Russia Beats China 25.5-24.5 In Annual Friendly Match

Russia-China, the traditional Scheveningen-style match between the two countries, was narrowly won by the host nation this year.

Every year, since 2001, China and Russia face each other in a 10-board match held in China every odd year and in Russia every even year. Between 2001 and 2015 a total of nine events were held in Shanghai, Moscow, Beijing, Ningbo, Sochi, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod.

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.  

Held for the 10th time, this year the match took place at the famous (and recently renovated) Central Chess Club on the Gogolevsky boulevard Boulevard in Moscow. The time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes to end of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. 

The line-ups:

2016 Russia-China | Participants

As you can see, both teams were missing some strong players such as Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, and Alexandra Kosteniuk for Russia and Ding Liren, Li Chao, Bu Xiangzhi, Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, and Zhao Xue for China.

Russia's teams were coached by no fewer than four grandmasters: Alexander Motylev and Vladimir Potkin for the men's team and Sergey Rublevsky and Alexander Riazantsev for the ladies. China only brought one coach for both teams: GM Yu Shaoteng.

The importance of this event, which strengthens the ties in the chess world between two long-time political friends, was illustrated by the presence at the opening ceremony of the assistant to the president of Russia, Igor Levitin, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the president of the Russian Chess Federation, FIDE Vice-President Andrey Filatov.

The leaders of both teams, Dmitry Andreikin (l.) and Yu Yangyi, with arbiter
Anatoly Bykhovsky, at the drawing of lots. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.

Day 1: Russia takes the lead.

The match started on Saturday and it was the home team who took the lead: 6-4. Dmitry Jakovenko defeated Zhou Jianchao in the men's section with draws on the other boards. Black was doomed to lose this rook endgame with such a passive king.

An already-smiling Jakovenko at the start. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.

More blood was spilled in the games among the women. Kateryna Lagno beat Tan Zhongyi, Valentine Gunina beat Lei Tingjie but Anastasia Bodnaruk lost to Ding Yixin. Especially Lagno had an easy day at the office. Commentator Sergei Shipov suggested that some of the Chinese were perhaps still suffering from both jetlag and a change of climate, and didn't make a very energetic impression...

The women's top board: Kateryna Lagno vs Tan Zhongyi. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.

Day 2: China's counter.

The next day China managed to win, though with a smaller margin: 4.5-5.5. Again there were four draws among the men, but this time Dmitry Andreikin went down on top board against Lu Shanglei. The Chinese GM played the Two Knights Caro-Kann in a very aggressive way, but it should have backfired after 21...Nd4. Lu continued energetically, and was winning after his opponent missed another chance.

Lu's play was not perfect but good enough to beat Andreikin. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.

Lagno also won her second game, against Guo Qi this time (interestingly, another Two Knights Caro-Kann!). The latter missed a chance to create an impregnable fortress in the endgame:

Two straight wins for Kateryna Lagno. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.

Shipov's tongue-in-cheek excuse for the failing Russian team? Watching its national squad playing football against England the other night, while the Chinese were probably getting some more sleep!

Day 3: Russia again.

Russia recovered quickly and won the third match with a 6.5-3.5 score. The men tied, with Ian Nepomniachtchi beating Lu Shanglei on board two but Daniil Dubov losing to Zhou Jianchao. The hero of the day was Natalija Pogonina, who decided the female mini-match in Russia's favor. 

The following game (the already-mentioned Nepomniachtchi-Lu) received a special prize for “best artistic achievement,” which was awarded at the closing ceremony by the (business)man behind the Zurich Chess Challenge, Oleg Skvortsov.

A good win for Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.

In his game with Yu Yangyi, Jakovenko missed a chance for a nice win. Can you see it?

Day 4: Russian girl power.

In the fourth round the men again tied their match, with another win for Nepomniachtchi (vs Wen Yang) and Yu Yangyi beating Maxim Matlakov. And again the ladies were responsible for the small victory overall (5.5-4.5) as Gunina defeated Ding Yixin. The key moment in that game was the following.

Valentina Gunina grinds down Ding Yixin to score
an important point. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.

Day 5: Chinese girl power.

On the last day of play, all games among the men ended in draws. This resulted in an overall tie among the men: 12.5-12.5. A really interesting fight was the following.

The Chinese women finally managed to beat their Russian colleagues with three draws and two wins: Tan Zhongyi won against Anastasia Bodnaruk and Shen Yang beat Valentina Gunina as Black. That was after Gunina had dominated the whole game but blundered at the end.

The Russian women still won 13-12 overall and so they were responsible for the small victory for Russia: 25.5-24.5. Below you can see the individual scores of all 10 players sorted by performance rating.

Russia-China 2016 | Individual Scores