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Yu Yangyi & Ju Wenjun Chinese Champions

Yu Yangyi & Ju Wenjun Chinese Champions

PeterDoggers
| 2 | Chess Event Coverage

Yu Yangyi & Ju Wenjun are the new Chinese Chess Champions. Yu edged out Ding Liren (both scored 7.0/11) on the smallest possible tiebreak: 0.25 SB point. Ju finished half a point ahead of Shen Yang & Lei Tingjie. The tournament finished last Saturday in Xinghua in Taizhou, Jiangsu. 

Photos © Qipai / Chinese Chess Association

The 2014 Chinese Championship took place 11-22 March in Xinghua in the central part of Jiangsu Province. It is also the city where Women's World Champion Hou Yifan was born.


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This year the men's (or rather: open, as Hou Yifan played among her male colleagues again) competition wasn't as strong as in previous years. Some notable names were absent: Chinese #1 Wang Hao (2734), #3 Wang Yue (2717), #4 Li Chao (2700), #5 Bu Xianzhi (2699) and #7 Ni Hua (2658). (Especially the latter hasn't been too active lately, although he did play in an open tournament in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this month.)

Ding Liren (2717) was top seed in Xinghua. As said, Hou Yifan played in the men's section and because Chinese #2 Zhao Xue (2552) was also missing, Ju Wenjun (2520) was the top seed in the women's group. Chinese #4 Ruan Lufei (2503) didn't play either and so Ju's biggest rival on paper was Tan Zhongyi (2499).

It was no surprise to see Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi and Ding Liren topping the men's standings after four rounds with three points each. Unlike their male colleagues, these three grandmasters had already achieved some international successes.

Wei Yi, still the youngest GM in the world

Yu defeated Wei in the third round in one of the main lines of the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf:


Hou Yifan had a slow start with just 1.5 out of 4, but then she defeated the top favorite. Don't give this girl a B vs N ending - Bobby Fischer happens to be her favorite player!

Hou Yifan

The following game was a great, typically sharp King's Indian battle. A Bayonet Attack turns into a regular pawn race game on opposite sides, where White seems to be reaching his goal first. However, with a white pawn on d6 Black duly completed his development, gave up his last queenside pawns and then went for the kill on the other side of the board. The end was a no less spectacular way to reach a draw. Live life on the edge!

Ding Liren

After 10 rounds Yu Yangyi was the sole leader with 6.5 points, followed by Ding Liren and Wei Yi on 6. Both Yu and Wei drew in the last round, but Ding joined Yu in first pace:

As it turned out, Yu Yangyi still ended first, but the difference with Ding Liren was minimal: 0.25 SB point

Chinese Championship 2014 | Final standings

# Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Pts SB
1 Yu,Yangyi 2664 2679 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 7.0/11 37.00
2 Ding,Liren 2717 2675 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 7.0/11 36.75
3 Ma,Qun 2606 2651 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 6.5/11 34.50
4 Wei,Yi 2625 2649 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 6.5/11 33.00
5 Zhou,Jianchao 2565 2623 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 0 1 1 6.0/11 32.00
6 Zhao,Jun 2608 2619 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 0 6.0/11 31.50
7 Hou,Yifan 2629 2555 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 0 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 5.0/11
8 Xiu,Deshun 2571 2528 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 0 4.5/11 25.00
9 Wen,Yang 2591 2529 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 4.5/11 24.25
10 Zeng,Chongsheng 2520 2531 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 4.5/11 22.50
11 Lin,Chen 2475 2535 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 4.5/11 22.25
12 Liu,Qingnan 2501 2501 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 0 0 0 4.0/11

Yu Yangyi

The women's section had quite a dramatic finish. Top seed Ju Wenjun was on 8.5/10, followed by the revelation of the tournament, 16-year-old Lei Tingjie.

Lei Tingjie

Shen Yang was third with 7.5/10. Ju finished with a loss, but so did Lei! Ju Wenjun finished clear first with 8.5 points. 

Here's one of Ju's victories:

Ju Wenjun

Chinese Championship (Women) 2014 | Final standings

# Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Pts SB
1 Ju,Wenjun 2520 2558 ½ 1 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 8.5/11
2 Shen,Yang 2435 2523 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 8.0/11 39.00
3 Lei,Tingjie 2374 2529 0 ½ ½ 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 8.0/11 36.25
4 Ding,Yixin 2429 2486 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 7.5/11
5 Tan,Zhongyi 2499 2412 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 6.5/11
6 Guo,Qi 2462 2383 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 6.0/11
7 Zhang,Xiaowen 2397 2357 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 5.5/11
8 Wang,Jue 2384 2295 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 4.5/11
9 Wang,Doudou 2217 2240 0 ½ 0 0 0 1 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 3.5/11
10 Xiao,Yiyi 2177 2206 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 3.0/11
11 Zhai,Mo 2266 2157 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 2.5/11 13.50
12 Gu,Tianlu 2164 2165 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 2.5/11 9.50

The new Chinese Champions
PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!

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