nc4 24.Bd3 Qg5 25.b3 Ncd6 26.Rb2 Rae8 27.Rbe2 Nf5 28.Bc2 Nh4 29.Qd3 Ng6 30.Be3 Qh5 31.c4 Ne5 32.Qd4 Rg6 33.Bxe4 dxe4 34.Kf1 Nf3 35.Qd7 Nxh2+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Tan,Z2522Ju,W25710–12018C24WCh Women 20185

Game five in progress. According to Ju Wenjun, this was her best performance in the match! | Photo: Official website

NJ: In the sixth game it looked like you would be able to hold a draw, but you lost the game. What happened?

JW: Well, you know it was a long game. She played well in the endgame and was able to outplay me. By the way, there was no pawn move for 40 moves! If we had made ten more moves without she being unable to checkmate me or without a pawn move, I would have been able to claim a draw! I was not confident about my memory, so the arbiters checked the scoresheet and when I realized it was not yet 50 moves, I resigned!

 
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The queen endgame that went on for many, many moves, ended as a win for Tan Zhongyi in game six | Photo: Official website

[After Tan's sixth-round win, Ju Wenjun's lead was narrowed down to one point. But the last four rounds ended in draws and this meant that Ju Wenjun became the Women's World Champion. -Ed.]

Ju Wenjun received the title of Women's World Champion and a cheque of €120,000 for her efforts | Photo: Official website

NJ: Now that you are the Women's World Champion, you have the pressure of retaining the title! Who do you think are your biggest rivals for this title?

JW: The next World Championship will be a Knock-Out event in Russia, towards the end of this year. In a Knockout format, anything can happen. I think all the women players above the rating of 2500 have a good chance of winning the World Championship title.

NJ:  How are you planning to celebrate this victory?

JW: Relax, listen to some music, go to some live show if possible!

Part 2 of the interview will follow soon. with some focus on the World Championship, but also on other important issues...


Links


About the authors

 

This interview was been a joint effort by ChessBase India Hindi's editor-in-chief Niklesh Jain and Colombian WIM Angela Franco.

The duo live 16,000 kilometres away from each other but the game of chess has brought them together.


FIDE Instructor Niklesh Kumar Jain Jain is an international chess player who has participated in tournaments in almost in 20 different countries, winning the international tournament in Sri Lanka in 2010. He also worked for a television network as an anchor and news writer for two years and reported in Hindi during World Chess Championship 2013 and 2014.

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