Chinese Championship 2022: Dai Changren and Tan Zhongyi win titles
Dai Changren and Tan Zhongyi are the new champions of China. The 2022 Chinese Championship took place in Xinghua, Jiangsu province, from November 2-11 and was held in open and women’s sections. Both tournaments were 12-player round robins with classical time control. In the absence of top Chinese players, the open event caused a minor sensation as the #10 in the starting list Dai Changren (pictured below), scored 7/11 and finished clear first, a half point ahead of Zhao Jun (6½/11), who took silver. Two players tied for third place, with Xu Xiangyu claiming bronze thanks to better Sonneborn-Berger over Li Di. The event was a very close competition, with neither player completing the tournament unbeaten. Final standings: 1 IM Dai Changren 2515 7 2 GM Zhao Jun 2600 6½ 3 GM Xu Xiangyu 2577 6 4 GM Li Di 2539 6 5 IM Lou Yiping 2490 5½ 6 GM Liu Yan 2532 5½ 7 GM Xu Yi 2502 5½ 8 GM Lu Shanglei 2605 5½ 9 GM Bai Jinshi 2569 5½ 10 GM Xu Yinglun 2553 5 11 GM Zeng, Chongsheng 2604 4 12 IM Xu Zhixing 2504 4 The women’s event was quite a different scenario as the rating-favourite Tan Zhongyi (pictured below) dominated the field. Despite losing to Xiao Yiyi, she netted an impressive 9/11 and came out on top 1½ ahead of her main competitor who claimed silver. It is the second national title in her career. There was a tie for third place in the women’s competition as well, with Guo Qi edging out Zhai Mo by dint of slightly better tiebreaks. Final standings: 1 GM Tan Zhongyi 2514 9 2 WGM Xiao Yiyi 2326 7½ 3 IM Guo Qi 2391 7 4 WGM Zhai Mo 2371 7 5 WIM Song Yuxin 2311 6½ 6 WGM Ni Shiqun 2370 5 7 Zhang Lanlin 2200 5 4 WGM Li Xueyi 2297 4½ 9 IM Wang Yu 2276 4½ 10 WIM Chu Ruotong 2224 4 11 WIM Ren Xiaoyi 2207 3½ 12 Yuan Ye 2086 2½ Photo: official website Official website: cca.imsa.cn/