Chinese Chess League Tournament

Each team in the league is allowed to register seven Chinese players and an unlimited number of foreign players. However, compared to European Leagues there are only a few foreign players who start for Chinese teams.

At the end of last week rounds five to seven of the current season were played and after seven round the team of Shanghai, which plays with Ni Hua and Ju Wenjun, leads the table.

The rating differences between the various teams are sometimes huge though this does not necessarily reflect the real strength of the players, but is partly due to the fact that a lot of Chinese players are underrated because they do not have a lot of opportunities to play in international tournaments against non-Chinese players.

The following game between the unknown 18-year old Liu Manli (Elo 2007) and WGM Tan Zhongyi (2509), who has lots of international tournament experience, was played in the match between Chongqing against Guangdong. It shows how important it is to know your openings well. In this game one player was well prepared while the other did not really seem to know the theory of the line she was playing. This might have tempted her to try a combination that thoroughly backfired. However, in this case, the nominally weaker player was the dominant one.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Qe2 7.Be3 Qc7 8.a3 7…Bb4 7…Qc7 8.f4 Bb4 9.Bd2 Bxc3 10.bxc3 d6 11.g4 b6 12.Bg2 Bb7 13.g5 Nd7 14.h4 Na5 15.Nxa5 bxa5 16.Rb1 Nc5 17.h5 0-0 18.g6 h6 19.gxf7+ Qxf7 20.0-0 Rae8 21.c4 Ba6 22.Bxa5 Rc8 23.Bb4 Rfd8 24.Rf2 Nd7 25.Bxd6 Bxc4 26.Qf3 Nf6 27.Be5 Bxa2 28.Ra1 Bc4 29.f5 Qxh5 30.Qxh5 Nxh5 31.Rxa7 Rf8 32.Bh3 Rce8 33.Rc7 Rc8 34.Rxc8 Rxc8 35.fxe6 Re8 36.Bg4 g6 37.Bxh5 gxh5 38.Rg2+ 8.Bd2 0-0 9.a3 Bxc3 9…Be7 10.0-0-0 d5 10.Bxc3 e5 11.0-0-0 Rd8 12.Rd6 Nd4? 12…Qc7 13.Rxf6 gxf6 14.Qg4+ Kf8 15.Qh4 d6 16.Qxf6 Be6 17.f4 12…Ne8? 13.Ba5 Nxd6 14.Bxb6 axb6 15.Qd3 Ne8 16.Qe3 Nf6 17.Qxb6 Nxe4 18.Bb5 Re8 19.Rd1 Nf6 13.Rxd4 13.Rxb6? Nxe2+ 14.Bxe2 axb6 15.Bxe5 Nxe4 13…exd4 14.Ba5 d3 15.Qxd3 Qe6 15…Qxf2 16.Bxd8 Qe1+ 17.Qd1 Qxd1+ 18.Kxd1 Nxe4-+ 16.Bxd8 Ng4 17.Qd2 d5 18.exd5 Qe8 19.Bh4 Bf5 20.Bd3 1–0

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