I also checked in my databases and Wang Yue's great victory over Zhao Jun (No. 18) is the Panda's first ever ocassion where he has played 1.e2-e4!!.

Good omen indeed. Hope he recovers his past form. He is an elegant positional player.

Mm…. I should analyse it better, but basically as I believe black has two ways to go about. One, as I said in the earlier post, as of white 9th move, is playing 9…h9. Strangely enough, according to my sources (Mega 2011 and TWIC from there on) this is a novelty, as everybody threw 9…Be7 or 9…Qa5 before which I don’t believe is an improvement. The first point is that on 9…h6 white can not double black’s f pawns because the Bishop is still in f8 and on 10.Bxf6? black simply captures with the queen with a better game. And about the rest, for example, on
a) 9…h6 10.Be3?! the pressure on g5 is released, and now the plan Be7-0-0 and maybe …Qa5 with play in the queenside makes more sense. Plus, if white continues with the same moves such as 10…Be7 11.0-0-0, 0-0 12.Nd4?! now black has the shot 12…d5!, which frees his pieces, opens the position and leads to dynamic play,
b) 9…h6 10.Bh4 is better than the prior one. Now the game is rather unclear. Black is certainly not worse, but I had some troubles in finding a decent plan for him.

In his GM6 Rep, Ftacnic only deals with 9.0-0-0 and 9.Bxf6, Qxf6 (9.Qe3!? goes unmentioned and may well be the best move) 10.Qxf6, gxf6 11.0-0-0, Rg8 when he rightly assess that black shouldn’t be afraid of the doubled pawns and has the better endgame chances based on the 2 Bishops and the open file. What he does tackle, is the order 9.0-0-0, Be7 and now 10.Qd3. However, this is not quite the same as in our Wang game white isn’t castled yet. At this point (9.0-0-0, Be7 10.Qd3) he gives 10…Qa5!, which indeed looks good. Note that in all of these typical Sicilians, this move tends to be better with white’s bishop in g5 (that’s why it may not get along that well with the insertion of …h6 and Bg5-h4) . Back to our main game, I found that the same idea is applicable even with Wang’s order. So, 9.Qd3, Be7 10.Nd4 and now 10…Qa5!? is certainly more testing (remember the Bg5 theme) than Zhao Jun cooperative 10.0-0. This would be my black´s second way of dealing with this system. White is obliged to do something with his Bg5, such as
a) 11.Bd2, Qb6!? (11...Qe5 and 11…Qc5 are also interesting) and the game is rather dynamically balanced with mutual chances.
b) 11.Bxf6, Bxf6 is nothing for white and black has the better game and dark squared uncontested pressure vs. white’s king.
c) 11.h4?, which in the principal order is the main move (9.0-0-0,Be7 10.Qd3, Qa5!? 11.h4) here is an outright blunder, as black replies 11…Bxe4! embarrassing white’s uncastled position.
Finally, about the game and the 18th move, I think that black may be losing whatever he does. He can’t allow 19.h6 but on 18…h6 white may continue 19.Bh4! (not 19.Bf4 which loses tempo on 19...e5 and now either 20.Nd5 or 20.Bg5 to anywhere, are not convincing for him) and it seems that on every other move the powerful sac 20.g4! is coming. Your suggestion 18…e5 is indeed a blunder, white shots 19.h6! taking away the support of the f6 Knight, followed by Bxf6 and Nd5 winning. The direct 19.Nd5 also wins for white.

Best regards
Adolfo.

18... e5 may be safer for the time being, but I wouldn't be very happy playing black after 19 Bxf6 and 20 Nd5.
But what about 13... Rfd8, making playing e5 less pleasant for white and more pleasant for black? Maybe not a Sicilian move, but it seems to make more sense than Tfe8 (considering the other rook went to d8 a few moves later).
13... Rfe8 may be 'Sicilian', but I don't see any use for it here.

