China wins traditional match against Russia 128-122
In their annual match, China beat Russia 128-122 this year. On home ground, Yinzhou, Ningbo the Chinese were the strongest over five classical games and twenty rapid games.Bu Xiangzhi, who scored 4/5 in the classical games, receives the 2010 Yinzhou Cup | Photo courtesy of www.sina.sports.com.cnThe traditional match between China and Russia took place August 4-15 at the New Century Grand Hotel Ningbo in Yinzhou, Ningbo, China. Just like the current NH Tournament, these matches follow a 'Scheveningen' format in which all members of each team play all members of the other team once.In the men's section, the Chinese team had Bu Xiangzhi (2676), Wang Yue (2716), Wang Hao (2724), Ni Hua (2645) and Zhou Jianchao (2668) versus Vladimir Malakhov (2732), Nikita Vitiugov (2722), Artyom Timofeev (2690), Sergei Rublevsky (2688) and Vladimir Potkin (2626) for Russia.The women's section saw the clash between Ju Wenjun (2496) Tan Zhongyi (2461), Huang Qian (2447), Ding Yixin (2385) and Wang Yu A (2369) versus Russians Nadezhda Kosintseva (2551), Natalija Pogonina (2501), Valentina Gunina (2462), Anastasia Bodnaruk (2397) and Alina Kashlinskaya (2352).In the classical time control, over five rouds the Chinese men beat their Russian opponents 15.5-9.5. The Russian women did better, and won the match 13.5-11.5.The twenty rounds of rapid were devided over four days. The Chinese men also narrowly won this match, with 51.5-48.5. The Russian women defeated their Chinese opponents with the smallest possible margin: 50.5-49.5. The overall rapid score was China 101, Russia 99 and so the overall match score was China 128, Russia 128.The total prize fund was US$ 45,000; the men and women team winners took 10,000$ each, non-winners took 5,000$ each.To change our habits a bit, this time we'll have a look at one game that resulted in an interesting ending Rook and Pawn versus Queen. It's quite instructive, since the Black player couldn't manage to win the game because he didn't use the Zugzwang theme (enough).Ni Hua-Timofeev
Ningbo 2010
Now Timofeev goes for a move that looks logical, but in fact slows down the winning process: 83...Kb8?! Instead, 83... Qd6+ 84. Ka7 Qc7+ 85. Ka6 Qc4! 86. Kb6 Kd7!
87. Rc5 (87.a6 allows mate in one) 87...Qb4+ 88. Rb5 Qd4+ 89. Kb7 Qc4 90. Rb6 Qd5+ 91. Ka6 Kc7!
and White loses the rook because of Zugzwang, e.g. 92. Rb2 Qa8+ 93. Kb5 Qb8+. The game continued 84. Rc5 Qd7 85. Rc6 Qd8+ 86. Kb5 Qd5+ 87. Kb6 Qe4 88. Kb5 Qb1+ 89. Kc5 Ka7 90. a6
90...Qf5+?! Here strong was 90... Qd3! 91. Rd6 Qe4! 92. Rc6 Qe5+ 93. Kc4 Kb8! 94. Kb4 Qd5 95. Rc5
and now 95...Qd6 already wins the a-pawn. The game ended in a draw on move 113. Below are all classical games of the men's section; as always all games are available for download below.Classical games (men)
Game viewer by ChessTempoLinks
- Official website
- Games in PGN: Standard, Women Standard, Rapid, Women Rapid via TWIC
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.”
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