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🏆 Chinese Chess League (2017)

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
Played in various locations in China 18 April - 5 December 2017. Crosstable: ... [more]

Player: Yuxiang Fang

 page 1 of 1; 21 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Y Wan vs Y Fang  1-0612017Chinese Chess LeagueC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
2. Y Fang vs Y Wen  ½-½332017Chinese Chess LeagueD43 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
3. X Xu vs Y Fang  ½-½422017Chinese Chess LeagueD43 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
4. Y Fang vs Ding Liren 0-1362017Chinese Chess LeagueA37 English, Symmetrical
5. C Dai vs Y Fang  0-1502017Chinese Chess LeagueC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
6. Yan Fang vs Y Fang  ½-½412017Chinese Chess LeagueC47 Four Knights
7. Y Fang vs S P Sethuraman  0-1542017Chinese Chess LeagueA41 Queen's Pawn Game (with ...d6)
8. C Zeng vs Y Fang  1-0522017Chinese Chess LeagueC59 Two Knights
9. Y Fang vs Q Ma  ½-½412017Chinese Chess LeagueE04 Catalan, Open, 5.Nf3
10. Y Fang vs R Yu  ½-½302017Chinese Chess LeagueD14 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation
11. J Zhou vs Y Fang  1-0422017Chinese Chess LeagueD54 Queen's Gambit Declined, Anti-Neo-Orthodox Variation
12. Y Fang vs Z Zhang  1-0662017Chinese Chess LeagueB13 Caro-Kann, Exchange
13. Y Wen vs Y Fang  ½-½362017Chinese Chess LeagueA06 Reti Opening
14. S Lu vs Y Fang  ½-½372017Chinese Chess LeagueC24 Bishop's Opening
15. Y Fang vs Y Wang  0-1392017Chinese Chess LeagueD39 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin, Vienna Variation
16. Y Fang vs Y Wang  ½-½422017Chinese Chess LeagueA45 Queen's Pawn Game
17. H Wang vs Y Fang  1-0322017Chinese Chess LeagueC58 Two Knights
18. Y Fang vs W Zhou  ½-½302017Chinese Chess LeagueE10 Queen's Pawn Game
19. R Gao vs Y Fang  ½-½332017Chinese Chess LeagueC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
20. Y Fang vs Grischuk  ½-½192017Chinese Chess LeagueE54 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System
21. C Lin vs Y Fang  ½-½332017Chinese Chess LeagueC67 Ruy Lopez
 page 1 of 1; 21 games  PGN Download 
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Fang wins | Fang loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
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May-24-17  waustad: Ju Wenjun's loss today against
Zhang Lanlin is hard to grasp. The site where I followed the game didn't have time's posted, so I don't know if that was an issue, but she took a probably winning postiion to a dead lost one in one move against an opponent rated over 500 elo lower. Ouch.
May-24-17  cro777: Zhang Lanlin (2067) - Ju Wenun (2594)

Position after 59.Qb4+


click for larger view

Here, Ju Wenjun was winning by simply playing 59...Qd6.

Instead she played 59...Qc5?? losing the rook (and the game) after 60.Qxd2. It was probably an oversight.

And that was not all. With this loss Ju Wenjun's team Shanghai, the defending champion, lost 2-3 to the Shandong chess team.

http://s.imsa.cn/cmsa_cms/uploads/a...

(Ju Wenjun in the game against Zhang Lanlin)

May-24-17  cro777: The second leg (Rounds 5-7) of the Chinese Chess League is taking place from 23-25 May in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, Lanxi Lan Lake.

http://s.imsa.cn/cmsa_cms/uploads/a...

(A beautiful natural scenery of the Lan Lake tourist resort)

http://s.imsa.cn/cmsa_cms/uploads/a...

http://s.imsa.cn/cmsa_cms/uploads/a...

12 teams are competing in a double round robin tournament (22 rounds). Each match is played over five boards, with women playing on two boards.