Hey Adolfo,

I think black definitely has to play h6 earlier (18. ...h6 doesn't look good to me as white will be able to go on pushing on the kingside with two rooks, I think it's already too late for h6 there) and maybe also e5.
Besides playing h6 earlier how about 18...e5 as a "safe", what do you think?

Just quickly look into it, so I hope I didn't miss something simple.

Thanks for the info!

Pity, the styles of Wang Hao and Ding Liren could have create some fire on board in a game against each other.

Hey leigh,

What do you mean by "but I don't think so" in relation to Wang Hao studying (which I also like; I respect that Wang Yue is a "positional" player and definitely have to check out that game another user is praising above, but he seems not to win enough games and therefore strong tournaments) ? Are you doubting it or did you just forget the first half of the sentence? ;)

What do you think of Yifan's performance here? Many rather "normal" draws. I would have really liked to see her in Gibraltar. She used to often go wrong and falter against stronger players (the one loss against Ni Hua here doesn't count, that was an endgame-blunder in time-trouble; I'm a bit annoyed though Ni Hua played an absolutely equal endame on an on because of time trouble of the opponent); you think the performance here could be a sign she's getting a bit more solid and less tactically over-confident or was she just not that motivated? I'm asking because I follow her games, but you seem to follow them more than me.

Thanks for the tip. I had to check a few times before believing that Wang Yue was the one playing 1.e4. I should probably add that he is my last favourite player, as I (used to !?) consider him the most boring player by far of the chess elite.
To me game deserves a place in any modern book of strategic masterpieces. It reminded me of those Karpovian works that after running trough them you keep wondering: where did the opponent go wrong?
In these games we get to appreciate moves like 17.Nf3 (connect it with white’s 21st move), which otherwise couldn’t ever make sense to a lesser mind like mine.
Seriously, where did Zhao Jun go wrong? Remember that we are in the most significant opening against 1.e4.In the 9th move ….h6 looks more critical, and certainly he shouldn’t have allowed 19.h6, but wasn’t he somehow losing anyway? What is black’s plan? What’s he doing on the board?
Regards,
Adolfo.

the second Ding Liren Diagram photo appears to be wrong (a duplicate of the first) instead of the intended one.

1. Ding, Liren was born on 24 Oct, 1992. He got first Championship On 6 June 2009, at the age of 17.
2. The man in the second picture behind Ding, Liren, is Hou, Yifan's father.
3. Wang Hao, who is the strongest chess player in China from view of my point, didn't take part in this championship due to the busy school. but I don't think so.
4. I used to go over all Yifan's game before she took the world championship. I like her game. I was going to write a book for myself named 'the road to the world championship'. but she got it too early, broke my plan.
5. Zhang is a sweet girl, i like her very much,but not watch many of her games.

Wang Hao is now a student in Beijing Univeristy, that is why he did not turn up in this game

Don't miss Game 18. Anm incredible positional domination by Wang Yue!.

It isn't nearly as bad as Chessbase still having a 2009 photo of Ding Liren and Shen Yang in their report, with the caption 'The 2011 Chinese national champions DIng Liren and Zhang Xiaowen'.

Right, somehow forgot. Game now added.

Incredible attacking play by Zhao Jun in the Zhao Jun-Xiu Deshun game. 16.Bxd6 !!! (yes,3 exclamation marks) is probably on of the best moves played this year.Even my Houdini could not see it (first thinking it was a blunder) and could not provide an adequate defense.Human chess still rules!

Ding Liren beat all the players known in the west but one: Wang Hao. Anybody knows why he decided not to take part? The article doesn't mention him at all.

Pity by the way Ruan Lufei didn't play in the women's section, but as we know chess is just a side-thing for her, probably she was busy with her studies.

I could not find this amazing game in viewer. Btw, these Chinese names are very similar. :)

If Hou Yifan played in the women section, undoubtedly she will win the women title since her performance is much better than all the players in the women section.