Monday 11 April 2016

THE ASIAN NATIONS CUP TOURNAMENT

WEI YI PLAYS ANOTHER KING HUNT GAME!

Last week India won the Asian Nations Cup, ahead of China. The young Chinese GM Wei Yi played another king hunt game, but dropped below 2700 in the live ratings.
The Asian Nations Cup, held for the 19th time this year, saw a record number of 22 participation chess federations. It was held 28 March-5 April at the Al Bustan Novotel in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).
The men’s section was a 9-round Swiss with teams consisting of four boards and one reserve player. The women's section was a round-robin with ten teams. In both sections China was the defending champion, having won twice in a row (in 2012 and 2014). 
The tournament saw 28 grandmasters, 10 International Masters, 19 FIDE Masters and 3 Women FMs. The highest rated participants were Bu Xiangzhi (China, 2724), Wang Yue (China, 2718), Wei Yi (China, 2714), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam, 2709) and Baskaran Adhiban (India, 2663).
Even without its strongest players (e.g. no Ding Liren, Li Chao, Yu Yangyi or Wang Hao) the Chinese team was still the favorite. In the end they finished second though, behind India and ahead of Kazakhstan. India was playing with GMs B. Adhiban, S.P. Sethuraman, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Krishnan Sasikiran and Deep Sengupta, so without Vishy Anand and Pentala Harikrishna.
The two teams met in the fifth round and it was India who won. Bu Xiangzhi won the gold medal on board one, but lost this important game as White to Baskaran Adhiban. It's hard to believe that he just blundered away his d-pawn and then his a-pawn, isn't it?
The winning team with L-R captain R.B. Ramesh, Krishnan Sasikiran, Deep Sengupta, S.P. Sethuraman, Baskaran Adhiban und Vidit Santosh Gujrathi. | Photo courtesy of Asian Chess.
Wang Yue leveled the score on board two with a great game. He showed that it is definitely possible to play for a win as Black in the Petroff from many positions. The knight is an absolute hero in this game. Bobby Fischer scored some famous wins on the side of the bishop in this type of endgame, but he would have preferred Black as well probably! 
However, China's rising star Wei Yi didn't have a very good day and was outplayed, as White, on board 3 vs Vidit whereas Sasikiran and Lu drew their game on board 4.
A much nicer game (which made the headline, after all) by Wei Yi was the following, from two days earlier. You'll surely remember his great win vs Lazaro Bruzon from the Danzhou tournament last summer? Well, yet again he dragged the enemy king towards him in his game with Dao Thien Hai:
Wei, Yi (2714) vs. Dao, Thien Hai (2481)
Asian Nations Chess Cup | Abu Dhabi | Round 3.3 | 30 Mar 2016 | 1-0
1. e4c52. Nf3d63. d4cxd44. Nxd4Nf65. Nc3a66. Bg5e67. f4Nbd78. Qe2!?(The main line goes 8. Qf3)8... Qc79. O-O-OBe7(Wei Yi himself played the more popular 9... b5in this position last year: 10. a3Be711. g4O-O12. Bh4Rb813. g5Ne814. f5Nc515. f6Bd816. e5b417. axb4Rxb418. exd6Qa5Wei,Y (2721)-Vachier Lagrave,M (2723) Leon 2015 )10. g4h6(10... b5)11. Bh4Already here it's not so easy for Black.
11... g5(11... Nxe412. Qxe4Bxh413. Nf5)12. fxg5Nh7A standard trick, but usually Black has the tempo winning .. .Ne5 as well (with the white queen on f3).
13. Bg3!The best way to deal with the situation. The bishop has done its job on the h4-d8 diagonal.
13... hxg5Already possible. Always a bad sign!
(13... Bxg5+14. Kb1Ne515. h4Be716. g5is no fun either. )14. Nf5!exf5(14... Ne515. Nxe7Qxe716. h4)15. Nd5Qb8(As it turns out, all this had been played before already 35 years ago: 15... Qd816. exf5Nb6?!17. Nxb6Qxb618. Bxd61-0 Fedorowicz,J (2435)-Kuligowski,A (2450) Ramsgate 1981 )16. exf5Ne517. Nxe7Kxe718. Rxd6!Not so difficult this time, but still rather spectacular.
18... Qxd619. Bxe5Qd520. Bg2Qxa2And now the finishing touch:
21. Bd6+!(21. Bxh8+also wins, but the text moves leads to a forced mate. )21... Kxd622. Rd1+Kc723. Qe5+Kb624. Qd4+Ka5(24... Kb525. Bf1+)25. Qc5+b526. Qc7+
China (in round 4) with L-R Bu Xiangzhi, Wang Yue, Wei Yi and Zhou Jianchao.
In general, Wei Yi's tournament was rather disappointing. He scored a 2543 performance rating over eight games (5.0/8) with three wins, one loss and four draws (all against lower rated players). His live rating has now dropped just below 2700.

2016 Asian Nations Cup | Final Standings

Rk.SNoTeamGames+=-TB1TB2
12India98101726
21China97111527,5
33Kazakhstan96211423
44Iran96031223,5
58Uzbekistan95131123
67Mongolia94231020,5
76Bangladesh95041020,5
89UAE 195041018,5
95Vietnam9414920,5
1011Kyrgyzstan9414919,5
1110Iraq9333918,5
1212Lebanon9414917,5
1316Afghanistan9414917
1414Oman9414915,5
1515Sri Lanka9324815
1613Jordan9405813,5
1717Palestine9315716
1819UAE 29315714
1920Nepal9054511,5
2018Kuwait9216511,5
2122Tajikistan9036313
2221UAE 39027210,5

In the women's section the Chinese team also dropped some match points (here the match with India finished in 2-2, and they even lost to Uzbekistan) but they won gold anyway. 

2016 Asian Nations Cup (Women) | Final Standings

Rg.Team12345678910Wtg1Wtg2
1ChinaphpfCo1l0.png1½323½3½3½4441529
2Uzbekistan2½phpfCo1l0.png102½32½4341422,5
3Kazakhstan13phpfCo1l0.png2½21½2½443½1324
4India241½phpfCo1l0.png1½2½24441225,5
5Vietnam½1½22½phpfCo1l0.png1½343½41122,5
6Mongolia½12½1½2½phpfCo1l0.png1½4441021,5
7Iran½1½1½212½phpfCo1l0.png444921
8UAE - 20000000phpfCo1l0.png22½34,5
9Sri Lanka0100½002phpfCo1l0.png225,5
10UAE - 100½00001½2phpfCo1l0.png14
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  • Source: CHESS.com
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