A cool game from the Chinese league

The Chinese league is one of the strongest national team competitions, and still it's rarely reported about in the English chess media. Naturally the main reason is the language issue: for European or American journalists it's not easy to find, let alone decipher, the Chinese chess websites. We do regularly get an email from Gujuan Tzu, who keeps us up to date. His blog is a good source for all chess that happens in China.

At the end of October rounds 13-15 of the Chinese league were played in Qingdao and it was one of our readers who pointed out how many interesting games he saw online! We've picked the following for you to enjoy - one that fits in the 'winning wandering king' category.

[Event "Chinese League"]
[Site "Qingdao CHN"]
[Date "2011.10.26"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Zhao Jun"]
[Black "Zhou Weiqi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A28"]
[WhiteElo "2580"]
[BlackElo "2592"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "90"]
[EventDate "2011.04.12"]
[WhiteTeam "Shandong"]
[BlackTeam "Jiangsu"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e4 Bb4 5. d3 d6 6. Be2 a5 $5 $146 (6... O-O
7. O-O h6 8. Na4 a5 9. Kh1 Qe7 10. Ne1 Nd4 11. Nc2 Nxc2 12. Qxc2 Bd7 {
Miroshnichenko,E (2651)-Eljanov,P (2712)/Konya 2011}) 7. O-O Bc5 8. Nd2 Nd4 9.
Nb3 Nxb3 10. axb3 ({In hindsight} 10. Qxb3 {looks better.}) 10... c6 11. Kh1
Bd4 12. Bd2 Ra6 13. Qe1 Nd7 14. f4 Nc5 15. Ra3 exf4 16. Bxf4 Ne6 17. Bd2 O-O
18. Bg4 Bc5 19. Ra2 Nd4 20. Bxc8 Qxc8 21. Ne2 (21. Qd1 {looks normal but after}
f5 {Black is more than fine.}) 21... Nxb3 22. Bc3 f6 23. Ng3 Qd7 24. Nf5 d5 25.
d4 Ba7 26. exd5 cxd5 27. cxd5 g6 28. Qd1 a4 29. Ne3 Bb8 30. Qf3 Rd8 31. d6 $5 {
The fun starts. White hopes to create danger on the kingside by opening the
a1-h8 diagonal for his bishop and bringing the knight to g4.} Qxd6 32. Ng4 f5
$1 {Black is not scared.} 33. Nh6+ Kg7 $1 {Black had to calculate the 'long
and winding road' that his king is about to go!} 34. d5+ {The logical
follow-up.} Kxh6 35. Qe3+ f4 36. Qh3+ Kg5 37. Qxh7 Qxd5 $1 {Again, no fear!}
38. Qe7+ Kf5 39. Rxa4 $5 {Another sacrifice to clear the f6 square.} Rxa4 $1 {
I'm invincible!} 40. Qf6+ Ke4 41. Qxg6+ Ke3 $1 {Whoohoo!} 42. Qb1 Qd1 $2 (42...
f3 $1 {was a killer move.}) 43. Re1+ Kf2 $4 {This is too much.} (43... Qxe1+
44. Qxe1+ Kd3 45. Qd1+ Kc4 46. Qe2+ Rd3 47. Qe6+ Rd5 48. Qe2+ Kc5 49. g4 {and
the game goes on, but Black still has the best chances.}) 44. Qg6 $4 {Mutual
chess blindness.} (44. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 45. Qxd1 Ra1 46. Bd4+ $1 ({or} 46. Be1+ {and
Black can resign.})) 44... Ra1 $1 45. Qb6+ Rd4 0-1

The Chinese Chess League 2011 runs from April 12th to December 7th, 2011. The competition has 10 teams which play a double round robin, so 18 rounds, over different weekends. The time control is 90 minutes for the whole game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The current standings:

The Beijing team includes Yu Yangyi (2652), Li Chao (2646), Xiu Deshun (2508), Zhao Xue (2495) and Elina Danielian (2506), while its biggest rival Shanghai has Zhou Jianchao (2660), Ni Hua (2646), and Ju Wenjun (2519) as its strongest players. Some non-Chinese players are playing for teams in China this year; well-known names are Valentina Gunina (Russia), Vladimir Malakhov, Vladimir Motylev, Anna Muzychuk and Le Quang Liem. Rounds 16-18 will be played in Beijing on 5th-7th December 2011. You can find more details at Chess Results.