Chess Team Traditional Match: China beats Russia 128-122

The final games.

Hello Everyone,

China and Russia play a traditional team match every year. This year the tournament was held in Yinzhou, Ningbo in China. China beat their opponents (including both a men's and a women's team) by 128-122.

Bu Xiangzhi (who scored 4/5 in the classical games) and Huang Qian received the traditional 2010 Yinzhou Cup.

The tournament took place from August 4-15 at the New Century Grand Hotel in Ningbo and was based on the international ‘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.

In the 20 rounds of rapid chess games the Chinese men won by 51.5-48.5. The Russian women beat their Chinese opponents narrowly by 50.5-49.5. The overall rapid score was China 101, Russia 99 and so the overall match score was China 128, Russia 128.

If you're comfortable with some Chinese you can check the official website here. Meanwhile, here is a nice game from the tournament. You can see the moves in our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.

PGN: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. g3 Bg7 6. Bg2 Nb6 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. e3 O-O 9. O-O Re8 10. Re1 a5 11. Qe2 e5 12. Nxe5 Nxe5 13. dxe5 Bxe5 14. f4 Bxc3 15. bxc3 Bf5 16. Bxb7 Rb8 17. Bg2 Bd3 18. Qf2 Be4 19. Bf1 Qe7 20. a4 Qe6 21. Bb5 Red8 22. Qa2 Bd5 23. Qc2 c6 24. Bf1 Be4 25. Qa2 Qg4 26. Qf2 Qe6 27. Qa2 Qg4 28. Qf2 Nd5 29. Bb2 Rd7 30. h3 Qf3 31. Qxf3 Bxf3 32. Ba3 Nxc3 33. e4 Nxe4 34. Re3 Nd2 35. Ba6 f5 36. Kf2 Bd5 37. Be2 Ne4 38. Ke1 Rdb7 39. Bd3 Rb3 40. Ke2 Re8 41. Ke1 c5 42. Bc1 c4 43. Bxe4 Rxe4 44. Rxe4 Bxe4 45. Ra3 Rb1 46. Kd2 Kf7 47. Re3 Ke6 48. Ba3 Kd5 49. Be7 Rb2 50. Kc1 Ra2 51. Ra3 Rxa3 52. Bxa3 c3 53. Be7 Kc4 54. h4 Kb3 55. Bf6 c2 56. Bd8 Kxa4 57. Kd2 Kb4 58. Bc7 a4 59. Be5 Kb3 60. Bf6 a3 61. Bg7 a2 62. Bh8 a1=Q 0-1

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

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