Yu Yangyi Wins 4th Shenzhen Masters
GM Yu Yangyi won the Shenzhen Masters, held April 20-May 1, 2021 on Chess.com. The 26-year-old grandmaster from Huangshi finished ahead of GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, GM Richard Rapport, and GM Wei Yi.
How to watch?
You can find, play through, and download all games of the Shenzhen Masters on our Events page.
Fully named the "Belt and Road" "Shenzhen Evening News Cup" Shenzhen Longgang Chess Masters Tournament, the event was held for the fourth time. The first three editions were classical events played over the board and won by GM Ding Liren (2017), GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2018), and GM Anish Giri (2019). Last year it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This year, the organizers decided to hold an online version. The format was a combination of rapid and blitz games, played in a double round-robin with four world-class grandmasters.
While Duda and Rapport could play from home, the two Chinese players Wei and Yu played together from a venue in the Longgang District in Shenzhen.
The time control for the rapid games was 15 minutes and a 10-second increment. For the blitz, a time control of five minutes and a three-second increment was used. The rapid games counted double: two points for a win and one for a draw.
Yu won the rapid portion with an undefeated 9/12 (4.5/6 counted double) as he won three games and drew three. Duda then won the blitz portion with 5/6 (four wins and two draws) but that wasn't enough to catch Yu, who won the $20,000 first prize. Duda received $15,000, Rapport $8,000, and Wei $5,000.
Final Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
| 1 | Yu Yangyi | 2709 | 9 | 3 | 12 | |
| 2 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2729 | 6 | 5 | 11 | |
| 3 | Richard Rapport | 2763 | 6 | 2.5 | 8.5 | |
| 4 | Wei Yi | 2732 | 3 | 1.5 | 4.5 |
In hindsight, the very first round saw the important clash between the winner and the runner-up. Yu beat Duda in an opposite-colored bishop endgame where two passers on both far edges of the board formed a decisive combo:
In the fifth round of the rapid part, Yu successfully defended against his compatriot's sacrificial play. The attack started with a knight check on g6 that few of us could have resisted playing, and although engines disapprove of it, the practical value is abundantly clear.
In general, Wei wasn't very fortunate in this tournament. For example, in the following blitz he seemed to be dragging Duda's king into a mating net, but he couldn't find the finishing touch:
All games
Liang Ziming contributed to this story.
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.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
