Convincing win for Wang Yue at World University Championship
He was the clear favourite, and he met the expectations. Wang Yue on Sunday won the 11th World University Championship in Zurich with a score of 8.5/9. The super GM finished 2 points clear of the rest of the field.The 11th World University Championships took place 5-11 September at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The 9-round Swiss was organized by the Academic Chess Club Réti and held under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU). There were about 150 competitors from 25 countries, accompanied by approximately 30 delegates and coaches. The tournament saw lots of fighting chess until the very last round in which almost every game finished in a decisive result. In the men’s tournament GM Wang Yue led the way. Although he had secured a decisive 1½ point lead already before the final game, he showed up in a fighting mood. 
Against GM Pavel Ponkratov (Russia) he quickly seized space and the initiative, winning first a pawn on the queenside and then quickly following up with a decisive attack on the kingside. Like in many rounds, it all seemed very easy. With 8½ points out of 9 games and a rating performance of 2957 Wang Yue clearly overfilled the high expectations he and his fans had set before the tournament. With the 15.5 rating points won in Zurich, he made a substantial step in direction of the top ten again. Second place went to GM Anuar Ismagambetov (Kazakhstan) and third place to IM Davit Benidze (Georgia), both on 6,5 points. In the women’s tournament the outcome was far less clear-cut than in the men’s. In the end, however, top seed IM (and WGM) Batkhuyag Munguntuul prevailed. Going into the final round, the 23-year-old Mongolian had a half-point lead. As she did not have a good tie-break score and was chased by no less than seven players, she knew she had to win this last game in order to become champion. And win she did in good style against which WGM Irine Kharisma Sukandar from Indonesia. In the combined nations’ ranking (one man and two women or vice versa) the race was even closer. At the end of the day the calculations gave the following result: 1 Mongolia 19; 2 Georgia 18½ (113) and 3 Russia 18½ (101). A number of players fulfilled title norms. Grandmaster norms were achieved by Davit Benidze (Georgia) and by Lijlja Drljevic (Serbia, women’s grandmaster norm). International Master norms were achieved by Andika Pitra (Indonesia), Jonas Wyss (Switzerland), Peiman Mohajerin (Iran), Peter Poobalasingam (England) and Marco Gähler (Switzerland).
Report thanks to Richard Forster
Wang Yue's games
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Anuar Ismagambetov (Kazachstan, 2nd), Wang Yue (China, 1st) and Davit Benidze (Georgia, 3rd)
Ljilja Drljevic (Serbia, 2nd), Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mongolia, 1st) and Sopiko Guramishvili (Georgia, 3rd)
Photos © Official website
