China Leads 16-14 Vs Russia In Ningbo Scheveningen Match

After three rounds of classical chess China leads 16-14 vs Russia in the Yin Zhou Cup, the traditional Scheveningen-style match that is currently under way in Ningbo, China. 

Every year, since 2001, China and Russia face each other in a match. The teams consist of five men and five women for each country. The players are paired according to the Scheveningen system where each player on one team plays each player on the other team.

This year the match takes place for the 9th time. The line-ups:

2015 China-Russia | Participants

Every odd year the Chinese are the hosts. The location this time is the Yue Lake Village hotel in Ningbo, a seaport city in the northeast of the Zhejiang province, south of the Hangzhou Bay.

Day 1

On Tuesday the clash started with a day of blitz. China won 54-46, with a narrow 26-24 victory in the men's section and a surprising 28-22 win among the women — where the Chinese ladies are slightly underrated.

The time control was 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment, a fairly standard pace but unfortunately the electronic board operators in Ningbo couldn't handle things. The live transmission was a disaster and as a result the games sadly haven't been saved.

The Russian women's team with captain GM Sergey Rublevsky. | Photo Qipai.

The top scorers in the men's section were Lu Shanglei and Yu Yangyi, who both scored 6.0/10. Blitz might not be a speciality of rising star Wei Yi, who scored 4 points. Only Nikita Vitiugov did worse, with 3.5 points.

The victory for the Chinese women was largely based on the splendid score of 8.5/10 by both Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi. For Russia only Valentina Gunina managed to finish on a plus score, with 6 points.

Day 2

The classical part started on Wednesday; the time control is 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, and 30 seconds from move 1.

China started with a narrow win in the men's section: 3-2. Bu won a pawn and converted the full point against Dubov while Matlakov on his turn outplayed Lu. The crucial and most exciting encounter in the first round was the following.

Cool defense by Wei Yi, but he needs to check that opening! | Photo Qipai.

After the first day the score was 5-5 because the Russian ladies won with the same score: 3-2. Goryachkina defeated Ding as Black whereas Lei beat Girya. Pogonina made the winning point with a series of strong moves:

Pogonina left her opponent no chance. | Photo Qipai.

Day 3

On Thursday the men's match ended in 2.5-2.5 with one win for both sides. Fedoseev lost his second game in a row, this time to Lu. Peter Svidler leveled the score against Wei Yi in what looks like a splendid game by the Russian grandmaster. 

With all these knights there's so much calculation involved, but Svidler always remained on top, provoking weaknesses and making use of them: 

The match between the two women's teams was tied as well. Russia could easily have lost as Kashlinskaya, who travelled to China shortly after her marriage with Radek Wojtaszek, profited from a huge blunder by Ding in a winning position:

A very lucky day for Kashlinskaya! | Photo Qipai.

Day 4

Friday was a bad day for the Russians. The higher rated women again couldn't get more than a 2.5-2.5 tie, while the men went down 3.5-1.5 with losses for Vitiugov (vs Wei) and Dubov (vs Lu). It seems Vitiugov was either not in great shape or intimidated by Wei (or both): 

Nikita Vitiugov doesn't often get outplayed like that and certainly not as White. | Photo Qipai.

2015 China-Russia | Individual Scores (Round 3)

Saturday is a rest day. The score is 16-14 in favor of China. Two more rounds will be played, on Sunday and Monday. The total prize fund is $50,000.