Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 1:01PM He hasn't broken into the 2700 club yet, but Ding Liren is showing himself to be a force in Chinese chess. His impressive 8-3 score left him a point ahead of Yu Yangyi, a point and a half ahead of Ni Hua and two full points above Wang Yue in the 2012 Chinese Championship. Hou Yifan also participated, but finished with a disappointing 5-6 score. (TWIC coverage here.)
Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 11:02AM It may be a little early for women's world champion Hou Yifan to take on long, long-time women's #1 Judit Polgar, but the 18-year-old has been closing the gap and even managed to defeat her prestigious rival about a month or so ago. So they will play an eight-game match starting in China starting September 26: four classical games and then four rapid games.
One would expect Polgar to be a pretty big favorite, but if Hou's performances in her match with Humpy Koneru and in the tournaments at Gibraltar and Reykjavik are representative and not deviations from the mean, then if Polgar isn't in good form it will be anyone's match. Either way it should be an entertaining contest, and it's a significant landmark in women's chess that after more than 20 years Polgar considers it worthwhile to compete in a women's-only event (even if it's just with one other woman).
HT: Brian Karen
***UPDATE***
Apparently this was just made up. Judit Polgar tweeted this: "Yifan vs.Polgar officially announced? Well, find it strange that I don’t know about it, never signed anything.So, completely FALSE!" She offers a longer reply on the news section of her website:
Chess websites presented it as BREAKING NEWS that a match between Judit and woman World Champion Hou Yifan had officially announced.
Breaking News!
GM Hou Yifan vs. GM Judit Polgar Match in Sept. 26th - Oct. 2nd 2012 in China.
Probably 8 games (4 classical and 4 rapid)
The news is FALSE! JP at the moment is spending time with her sisters in Lubbock, Texas and never agreed to such match.
Although there were negotiations when Judit was in China for the World Team Championship last year, an agreement was not made, and Judit has not been approached by the Chinese side since then. She surely has never signed any kind of contract regarding this match. If there is a real determination for such a historic clash, than she waits to hear about it in an appropriate way. Until then she just enjoys time with her family!
Drat.
Hou Yifan, Judit Polgar Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 4:54PM The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival didn't quite finish with the full fairy tale ending, but it was pretty close. Hou Yifan entered the last round with a half-point lead over her closest pursuers, and her reward was a game with second-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. They drew after a full and complicated fight, and that gave several other players the chance to catch up with 8/10.
The only one to succeed was Nigel Short, who defeated Krishnan Sasikiran with Black in a Modern Benoni. It was a gutsy choice that paid off (literally!), and after that it was on to a two game blitz (10 minutes + 5 seconds per move) tiebreak match. Short won the first game - convincingly - in a Grand Prix Attack, and he probably could have won the second game as well, but was content to allow Hou to draw by perpetual check.
So Short took first, but all the same it was an incredible performance by the 17-year-old women's world champion. She finished with a 2872 TPR, going +4 -1 =2 against 2700s (and beating everyone below that as well). Michael Adams, Mamedyarov, Viktor Bologan and Emil Sutovsky finished half a point behind, and then another 17 players (including Judit Polgar) finished with 7 points apiece.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 11:55PM Hou Yifan's performance at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival has been nothing short of amazing. In round 9, the penultimate round, Hou defeated Alexey Shirov with Black in a Poisoned Pawn Najdorf, and in the process took a clear lead with 7.5/9. That was her fourth victory over a 2700-rated player in the event (previous victims were Zoltan Almasi, Judit Polgar and Le Quang Liem) and gives her a TPR of 2892!
Still, the job is not done. There are five players within half a point entering the last round: Michael Adams, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Nigel Short, Krishnan Sasikiran and Viktor Bologan; and although Hou will have White she's getting the second-seeded Mamedyarov as her final hurdle. A draw clinches a tie for first, and a win would give her clear first and possibly the greatest tournament performance by a female chess player ever; indeed, one of the all-time great performances in an open event, period.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 1:31AM After 8 of 10 rounds, Michael Adams and women's world champion Hou Yifan are tied for first in the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. Hou managed to beat Le Quang Liem in a tactical slugfest, while Adams drew second-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Hou and Adams are half a point ahead of 14 other players, including Alexei Shirov, the winner of a spectacular game against Artur Yusupov that may well be my ChessVideos show this week.
