Indeed, China has gone a long way since it first joined the World Chess Federation in 1975. It is now Asia’s chess superpower and one of the world’s strongest chess playing nations with 20 active GM’s. Women’s chess is dominated by China — 17-year-old GM Hou Yifan is the reigning queen. She’s the fourth Chinese to wear the crown. In men’s chess, China’s national team finished second in the 2006 Olympiad and may very well win the event in the future. Its pool of talent is immense, and its government’s support for chess is bottomless.
This year’s national championship was held from March 30 to April 10 in Xinghua, Jiangsu province. There were 12 players in the round robin event and included the women’s world champ, Hou, and top GM’s Bu Xiangzhi and Wang Yue.
Ding Liren won 7 and drew 4 to win the title. Two points behind were Ni Hua, Zhou Jianchao and Zhao Yun who shared second-fourth places. In solo fifth was Hou who lost only to Ni while winning 2 and drawing the rest of her games. Not bad at all. The world’s strongest female player, Hungary’s Judit Polgar, says she is impressed with Hou’s growing powers.
Ding Liren, in any case, beat all the players who are best known in the West: Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua, Wang Yue, Li Chao, and Li Shilong. According to Chess Vibes, “We’re quite convinced that we’ll see Ding Liren invited to big tournaments soon. He’s not only terribly strong, but also plays attractive openings like the 4.f3 line in the Nimzo and the King’s Indian. (We should add that quite a lot of Chinese players have the ‘KID’ on their repertoire — probably the legacy of Ye Jiangchuan, the third GM of China, now coach, and an avid KID player himself.) And Ding Liren is good at something else: provoking blunders from his opponents.”
Games of the week. IM Malcolm Pein annotates.
White: Xiu Deshun (2508)
Black: Ding Liren (2637)
King’s Indian Saemisch
China Ch, Xinghua 2011
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Qd2 a6 8.Nge2 Rb8 9.h4 h5 10.Nd5 b5 11.0-0-0 bxc4 12.Nxf6+ exf6 13.Nf4 f5 14.Bxc4 Ne7 (Guarding g6) 15.Bb3 c6 16.Kb1 a5 17.e5 Rb5!? (Provocative, there was nothing wrong with 17…dxe5 18.dxe5 Qxd2 19.Rxd2 Bxe5) 18.Bc4 Rb4 19.b3 d5 (19…Rxc4!? 20.bxc4 Ba6) 20.Be2 c5 21.dxc5 Qc7 22.Bd4? (22.Nd3! d423.Nxb4 dxe3 24.Qd6! is strong so perhaps 22.Nd3 Rb8 23.f4 a4 24.b4 a3 was the idea) 22…Rxd4! 23.Qxd4 Bxe5 24.Nxd5 Nxd5 25.Qxd5 Be6 26.Qd2 Qxc5 27.Rc1 Qb6 (A difficult position to defend) 28.Bc4?? Rd8! and 0-1 as any sensible queen move is met by Qb6-d4 and a mating attack.
Here’s another game from the tournament which ChessBase, the annotator, describes as “absolutely incredible.”
White: Zhao Jun (2580)
Black: Xiu Deshun (2508)
Nimzo-Indian Saemisch
China Ch, Xinghua 2011
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 c5 6.e3 b6 7.Bd3 Nc6 8.Ne2 Ba6 9.e4 0-0 10.Bg5 h6 11.Bh4 g5. Whether now or after White plays e5, g5 will have to be played, so Black decides to get it out of the way. 12.Bg3 d6 13.f4 Na5 14.fxg5 hxg5 15.0-0 Nh5 16.Bxd6!! The sheer imagination and depth are flabbergasting. 16…Qxd6 17.e5 Qe7 18.Ng3! This seemingly innocuous move is in fact a deflection and not an exchange! 18…Nxg3 19.Rf6!! Down two pieces, White ensures the kingside remains cut off with this move. 19.hxg3?! f5 and the attack is harder to conduct. 19…Kg7. 19…Bxc4 to try and take some of the steam out of White’s attack by exchanging pieces, doesn’t quite do it. 20.hxg3 Bxd3 21.Qxd3 The problem is that White still has a myriad of threats, whether the simplistic Qd2-Qxg5, to Raf1 with queen or even a d5 thrust if called for. A sample line might go 21…Kg7 22.Qe3 Rh8 23.Raf1 Rag8 24.Qxg5+ Kf8 25.Rxf7+ Qxf7 26.Rxf7+ Kxf7 27.Qf6+ Ke8 28.Qxe6+ Kd8 29.d5! 20.Qg4! Black isn’t given a moment’s respite. 20…Rg8 21.hxg3 Nb7 Desperately trying to bring some support for f7 22.Raf1 Nd8 23.Qe4 Qb7 24.d5 Rh8 25.Qg6+!! Just incredible. 25…fxg6 26.Rxg6+ Kh7 The final windmill is an inescapable mating net. 27.Rxg5+ Kh6 28.Rg6+ Kh7 29.Rg4+ Kh6 30.Rf6+ Kh5 31.Rh4+ The next move is mate. 1-0.
Puzzler.
White: Ka5, Nb5, Qc1, Bd3, pawn on d4
Black: Kd5, Ne5, pawns on a6 and f3
White to play and mate in three moves.
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