After 6 rounds, the convincing leader is the Chongqing chess team with a perfect score (12 points) ahead of the Tianjin team and Beijing team with 8 points.

The Chongqing team, with GM Zhou Weiqi (2607) on the top board, is particularly strong on women's boards with GM Tan Zhongyi (the current women's World champion) and GM Lei Tingie (the current women's Chinese champion):

http://s.imsa.cn/cmsa_cms/uploads/a...

http://s.imsa.cn/cmsa_cms/uploads/a...

May-25-17  Sokrates: Thanks, <cro777>, for sharing your knowledge. To me, places, teams, and somne players are quite unknown, so I really need to be enlightend.
May-25-17  JimNorCal: cro777, do any teams have foreign guests? Some sites list Europeans among the lists of team members
May-25-17  cro777: <JimNorCal> Yes, some teams have foreign players. For instance, GMs Vladimir Malakhov (Russia), Ivan Cheparinov and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) are playing for the Tianjin chess team.

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr275...

May-25-17  JimNorCal: Puzzling they would bring in outsiders when the point of the League matches must be to develop talent ...
May-25-17  cro777: It is an opportunity for young Chinese players to meet foreign grandmaters.
May-25-17  waustad: If it is like other seasons, this is just the start. I remember last year had over 20 rounds.
May-25-17  cro777: This is one of the longest running leagues of its kind. Twelve teams are competing in 22 rounds (from April to December).

All the best Chinese players regularly participate.

Ding Liren has joined his chess team from Zhejiang in the seventh round.

May-25-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: <Google's DeepMind AlphaGo artificial intelligence has defeated the world's number one Go player Ke Jie.>

have computer programs conquered the last game that humans could win?

<http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-...>

May-25-17  fisayo123: <All the best Chinese players regularly participate.>

Do they even have a choice in the matter?

If I was Ding, I'll be looking to protect my rating for a bit instead of hopping over to play a 7th round after just competing in a tough event.

May-25-17  botvinnik64: ...but Yifan is not playing...has she revoked her Chinese citizenship?
May-25-17  Sokrates: I assume the Chinese chess federation has a certain control over all the Chinese players, but I have no evidence to support that assumption. To what extend are the players allowed to act on their own free will? Can Hou Yifan play in tournaments of her own choice and preference? Perhaps <cro777> has information about that. I admit a certain measure of western prejudice when it comes to China, and I'd only be happy, if they were wrong.
May-25-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sally Simpson: "Do they even have a choice in the matter?"

Yes, freedom of choice harboured with a carrot.

The Chinese Chess League is professional, the players will be getting paid to represent a team and I assume the higher the rating the more....(what's the Chinese currency these days....) Chinese Euros they will earn.

May-25-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Are those Chinese Euros redeemable in Piccadilly?
May-25-17  botvinnik64: chess bomb.com has games through the 7th round
May-25-17  dumbgai: Sethuraman and Dzagnidze both lost to Chinese players rated 400+ points lower. There are some ringers in the Chinese league.
May-25-17  cro777: <All the best Chinese players regularly participate.>

Top Chinese players are chess professionals playing for the best Chinese chess teams (Division A of the Chinese Chess League). That's why their duty is to play for their teams in the Chinese Chess League (the longest running league, 22 rounds, from April to September).

Wei Yi, who turned professional when he was only 12 years old and began to play chess fulltime (seven hours of chess training each day, combined with physical training) in December 2011 , is an illustrative example. As a boy he attended the Primary school in Wuxi, one of the bases of the Chinese Chess Association with excellent trainers and students. The Jiangsu Province chess team was looking for a new player for the Chinese Chess League and GM Xu Jun came to his school and asked for a young player with good potential, and they recommended him. Wei Yi thus joined the Jiangsu Province chess team (he was born in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province) and got a regular salary. At the ongoing 2017 Chinese Chess League he is still playing for the Jiangsu chess team. Hou Yifan also used to play for the same team, but she now has an independent career.

