Wei Yi stars as China – Russia match begins

A bar brawl of a win for 16-year-old Wei Yi and an impressive grind by Bu Xiangzhi gave the Chinese men a 3:2 lead after Day 1 of the 5-round China vs. Russia match in Ningbo. The Russian women managed to hit back with a 3:2 win of their own through Natalia Pogonina and Aleksandra Goryachkina, but it’s advantage China overall – they won the men’s and women’s blitz matches and only need a draw in the classical section.

China have stolen Russia’s thunder recently, winning the 2014 Olympiad and the 2015 World Team Championship, and in Wei Yi they have the hottest prospect in world chess. Russia still remains the country to beat, though, boasting 230 grandmasters to China’s 36 (and 519 international masters to China’s 32!). You couldn’t, therefore, ask for a more exciting match, and the current event has a great mix of youth and experience.

Team line-ups

Peter Svidler introduced the event during his Banter Blitz session on Saturday, noting that four of the players - everyone but Daniil Dubov - played for the same St. Petersburg team:

While Svidler and Vitiugov bring experience, Fedoseev and Dubov are numbers 3 and 4 on the latest FIDE junior rating list, while Matlakov is still only 24 years old.  

Svidler wasn't quite right about the Chinese team (never trust players to know the details of the events they play in! ), but it does feature the junior who is currently putting everyone else in the shade, Wei Yi. It also includes the current World Junior Champion Lu Shanglei and 21-year-old Yu Yangyi, the winner of the Qatar Masters and, most recently, the Capablanca Memorial. 

China have left out Danzhou hero Wang Yue and also their current no. 1 Ding Liren, who’s about to play a 4-game match against Boris Gelfand (we’ll be broadcasting it live on chess24).   

China dominate blitz matches

This event is trying out an idea that’s often been proposed but seldom tried – holding the “tiebreaker” first. If the classical Scheveningen match (each player plays each member of the opposing team once) ends in a draw then the winners will be the teams that won the warm-up blitz matches on 14 July. That was China, who won 26:24 in the men’s event and a surprising 28:22 in the women’s (you may not know the names well, but Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi both scored 8.5/10 against Russia’s finest!).

Perhaps the standout result in the blitz was that Daniil Dubov managed to beat Wei Yi with White and Black. Was that a good omen for Team Russia? Had they managed to find the antidote to the player everyone is beginning to consider a future World Champion?

Day One: A good start for the Chinese men and Russian women 

Well, maybe not quite yet! Fedoseev – Wei Yi may not have been a candidate for immortality, but it was a hugely enjoyable battle. 

Wei Yi played the Grünfeld and Vladimir Fedoseev remained true to his style, trusting in his tactical ability and what looked like an overwhelming attack:

Here Fedoseev first crossed the Rubicon, deciding not to delay his attack with 22.dxc5 but instead press on with 22.Nxg6!?. Wei Yi coolly accepted the challenge with 22…cxd4, knowing that if White couldn’t break through the central passed pawns would give him excellent winning chances. 

Fedoseev soon upped the stakes even further by splitting the board in two with 24.e5?! and you have to admit his attack looked impressive, here after 25.Qg5:

But Wei Yi rebuffed all the threats expertly, countering with 25.Qe2+ 26.Kg3 Rd7. He went on to force an exchange of queens and must have started to really enjoy himself when he knew it was over:

42…Rxg5! meant there was no longer any way to stop the d-pawn supported by Black’s bishop pair.

That win was nevertheless cancelled out by a powerful positional display by Matlakov against Lu Shanglei, while Peter Svidler held with a dogged performance on top board...

...and IM Wang Chen (2521) dug in very deep against Nikita Vitiugov (2734).

That was the final position of a game that featured a single exchange on move 15!

It all came down to Daniil Dubov’s encounter with Bu Xiangzhi. The “veteran” (29-year-old) Chinese player had the curious distinction of drawing all 9 of his games in the Danzhou Supertournament, but he managed to outplay his young opponent in a rook ending to score a first day victory for his team.

You can replay all the games by clicking below (you may want to right click and open a new tab):

The Russian women, though, restored their country’s honour. Russian Champion Valentina Gunina and newly-wed Alina Kashlinskaya drew their games, and even a loss for Olga Girya to Lei Tingjie couldn’t spoil the mood. Natalia Pogonina scored an impressive technical win as Black using a queenside pawn majority. 

Aleksandra Goryachkina did something very similar, though a little more flashy. The other 16-year-old potential future World Champion in the tournament kept things under control when you could forgive her for getting confused. Just try to work out what's going on here!

In the end the white king was left exposed to a mating attack and the Russian women took a 3:2 lead.

Round 2 starts at 9 am CEST. Don't miss all the action live here on chess24. You can also watch all the games in our free mobile apps:  

See also:

• Official website
• Results: Men | Women