Interview with Bu at Mtel

Bu Xiangzhi: I would bet on Topalov for victory in Sofia
I am not very good on Chinese chess, confesses the GM

– Have you ever been to Bulgaria before?
– No, I´ve never been to Bulgaria, this will be my first time.

– What’s your view about the “Sofia rules”, which don’t allow the players to agree a draw themselves?
– It will probably make the games more interesting, which is the reason why nowadays many tournaments follow these rules. In my case, it will possibly be a positive element because if during the game I’m thinking about a draw, I can’t play at my best. With these rules, on the other hand, I have no pressure.

-This year you are playing very well, with excellent results in Gibraltar and at the Asian Teams Championship held in Jodhpur, India, where China got both the male and female titles. Would you say you are in good form? What would the reason for this be?
– Perhaps this is due to me being quite active lately; I guess we could say it’s the result of hard work. In Gibraltar I was somewhat lucky, since in the first round I was completely lost but ended up winning the game. After that everything seemed to work in my favor. During the Asian National Teams Championship our main rival was India, despite the fact that we had had a better result than them at the Olympiad and were perhaps more experienced in team events. The rest of the teams were not strong enough to constitute a threat to us.

– Are you planning to play any tournaments before Sofia?
– In April I will play the Russian League. Wang Hao and Wang Yue will play there too, and some female Chinese players as well, each of us representing different clubs from that country. Since I believe that the level in Russia is quite high, I go there thinking it will be a good training tournament for me.

– We will now talk a little about your life. Where were you born?
– I was born in the city of Qingdao, which belongs to the Province of Shandong, in China.

– How old were you when you first started playing chess?
– I was around six. Back then, a cousin of mine who was five years my senior, came home quite often and played with one of my uncles. The game attracted my attention, and that’s why they decided to show me the rules.

– When did you start taking chess seriously?
– When I was nine or ten.

– During those first years in which you started to play chess, did you receive any kind of support?
– The same year I started to play, the Newspaper Qingdao Daily founded a chess club, and the children who played chess went there. It just happened that the son of the Chief Editor of the newspaper also played chess, and that’s the reason why we had great support. They were always looking for ways to have trainers come over to teach us, or even send us away to train.

– Who is your chess hero?
– Bobby Fischer.

– How many times have you been National Champion of China?
– Only once, in 2004, in the city of Lanzhou.

-Among present-day players, whose games do you enjoy the most?
-Kramnik is the player I like the most. Many of the opening lines I employ I have studied from his games.

This interview and others are available on the official website: http://www.mtelmasters.com/.