ChineseChessUSA

Xu Yinchuan bounced back from some disappointing results in 2008 to dominate in 2009, capping it off with a first place win in the “Nine Towns” Cup,  defeating Hongzhi in the final match 2 games to 1, not to mention pocketing a cool half million RMB for his efforts.

Xu YinChuan ends 2009 with a big win

Final Position. If ...E5-3, then P6=5 mate!

Xu accepts the first prize of 500,000 RMB

The tournament was played on a central stage in front of a huge audience with special running commentary by Hu RongHua.

Hu Ronghua playing Santa Claus

Underdog LiHong Jia reached the semifinals today with a big win over defending champion JiangChuan. Tomorrow he plays Xu YinChuan in the semifinals. ZhaoGuoRong also defeated ZhaoXinXin to advance, as well as HongZhi. The event, which for the first time included non-Chinese participants (Germany’s Stephan Bradler and Jouni Ramo of Finland), is providing a record-breaking prize fund, the winner getting ¥500,000 and a trophy made of pure gold!

Xu YinChuan won his last round game while Lu Qin lost piece after piece in his final game against Wang Bin. Interestingly, both games were won by black! Congratulations goes to Xu for going undefeated for 11 rounds! MiaoLiMing was 3rd on tiebreak over Liu DaHua, Jiang Chuan, and Wang Bin.

With one round remaining in the 44th Hao Kun Cup, Lu Qin is now leading the Men’s Individual Championship after winning 7 games and drawing 3. Xu YinChuan started strong with 5 straight wins, then drew with Lu Qin in Round 6. Lu Qin is paired in the Dec 6 game against GM Wang Bin.

UPDATE: Xu YinChuan just defeated ZhuangYuTing minutes ago, so I will update the final result after the LuQin vs. Wang Bin game!

Zhao XinXin went undefeated for 9 rounds to win the 11th HengFeng Cup in Xintai City, Shandong Province. His score of 6 wins and 3 draws (one to fellow USA-East team member Mou HaiQin!) gave him clear first with 15 points. He played his usual brand of uncompromising xiangqi, including a scorching win over Vietnam’s Nguyen ThanhBao (to be covered in a later post) in round 5.

Mr. Zhao was a pre-tournament favorite, and I for one was pulling for him….if anyone deserves the top spot, he does. “They get younger every year”, said Jenehou Chan, wife of USA East team captain Patrick Chan.

I caught a picture of him at the elevator, minutes after his final game. A very happy camper, indeed. Congratulations, Zhao!

You YingQin also went undefeated, winning the women’s title, with a final score of 6 wins and one draw, and edging out Vietnam’s Ngo Lan Huong by half a point.

Last April Wang Yang won the 2009 Albert Panan National Xiangqi Cup Classic against the elite of the xiangqi world. Along the way, Zhao XinXin bumped 2nd seed Xu YinChuan out of the tournament in round 4 with the following quick knockout.

Jiang Chuan of Beijing makes it looks easy in this game played May 26, 2009.

Lu Qin delivers some mighty blows in this exciting game from the 1st HanXin Cup International a couple weeks ago.