Hainan Open 2016: Yu Yangyi dominates the Open

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 23/12/2016

A strong open tournament was held from 7 December to 16 December in the tourist Chinese town of Hainan Danzhou. While the tournament had two young 2700s as the top two seeds, the Indian contingent was spearheaded by Sandipan Chanda. We report on the most interesting chess moments with illustrations and more. Report.

Hainan Open 2016: Yu Yangyi dominates the Open

The 1st Hainan International Open was a nine-round swiss that came to close recently. The tournament was held in Danzhou on China’s Hainan Island. Yu Yangyi and Richard Rapport were the top seeds. Four players from India were competing.

The prize fund was $68,000, with $15,000 for the first place and $10,000 for the runner-up. The time control was 90 minutes for all moves, with a 30-second increment from move one.

Chinese GM Yu Yangyi (2729) displayed red-hot form and scored 8.0/9, a full point-and-half ahead of the rest of the pack.

Second-seeded Hungarian GM Richard Rapport (2717) struggled to reach 5.5/9.

Interestingly, one of the reasons why the Chinese Chess Association and the sports department was organizing such a strong tournament was to attract the international audience to the city of Danzhou, Hainan. They hope that this will bolster Hainan's international influence, visibility, and reputation.

This, in turn, will bolster Danzhou's tourism, real estate, and other tertiary sector industries, giving impetus to its economic development.

Back to the chess: the key reason to Yangyi's brilliant performance has been his ability to play energetically with the initiative.

Black to play

Yangyi, who is black, played the pawn break 30...e5!. After a series of forced moves, Yangyi had to find an accurate mating attack.

Black to play and mate! Can you find it?

[Event "1st Hainan Open 2016"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.11"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Hamitevici, Vladimir"]
[Black "Yu, Yangyi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D92"]
[WhiteElo "2477"]
[BlackElo "2729"]
[Annotator "Priyadarshan"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/Qp2prkp/4p1p1/3q4/3P1P2/P1RKP3/8/8 b - - 0 30"]
[PlyCount "13"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:09:08"]
[BlackClock "0:04:09"]

{[#]} 30... e5 $1 {60} 31. fxe5 {59} Qb5+ {0} 32. Ke4 {19} Qb1+ 33. Kd5 {4} e6+
{258} 34. Kxe6 {102} Qb5 $3 {19} (34... Qf5+ $4 35. Kd5 Qd7+ 36. Ke4 Qf5+ 37.
Kd5 $11) 35. Kd6 {78} Rd7+ {40} 36. Ke6 {26} Qd5# {0} 0-1

WGM Tan Zhongyi (2496) had a commendable event and scored 6.0/9 and took the fifth place.

Former World Champion GM Anna Ushenina had to leave the tournament midway.

GM Lu Shanglei could only finish eighth but he played some interesting games...

Black to play. How will you grab the initiative?

[Event "1st Hainan Open 2016"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.13"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Rapport, Jovana"]
[Black "Lu, Shanglei"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A40"]
[WhiteElo "2341"]
[BlackElo "2627"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2r1r1k1/pp3p1p/3p2p1/3P4/Q3N2q/3B4/Pb3PPP/1R2K2R b K - 0 19"]
[PlyCount "19"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:15:00"]
[BlackClock "0:04:12"]

{[#]} 19... b5 $1 {30} 20. Qd1 {330} (20. Qxb5 Rxe4+ $19) 20... Rxe4+ {0} 21.
Kf1 {386} Bd4 {0} 22. g3 {34} Qh3+ {210} 23. Kg1 {3} Re3 $1 {30} 24. Qd2 {128}
Rf3 {30} 25. Be4 {170} Bxf2+ 26. Qxf2 Rxf2 {60} 27. Kxf2 {10} Rc4 {30} 28. Bd3
{37} Rd4 {0} 0-1

White to play

[Event "1st Hainan Open 2016"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.07"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Lu, Shanglei"]
[Black "Zhu, Yi"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B11"]
[WhiteElo "2627"]
[BlackElo "2306"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2k1r3/B4ppp/1p2p3/2n5/1q4P1/R3Q2P/PP3P2/1K6 w - - 0 25"]
[PlyCount "11"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:04:17"]
[BlackClock "0:15:00"]

{[#]} 25. Bxb6 {90} Qxb6 {2} 26. Rc3 {30} Kd7 {7} 27. Qxc5 {150} Qxc5 28. Rxc5
{30} Rb8 {22} 29. a3 {90} Rb3 {63} 30. Rc3 {0} 1-0

The Art of playing with the Initiative...

