China Rising!
.jpg)
China (left) vs. regional rival India. Bu Xiangzhi battles Viswanathan Anand on Board One at the 2006 Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy.
Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
A contingent of Chinese are competing at the Gibtelecom Chess Festival and after eight rounds, they dominate the upper portion of the standings. It appears that the Dragons have quelled the naysayers about playing at an elite level. I have written many articles on Chinese and the eventuality of producing elite players. One of them was titled, “Why China will Soon Dominate Chess” and another was blogged as “China: The Dragons are Coming!”
Bu Xiangzhi has been a Grandmaster since the age of 13 and while people questioned his results, no one is surprised at his success. He has been flirting with 2700 for the past year and allowed Wang Yue to win the honor of the first Chinese to make the “super GM” status. However, his showing at Gibtel is proof that he is in top form and may break 2700 after the tournament.
China has been rising for a long time and has been able to dominate women’s chess with five Olympiad medals in a row! Now with 13-year old Hóu Yìfán (pictured right) and several other young players, China may be dominating for a long time. I remember Nigel Short being very critical of Liu Wenzhe’s methods pointed out in the book, “The Chinese School of Chess.”
Liu is famous for his win at the 1978 Olympiad win over Jan Hein Donner with a devastating queen sacrifice. (see game) What Short underestimated with the passion conveyed in the book. One cannot merely discount methods because they do not confirm to a familiar model. It is also necessary to look at the passion in which they are executed.
I have been on blogs debating the rise of China and it is amazing the ignorance people have of the talent they are producing. China has a good formula: government support, a large talent pool, strong discipline and focus, sparring with strong federations and and incredible bond between the players and coaches. They have produced three women’s World Champions (Xie Jun, Zhu Chen, Xu Yuhua) and five consecutive Olympiad gold medals. Zhao Xue played top board on the 2006 Olympiad team and has been one of China’s brightest stars in recent years.
The men took the silver medal in Turin and will be more experienced and seasoned in Dresden. With the rise of Wang Hao, China will be even stronger than in 2006. While there seems to be no new male star on the horizon, a nation of 1.3 billion people is most likely to find them!
(Note: I will be traveling to China in March and I hope to meet some of the national players there.)
Hi Daaim
What did Nigel Short say about Liu Wenzhe’s book?
Also, what’s happening in China in March for you to go there? Is there a tournament?
Dylan,
He merely commented that the Chinese methods are flawed and touted India as the federation to watch in the future. He was responding to the rave of China’s rise in chess. It was an innocent comment, but nonetheless, a bit critical for a federation who has experienced a groundswell of strength over decades… with steady improvement. The talent pool is too much to ignore and with a regimented system and government support, China will become a dominant figure… and India will be there as well. International chess will take on a new look.
I’m on university business. Someone has to do it! 😉
Thanks for the reply, Daaim!
I think chinese players are working really hard and have huge motivation. In and incoming interview that will be published soon in the M-Tel chess tournamend website, Bu Xiangzhi will describe to as how hard does he trains. You can follow this story in the English version site or even the chinese!! , here: https://www.mtelmasters.com/cn/ 😉
Thanks Javier!
Here is the English link since my Chinese is limited to a few words. 😮
English: https://www.mtelmasters.com/en/
They have some interesting statistics on Bu’s performance against the other participants. He has only played Vassily Ivanchuk (+1) and Lev Aronian (-2). I forgot that Bu destroyed Teimour Radjabov 6.5-1.5 in a rapid match. Still impressive since Radj is a beast in fast time controls. This will be a tough tournament and an interesting test for Bu! Soon Hou Yifan will be a GM and China has many young talents coming through.
In about a week Hou Yifan is going to play here in Spain (city of Merida) a tough closed tournament, let see how does she play there 🙂 Here is the link, this time not in Chinese but in Spanish 🙂 https://ruylopez.juntaextremadura.net/mrl/1.php. Take care.
This is a very diverse lineup. I see the in-form Fabiano Caruana is playing. Julio Granda-Zuniga is playing??? Wow! I don’t know IM Manuel Pérez Candelario. Look like he’s played mostly in Spain and had some success at the junior level.
I hope Hou does well. I first saw her in Italy at the 2006 Olympiad. She was only 12 then and always smiling. I see Zhang Pengxiang is playing too. He is a Chinese GM we don’t hear much about, but there is so much talent in China. I have a feeling a huge rush of talent is going to emerge at once.