Friday, November 25, 2011 at 1:29AM The title sounds like a question, but it's also an answer. Hou Yifan drew comfortably with Humpy Koneru in game eight of their women's world championship match, and that was good enough to end the contest two games ahead of schedule. With three wins and five draws, Hou scored a very convincing 5.5-2.5 victory, and retains her title. Congratulations!
Meanwhile, over at the Tal Memorial the "dream" scenario of a five-way tie for first (or larger!) is finished thanks to Levon Aronian's win over Peter Svidler. Aronian is now in clear first entering the last round with a +2 score of 5-3. Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi are half a point behind, with Anand at 4-4, Kramnik and Svidler at 3.5-4.5 and Gelfand and Nakamura riding the caboose with 3 points apiece.
The last round pairings are Nepomniachtchi-Aronian, Karjakin-Ivanchuk, Nakamura-Carlsen, Gelfand-Anand (a preview of next year's championship match) and Svidler-Kramnik. The last round will start two hours earlier than normal, which means 4 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CET.
Hou Yifan Monday, November 21, 2011 at 12:41PM Thanks to her win in game 6, Hou Yifan needs just three draws in the remaining four games to retain her title. It could have been different today, as Humpy Koneru found a promising pawn sac against the Ragozin. In return she had two very strong bishops, and soon she regained the pawn while maintaining her other advantages. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't figure out what to do with her bishops once she regained the pawn, and soon her pleasant edge transformed into a lost position. Over the next dozen or so moves Koneru completely lost the thread, moving her bishops back and forth without accomplishing anything, while Hou made serious progress by posting her bishop on the terrific c6 square and seizing control over the e-file with her rooks. Soon Hou regained her extra pawn, and then, in a position that was already pretty bad, White uncorked back-to-back blunders with 36.Bc3?? Ne4 (36...Ng4! was more accurate) 37.Rge1??, giving Hou a choice between two forced mates. She chose the faster one, starting with 37...Ng3+, and after 38.hxg3 Rh5+ White resigned in view of 39.Kg1 Rxg2+ 40.Kf1 Rh1#.
It was good defense by the champion, but a surprisingly bad middlegame by Koneru, who just drifted away despite her excellent novelty and a big lead on the clock. Can she recover, or will this be the third match she loses to her Chinese rival in a world championship competition?*
Event site here.
* Hou defeated Koneru in the semi-finals of the knockout championship events in 2008 and 2010.
Hou Yifan, Humpy Koneru Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 1:07PM And again, one where challenger Humpy Koneru had the better chances, despite playing Black. Or maybe because of it, thanks to a very interesting novelty. Hou Yifan played the 5.Nc3 line against the Petroff, and after 5...Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Be3 0-0 8.Qd2, Humpy uncorked the excellent 8...Qe8! After 9.0-0-0 Qa4 (the point!) Black's attacking possibilities at least as strong as White's, and just a few moves later the champion swapped queens and headed for a draw. There was some danger she wouldn't succeed, but after sweating it out to move 42 she saved her half point. 1-1.
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 10:53PM World champion Hou Yifan had a very difficult time today against Humpy Koneru. With White, the challenger enjoyed a serious initiative for a long time in an Open Catalan, but couldn't quite push the champ over the edge. Only a draw, but it was still a psychologically promising start for the Indian grandmaster.
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 12:31AM Women's World Champion Hou Yifan will have the black pieces in game one (of ten) against her challenger, Humpy Koneru. Play begins today - Monday - at 3 p.m. local time in Tirana, Albania. (That's also 3 p.m. CET; 9 a.m. ET in the USA.) Official site here.