Click above to study how to play with the initiative with GM Timur Gareyev in an hour of interactive video made up up four 15-minute clips and additional tests. For our Premium Members.

Yet to become a Premium Member? Become a Premium Member of ChessBase Account for a year for just Rs. 1499/- here.

GM Sandipan Chanda chilling out with Dutch GM Jan Werle during the rest day. Interestingly, this nine round tournament had a rest day where the players were taken around the tourist city of Danzhou.

Sandipan had a pleasant position with white but here he overpressed with 15.e4? What shot for black had he missed? Black to play.

[Event "1st Hainan Open 2016"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.08"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Sandipan, Chanda"]
[Black "Liu, Guanchu"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A80"]
[WhiteElo "2593"]
[BlackElo "2418"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r1b2rk1/pp2p1bp/6p1/1q1p1p2/1n1P1B2/1Q3N2/1PP1PPPP/3RKB1R w K - 0 15"]
[PlyCount "15"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:51:00"]
[BlackClock "0:45:00"]

{[#]} 15. e4 {150} (15. e3 $16 {And Sandipan could have fought for a win.})
15... Nd3+ {90 A beautiful shot that saves Black the game.} 16. Rxd3 {510} (16.
Bxd3 Qxb3 17. cxb3 fxe4 $17) 16... Qxb3 {30} 17. Rxb3 {30} fxe4 18. Be5 {30}
exf3 {0} 19. Bxg7 {30} Kxg7 {150} 20. gxf3 {30} Rf4 {90 And Black is the one
who can push here. But the bad bishoop vs good bishop combination means that
White has enough to hold.} 21. Re3 {30} Kf6 {150} 22. c3 {30 Black can still
play for a win here but...} 1/2-1/2

Huang Renjie, a talented Chinese youngster, is black here. But White has a way to simply get a winning position. White to play.

[Event "1st Hainan Open 2016"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.08"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Zhou, Jianchao"]
[Black "Huang, Renjie"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D35"]
[WhiteElo "2632"]
[BlackElo "2158"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "1q2r1k1/pp2bpp1/4nn1p/2rp4/7B/2NBPP2/PP4PP/1Q1R1R1K w - - 0 19"]
[PlyCount "4"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:34:00"]
[BlackClock "1:01:00"]

{[#]} 19. Bxf6 {30} Bxf6 {90} 20. Nxd5 {30 winning a pawn.} Qe5 {330 White
went on to win.} (20... Rxd5 21. Bh7+ Kh8 22. Rxd5 {wins exchange.}) 1-0

CM Bhakti Kulkarni (2286) scored 4.5/9.

IM Himal Gusain (2448) finished 13th, best among Indians, with 5.5/9.

Richard Rapport (2717) had a forgettable tournament chess-wise but he seems quite happy here with his wife, Serbia's WGM Jovana Rapport.

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2729	8,0	0,0	49,0	38,5
2	3	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2632	6,5	0,0	47,5	37,5
3	5	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	KAZ	2611	6,5	0,0	47,5	37,0
4	6	GM	Wen Yang	CHN	2607	6,0	0,0	52,0	40,0
5	13	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2496	6,0	0,0	49,5	38,5
6	29		Peng Xiongjian	CHN	2362	6,0	0,0	49,0	39,0
7	11	GM	Batchuluun Tsegmed	MGL	2521	6,0	0,0	48,5	36,5
8	4	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2627	6,0	0,0	46,0	36,0
9	21	IM	Xu Yi	CHN	2430	6,0	0,0	44,5	35,0
10	37		Li Yankai	CHN	2324	6,0	0,0	43,0	33,0
11	10		Xu Yinglun	CHN	2535	5,5	0,0	51,0	38,5
12	2	GM	Rapport Richard	HUN	2717	5,5	0,0	50,0	38,0
13	18		Gusain Himal	IND	2448	5,5	0,0	48,5	38,5
14	16	IM	Tsydypov Zhamsaran	RUS	2460	5,5	0,0	46,5	36,5
15	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2593	5,5	0,0	46,0	35,5

More...

The players during the excursion on the rest day.

Traditional welcome for all the players.

Chess has become an integral part of the Chinese schools and they are serious about becoming the absolute chess superpower.

Games in PGN