Zhao XinXin wins World Championship of Chinese Chess

All Things Chess
1

XINTAI, SHANDONG PROVINCE, CHINA, 3 SEPTEMBER 2009:
Zhao Xinxin has won the World Championship of Xiangqi (Chinese Chess). The event was held from 28 August 2009 to 3 September 2009 in Xintai, Shandong Province, China, near Jinan.
Second was Nguyen Thanh Bao of Vietnam
Third was John Mou of USA East
Fourth was Zhao Gourong of China.

Other top finishers were Lay Chhay of Cambodia and Woo Wei Cheung of France

The Woman’s Section was won by You Yingqin of China.

The victory by Zhao Xinxin was no surprise as he was the favorite from the start. In the last round, he won a quick game against Woo Wei Cheung of France while his rivals cound only draw.

Former World Champion Zhao Gourong drew four games and won the rest which explained his relatively low result.

The big surprise was John Mou of Rigo Park, Queens, New York. Never previously had an American player finished so high. It was not even known that America had players of that level. John Mou won 20,000 renmenbei for his third place finish.

The second place finish by Nguyen Thanh Bao of Vietnam was not a surprise. Chinese Chess with a slight modification in the rules is the National Game of Vietnam and the top Vietnamese players are on the same level with the top Chinese players. Nguyen Thanh Bao is a young man with a good chance to be World Champion in the future.

Of some interest is the presence of Ye Rongguang, playing for The Netherlands. Ye Rongguang is an International Grandmaster of International Chess with a FIDE rating of 2461.

ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=8600015

He is one of the few players able to compete at the top levels of both games.

All of us present appreciate the finely run event, the excellent conditions, and the gracious hospitality of the hosts.

Many of us, including myself, are absolutely astonished and amazed at the tremendous changes and improvements that have taken place in China since the last time we were here. Among other things, there are new high-rise apartment complexes going up all over China as far as the eye can see.

Sam Sloan
in Xintai City, Shandong Province, China, near Jinan

2

I am still in Shenyang, China.

Last night, the Director of the Chess School in Shenyang, Mr. Liu Chao Ying, invited me to dinner, and brought along an eight year old boy who, he said, wanted to play me a game of chess.

I know enough to be wary of ten-year-old boys, but I feel I can usually handle an eight-year-old.

In the first game I was on the Black side of a Nimzo Indian Defense. As Black I found a standard Bxh2+ sacrifice, which is usually followed by Kxh2, Ng4+, Kg1, Qh4 followed by mate.

The little boy figured out that he cound not take my bishop and so played Kh1 but I still mated him.

After this game was played, we started our meal in the restaurant, but the little boy kept staring intently at the board. He retracted the last few moves and kept trying various defenses to see it he could have survived my attack.

Alas, he could not but I was impressed that the boy had remembered all the moves and could go back and keep trying.

So, we played another game. I was White in a Sicilian Defense. (I did not play any of my crazy lines against the little boy, so as not to corrupt him.) I do not know the name of this variation, but it went: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nb5 a6 6. Nd6+ Bxd6 7. Qxd6 Qf6 8. Qc7.

I knew that this line was good for White because Bobby Fischer had covered this line in a lecture series I took from him at the Marshall Chess Club in 1964. However, that was all I knew about this line and before long the little boy had won a pawn. Also, I had castled queen-side and he had a strong attack along the b and c files.

My position was close to lost but fortunately I swindled the kid and mated him.

In the third game, there was no doubt. I was Black this time and the kid played a Scotch Gambit. Very soon I mixed up my lines and was dead lost. I was three pawns down in an endgame. Meanwhile a Chinese-English translator had been provided who did not know how to play chess and she kept interfering in the game by telling the kid things that he obviously understood a lot better than she did.

This gave me the excuse I need in case I lost.

Fortunately, I buckled down. It would just not do to lose a game to an eight year old. I set a little trap and the kid fell right into it and I won again.

So I had won all three games and by now everybody had finished dinner.

The name of the kid is Wang Pei Ran. Write that down. He is the champion of Liaoning Province for his age group. (They did not tell me this until after the first two games were over and I realized that this was not just an ordinary eight year old and I asked about it.)

I do not know how he compares with 8-year-olds in America, but I can say with great confidence that he will be a master and possibly a grandmaster some day.

Tomorrow, before I leave for America, Mr. Liu says that he will bring me some more kids to play against. I am wondering if I will escape again.

Sam Sloan

3

Yesterday, I gave a simultaneous chess exhibition at the chess school in Shenyang. I played five boys, ages 8-10.

Actually, I did not do that well, winning three games and losing two.

I did not realize until after the games that these kids were thoroughly booked-up. I found that out when I tried to give a chess lecture, showing some basic opening lines, only to discover that these kids already knew all these lines, except that they did not know the Max Lange Attack. They did know the Fried Liver Attack.

Then I showed them a line that I knew that they did not know because I had invented it myself. They immediately played it back and showed that they had memorized it already.

One of the directors at the chess school suggested that I organize a friendship match. A bunch of kids from this school would go to America to play a match against the kids from a similar school in America. Then those kids would come to China to play a return match. This was their idea.

I am sorry to disappoint them but I fear that no school in America could give them a decent match. Perhaps a team from the entire USA could give them a good game but I do not think any one school could give them a contest.

By the way, the reason for my poor score of 3-2 was that I allowed some of the kids to have the White pieces. This was not a good idea knowing their extensive knowledge of the openings. The two games I lost were both games that I played Black. In both games I lost, they played the Scotch Gambit: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3 dxc3 5. Bc4 d5 6. Bxd5 cxb2 7. Bxb2.

I need to thank the director of the chess school, Liu Chao Ying, because he also extended my airplane ticket by eight days and paid my hotel bill for those eight days.

The address of the chess school is:

Railway Third Primary School
Jixiang 10
Heping District
Shenyang, China 110005

Sam Sloan

4

On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 1:13 AM, Marvin wrote:

Are the Chinese kids any good at chess?

The kids are quite good for their ages, which is 8-10. Their chess strength is in the range 1600-1700.

I lost two of the 5 games. This is an embarrassment. My excuse is I let two of the kids have the white pieces. The general rule is that the simultaneous giver is supposed to have White in all games. I did not take the kids seriously enough to enforce this rule.

Secondly, I did not require the kids to wait until I came to the board to make their move. This caused me to lose one game because I did not see what the kid had played and as a result I left a rook hanging. I decided to be gracious and a good sport and not to complain about this.

The two games I played with the Black pieces were the two games I lost. Both of those games were Scotch Gambits, which went 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3 dxc3 4. Bc4 cxb2 5. Bxb2 d5. Black is now a pawn ahead but White has an attack and I did not defend well.

I later found out that two of the kids do not live in Shenyang. They were from Qinhuangdao City in Hebei province, China. They had come by train with their parents that day just to play me. They took the train back right after the games had finished. We drove them to the train station. So, I was not playing just any five random kids. I was playing the best that Liaoning and Hebei provinces had to offer.

Sam Sloan

5

I have posted some pictures from the games at:
flickr.com/photos/43181281@N05/

Sam Sloan