New blood

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 21 June 2010)

China Chess Championship
Xinghua, Jiangsu
May 24-June 4, 2010

Final Standings
1-3. GM Wang Hao 2722, GM Bu Xiangzhi 2681, GM Zhou Jianchao 2652, 7.5/11
4-5. GM Li Shilong 2514, GM Ni Hua 2667, 6.0/11
6. GM Li Chao 2619, 5.5/11
7-9. IM Zhang Ziyang 2422, GM Ding Liren 2547, Lu Shanglei 2349, 5.0/11
10-11. GM Zhou Weiqi 2585, GM Hou Yifan 2589, 4.5/11
12. Ji Dan 2379, 2.0/11

Category 13

Not so long ago there was the continuing phenomenon of a young, unknown Soviet player who competes in his first international tournament and upsets the applecart by winning the event against his older, more experienced opponents.

There is this story about an international tournament in Trinec (Czechoslovakia) in 1967, where the organizers invited the Soviet Chess Federation to send two juniors to compete. The Soviets obliged and sent two of their promising young players. When they got there it was discovered that there had been a misunderstanding -- the tournament was for adults. A quick cable to Moscow got them permission to play nevertheless, and Anatoly Karpov (15 years old) and Viktor Kupreichik (17 years old) finished first and second place.

A similar mistake occurred in the career of Garry Kasparov, although of a much greater magnitude. In 1979, at the age of 15, still unrated, he participated in a Grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of Yugoslavia). The Federation thought it was a junior tournament. He completely rose to the occasion by winning the event ahead of former world champion Tigran Petrosian, Ulf Andersson, Jan Smejkal, Walter Browne, Andras Adorjan, and many other GMs. In fact, from being an unrated Garry emerged with a provisional rating of 2595, at that time good enough for no. 15 in the world.

Nowadays the role of "surprise winners" have been taken over by the Chinese. Every year a new star comes to the fore. There is Wang Hao who won two strong international Opens (Dubai and Kuala Lumpur) in 1975, Li Chao, Zhou Weiqi, Zhou Jianchao, Zhao Jun, who were all unknowns when they first came to Philippine shores to compete in the Asian Continental Championships and Pichay Opens.

Last year two more 16-year-olds rose in stature. There is Yu Yangyi, who competed very strongly in the Asian Continental and won a slot to the 2009 World Cup. There he reached the third round after achieving the biggest upset of the first round -- winning 1.5-0.5 against 16th seed Sergei Movsesian, and also upsetting the highly regarded Polish GM Mateusz Bartel in the second round.

Ding Liren won the 2009 Chinese Championship, notwithstanding the last round drama we wrote about last Friday, he showed a ferocious and uncompromising stance and fought to the end in every game.

This year one more 16-year-old is baring his fangs. Lu Shanglei finished below 50% with 5/11, but going over his games shows a fearless fighter who takes the battle to his opponent, no matter who sits across the board. Lu had a bad start but finished very strongly with 3 straight wins. He even had the gall to play the Cochrane Gambit against Zhou Weiqi. He lost in 25 moves, but let’s hope the gambit catches on.

Remember that Topalov put Nxf7 back into international practice when he used it against Kramnik in Linares 1999 and almost won. GM Sarunas Sulskis uses the Cochrane so often that clearly he is not relying on surprise. It definitely gives a more interesting game than anything else against the Petroff.

Lu Shanglei (2349) -- Zhou Weiqi (2585) [C42]
ch-CHN Xinghua CHN (6), 29.05.2010
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Can’t blame White for giving up. He wanted to have an exciting attacking game, but now he has to defend a lost and dreary endgame.

And finally let me show you Lu Shanglei’s best game from the event. This ending was even featured in the Chessbase Web site as "The Breakthrough".

(258) Lu Shanglei (2349) -- Ji Dan (2379) [D55]
ch-CHN Xinghua CHN (10), 03.06.2010
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The Philippines has our pride, our Wesley So. But the Chinese have the equivalent of at least five Wesley Sos. Drat!