The chess match between the national teams or Russia and China will take place 1st-9th of July 2012 in Sankt Petersburg, Russia. This is a traditional match between the two countries, from the establishing in year 2001, the matches took place in 2001 in Shanghai, 2004 in Moscow, 2006 in Argun, 2007 in Nizhni Novgorod, 2008 in Ningbo, 2009 in Sochi, and 2010 in Ngibo.
The 2012 match will be a practice friendly between two of the strongest teams in the world and their last check before the record breaking Olympiad in Istanbul. Each team will consist of six people – 5 players and 1 captain.
The tournament format is each plays each (Scheveningen), total 5 rounds of classical chess from the 2nd to 6th of July, additional two rounds of rapid chess will be played on the 7th and 8th. All games will be live on Chessdom.com.
While the Chinese align most of their top players for the match, the captains of Russia have decided to use the opportunity to check possible options for the 4th and 5th board at the Olympiad. Even so the match is very balanced regarding the ELO ratings. Here are the complete teams of China and Russia.
Men teams
Russia
Evgeny Tomashevsky (2738)
Dmitry Jakovenko (2736)
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2716)
Nikita Vitiugov (2703)
Maxim Matlakov (2668)
China
Wang Hao (2738)
Li Chao B (2703)
Wang Yue (2690)
Ding Liren (2679)
Yu Yangui (2626)
Women teams
Russia
Valentina Gunina (2530)
Alexandra Kosteniuk (2457)
Natalia Pogonina (2447)
Olga Girya (2414)
Baira Kovanova (2391)
China
Zhao Xue (2549)
Ju Wenjun (2529)
Sheng Yang (2419)
Huang Qian (2417)
Ding Yixin (2353)
See the main contenders of Russia and China at the Olympiad men here and women here.
China will crush
Two countries which always give chess the respect it deserves as a great art form, scientific endeavor, and sporting event.
Ah, I’ll just say, I’ll stick with the dutch Stonewall and the Vienna(or King’s gambit), or the French and the Closed Sicilian. I don’t know this belongs here, but I don’t know where.
The French defence shows it very clearly: you have to have a certain experience in the positions to succeed. These can be particular to these systems, different from other slightly more popular openings(other than the French). Success in the Dutch is related to your experience in it, for instance. I am amateur, but I believe it is so more generally.
In the tiebreak game where Anand chose a Dutch structure he did not have a full experience there, though Gelfand did not either. I have understood one must there especially always look for tactical resourses. Ah, Anand might have won that game. Well, Radjabov does well with King’s Indian.
Well, this inspired by Anand’s lecture through Chessbase.