Wei Yi, when he started to play for the Jiangsu chess team (they called him "Meng Meng Da", which is used to describe people who are cute):

http://n.sinaimg.cn/transform/20151...

Wei Yi playing for the Jiangsu chess team at the 2017 Chinese Chess League:

http://down3.qipai.org.cn/group1/M0...

May-25-17  cro777: Generally, the career of the top players is carefully planned (and fully supported) by the Chinese Chess Association.

Some of them combine the professional chess career with university studies. An example is Ding Liren who is going to graduate this summer at the Peking University Law School. After graduation he will be fully focused on chess and we may expect great results from him in the future.

Ding Liren playing for the Zhejiang chess team at the 2017 Chinese Chess League:

http://down3.qipai.org.cn/group1/M0...

May-26-17  Sokrates: Many thanks again, <cro777> for your insight.

A question I would kindly ask you - when you use the word "professional" in this context, does it mean: being on a sort of payrole of the CCA/the state? or: being paid by the prices they may gain by winning tournaments etc.? A third way would be: financed by sponsors, state-owned or private. In the western sense of being a professional no state directly pays the player.

<... Hou Yifan also used to play for the same team, but she now has an independent career. ...> Does this mean that Hou is free to join or reject her participation in any tournament, since she provides her own income.

I am NOT having a political agenda here, since there are pros and cons for both being economical independent and being supported by your state.

Thanks in advance.

May-26-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: I wonder why Ding would go to law school, if he's going to continue on as a professional chessplayer? Is there much demand for a 40 year old entry level lawyer in China?
May-26-17  cro777: <Sokrates> Being "professional" in this context means: being on a sort of payroll, mainly of the chess team they are playing for. Besides, there are sponsors, prizes etc.

As far as How Yifan is concerned, I have no precise information, but I think that she is pretty independent in choosing tournaments, coaches etc. Of course, she has always had support from the Chinese Chess Association.

The Chinese Chess Association has already achieved three out of four main goals: China has the world women's champion, the world team champion and the olympic champion.

Their main long range goal is to have the world (absolute) champion. At the moment they are mainly investing in the three musketeers: Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi and Wei Yi.

May-26-17  cro777: <HeMateMe: I wonder why Ding would go to law school, if he's going to continue on as a professional chessplayer?>

Fish or bear’s paw … or both?

Ding Liren is definitely going to continue on as a professional chess player. His goal is to become a world champion candidate. He admitted that it was very difficult to play top level chess and, at the same time, successfully study at the university.

As the most recent example, after winning the FIDE Grand Prix in Moscow he rushed back to Beijing for some administrative stuff at the law school. An then immediately he had to travel to Lanxi to join his team at the Chinese Chess League. (He got a new nickname "aircraft carrier").

His opponent in the seventh round of the Chinese Chess League was GM Ma Qun (2637):

http://s.imsa.cn/cmsa_cms/uploads/a...

Ding Liren achieved a slightly better position after the opening but at the end he was forced to save the draw in a rook endgame:

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/201...

"You can't have both fish and bear's paw" is a popular Chinese figure of speech. In order to get something, you have to sacrifice something else. (A fish dish is an indispensible part of every Chinese family’s New Year’s Eve dinner. Bear's paw was a high-grade food in the past).

May-26-17  Sokrates: Many thanks, <cro777> for your response, which clarifies a lot for me.

I think it's an honorable task for every country to promote and encourage young players to advance in chess. Chess is an excellent training for the brain, and it should be integrated in public schools all over the world. Besides being effective it is extremely inexpensive and easy to implement - likely some of the reasons why the Soviets promoted it so intensively.

However, it will become contra-productive, if it later becomes a restriction for the super talents - like the Soviets did erratically with players they didn't fancy momentarily. If they allow Hou Yifan, Ding Liren and their likes to blossom an prosper freely, they will gain so much more.

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