Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Recently China has become such a great emerging chess nation that people somehow stop being amazed at their players’ spectacular performances from the Olympiad to Baku. In the face of this emergence it is a shame that the Chinese Chess League, also known, without a hint of a smile, as the ‘Torch Real Estate Cup Chinese Chess League Division A’, doesn’t attract as much attention as it should do, despite the presence of 26 GMs, three IMs, and eleven WGMs.
The rules require five boards with at least two female players (2/5 seems quite a scary percentage but China never lacks for strong and talented females!), while to add to the challenge a 25+30 quick game must also be played on one of the boards.
This season, ten teams are competing over 18 rounds in six different cities in a six month period, from March to August. Coming from nine different regions, including two teams from Jiangsu Province (aided of course by the fact that Jiangsu is the hometown of Hou Yifan, Shen Yang, Ruan Lufei, Gu Xiaobing, and Li Ruofan; a smorgasbord of talent).
Under the rules of the league each team is allowed to register seven Chinese players and an unlimited quota of overseas players, many of whom have already built their fame through countless international championships and Olympiads. (Top memory quiz time, how many of them have you recognised?)
GM Xu Yuhua (许昱华/許昱華),
2500, the current Women's World Champion, who won her title in March 2006 when
she defeated Russian IM Alisa Galliamova in the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship
knock-out tournament in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Xu is also a law graduate
GM Zhu Chen (诸宸), 2521, who in 2001/2002, at the
age of 25, won the Women's World Chess Championship to become the eleventh champion
of the game. She did not defend her world title in Georgia in May 2004 due to
scheduling problems and her pregnancy. Zhu is married to Qatari Grandmaster
Mohamad Al-Modiahki, and now represents Qatar.
GM Nigel Short (奈哲尔-肖特), 2660, of
England, well know to ChessBase readers
WGM Ruan Lufei (阮露斐), 2495 is on the right
in the above pictures. She is posing with her teammates Huang Qian, Zhao Xue,
Hou Yefan and Sheng Yang, with whom she won last year's World Women's Team Championship
in Yekaterinburg with consummate ease – two points ahead of anyone else.
Ruan is twenty.
WGM Shen Yang (沈 阳), 2440, is 19 and one of China's
rising talents. She created a sensation when at 16 and rated 2326 she defeated
2652-rated Russian GM Sergei Rublevsky at the World Team Championship in Beersheba,
Israel, in 2005.
GM Ni Hua (倪华), 2704, learned to play chess at six
and gained his first GM norm at 17, getting the full title two years later.
Ni won the Chinese National Chess Championship 2006 and 2007. In 2008 he competed
at the Russian Team Championships in Dagomys, Sochi for the team Economist-SGSEU-1
(Saratov), where he achieved a score of 7.0/11 (+4 =6 –1) and a performance
rating of 2735.
WGM Gu Xiaobing (谷笑冰), 2225, who was in the
Top 20 Girls rating list from January 2003 to January 2004. Gu is the "Big
Sister" who encouraged 王玥 (see below) to write a
charming blog article after his victory at the Grand Prix in Baku.
GM Ernesto Inarkiev (伊纳尔基耶夫),
2684, of Russia
GM Merab Gaugunashvili (甘谷纳什利),
2553, of Georgia, with GM 倪华 (see above)
GM Zhang Pengxiang (张鹏翔), 2640, learnt chess
when he was five, became National Youth Champion at 12 and 13, and a grandmaster
at 22 (in 2002). Zhang wants to teach and give training to youngsters in China
via an online classroom network.
GM Zhang Zhong (章钟), 2613, finished first at the
Corus B tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 2003, three points ahead of his nearest
rival. He is married to WGM Li Ruofan, and the two were portrayed in a Bisik-Bisik
article last January.
GM Bu Xiangzhi (卜祥志), 2708, became the youngest
grandmaster in the world (at 13 years 10 months 13 days) in 1999. Bu has
also been the target of one of the most
atrocious puns in chess history.
WGM Hou Yifan (侯逸凡), 2549, is 14 years old and currently China's youngest ever Women's National Champion. She recently won the Atatürk International Women Masters Chess Tournament in Istanbul with a full point lead and a rating performance of 2674. Nobody doubts she is a future world champion.
GM Wang Hao (王皓), 2684, one of the few players (Garry
Kasparov is another) who never became an IM but went staight on to becoming
a full GM, two years ago at the age of 16.
WGM Zhao Xue (赵雪), 2523, is one of the best scorers
of her team at the Women's Chess Olympiads. She scored 11/12 (performance rating
of 2723) on board four in the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled in 2002, 10/12 (performance
2603) on board three at the 36th Chess Olympiad in Calvia in 2004; and 10/13
on board one (performance 2615), winning an individual Gold, at the 37th Chess
Olympiad in Turin in 2006.
GM Wang Yue (王玥), 2689, got the FIDE Master title
at 13 (in 2000), his IM title at 16 and the GM title at 17. His current rating
makes him the third highest ranked player in China. He won the recent Baku Grand
Prix (together with Gashimov and Carlsen) and wrote
about it in his very interesting chess blog, in which he refers to 谷笑冰
as Big Sister (Gu is two years older than him).
Meanwhile the future is well represented with the following young, as yet untitled, talents: 15-year-old Wang Chen, 2387, 17-year-old Ju Wenjun, 2374, 13-year-old Lu Shanglei, 2208, 14-year-old Yu Yangyi, 2356, and 13-year-old Guo Qi 2027 (winner of World Youth Championship 2007 12G).
At the risk of irking a legendary British player, any average club player will tell you that their chess nightmare is to lose to essentiall a child, with no record, and who spends the entire match chewing gum. Well GM Nigel Short may have an inkling of this feeling, albeit at a far higher level, after drawing with two 2300+ junior players. He admitted that he felt “confused by some of Chinese players’ ratings”. We mere mortals can empathise!
| Rnk |
Team |
Pts |
B.-pts |
| 1-2 |
Shanghai |
10 |
19.5 |
| 1-2 |
Beijing |
10 |
18.5 |
| 3 |
Shandong |
9 |
17.5 |
| 4-5 |
Hebei |
7 |
16.0 |
| 4-5 |
Zhejiang |
7 |
15.0 |
| 6-9 |
Tianjin |
4 |
13.5 |
| 6-9 |
Guangdong |
4 |
12.5 |
| 6-9 |
Wuxi |
4 |
12.0 |
| 6-9 |
Jiangsu |
3 |
13.0 |
| 10 |
Chongqing |
2 |
12.5 |
Shanghai, with GM Ni Hua, GM Zhou Jianchao, Lou Yiping (17 yrs old, rated 2318), WIM Zhang Xiaowen and Ju Wenjun (17 yrs old, rated 2374) and Beijing – with GM Wang Hao, GM Li Chao, Yu Yangyi (14 yrs old, rated 2356), WGM Zhao Xue, and IM Wang Yu – are in the joint lead, followed by Shandong with GM Bu Xiangzhi, GM Zhao Jun, GM Wen Yang, WGM Hou Yifan, and WIM Zhang Jiling, last year’s league champion.
Unfortunately the 7th -9th rounds were postponed as China decided to mourn those who died in Si Chuan earthquake on 12th May for three days. The 7th to 9th rounds will be even more exciting as Wuxi, Zhejiang, Chongqing and Tianjin welcome their new players:
ChessBase will keep you updated! Pictures mostly by Liu Xianglin and my dear friend WGM Gu Xiaobing. Many thanks to her for agreeing to write the round report, and Mr. Matthew Parry for his edit.
