That's the chess championship of China, not the "chinese chess" championship just to be clear!
The 2012 Chinese Chess Championships take place from 27th March - 7th April in the city of Xinghua in Jiangsu Province, China.
The format is a single round-robin with 12 players taking part. There is also a separate women's championship in the same format, but women's world champion Hou Yifan (pictured) is taking on the men in the main event.
The top seed is Wang Yue, while Ding Liren will be defending the title he won last year.
Rounds start at 14:30 local time (06:30 UTC) except the last round which starts at 10:00 local time. There is one rest day on 1st April, and the time control is 90 minutes plus a 30 second increment.
The full line-up:
| Main Championship |
Women's Championship
|
| Name |
Elo |
Name |
Elo |
| Wang Yue |
2702 |
Ju, Wenjun |
2557 |
| Bu Xiangzhi |
2668 |
Tan, Zhongyi |
2438 |
| Ding Liren |
2660 |
Huang, Qian |
2399 |
| Hou Yifan |
2639 |
Wang, Yu A. |
2372 |
| Ni Hua |
2637 |
Wang, Jue |
2366 |
| Zhou Jianchao |
2625 |
Zhang, Xiaowen |
2354 |
| Yu Yangyi |
2615 |
Guo, Qi |
2351 |
| Zhao Jun |
2583 |
Ding, Yixin |
2350 |
| Li Shilong |
2549 |
Gu, Xiaobing |
2257 |
| Lu Shanglei |
2514 |
Wang, Xiaohui |
2209 |
| Wang Chen |
2490 |
Wang, Doudou |
2186 |
| Liu Qingnan |
2461 |
Nie, Xin |
2053 |
Hou Yifan suffered a setback, losing her first round game
The official site (in Chinese) is here, with the live games link here. English language coverage is available at the Sina chess blog.
Photo by Fanlulu at the Sina chess blog.