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Updated 14 December |
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If you have a Java-enabled browser, click here to play through the game and notes. Click here for up-to-date HTML coverage. Moves so far:
For the in-depth notes of former Women's World Champion Ye LIN, click here. Opening notes The world team has made a very instructive choice of opening. The move 1...Hg8 initiated the same general type of defence that Lu used in game one. The other horse will soon come out, and Black will be using what YuYing Huang calls "the wind-screen horses". But 3...Pg6 is a very different approach to this defence. In the first game, Red (the world) was given the choice of whether to advance the c-pawn or the g-pawn, and chose the c-pawn. This led to a position where Red applied pressure on the right side of the board, while Black fought to break out on the left. In this second game, Black (the world) refused to give Lu this option. By advancing the g-pawn, Black chose to seek counterplay on the right, while Red attacks on the left. After 5. Pc5, Black has a variety of choices, but two stand out: 5...Hf5 and 5...Ci9. Both aim for rapid counterplay. The first threatens to move the g-pawn across the river, discovering an attack on the rook. The second, the one used in this game, aims at using the g-file as a point of attack for the cannon. Both lead to lively tactical play, where Black tries to force a good position on the right before Red can build an attack on the left. It looks like Qin Lu is keeping his promise, and is determined to win. His 11. Hge2 is an adventurous alternative to several more common moves. It creates serious temporary weaknesses near his own king, but may lead to more fluid attacking manoeuvres. Most GMs have chosen to either harass the Black cannon with 11. Rg9, or pressure Black's left side with Rb7. Lu's choice is more indirect, and may prove to be a more difficult test of the world team's manouvering skill. Readers seeking illustrative games, can find them easily by installing the CCHVIEW 3.5 database available for free from the Xiangqi homepage. Just open the program, start a new file, and play the moves of either Qin Lu/world game. At any point during the opening, you can hit the "diag query" button, and choose from a list of games with that position. Two good places for a query in this game, are after 5. Pc5, and after 10 ... Rb10. - Bill Brydon The World in trouble? Peter Sung wonders if the world team knows what it is doing. By telephone, he told Bill Brydon: "This is quite a standard opening, up until the world took the pawn with the cannon (12 ... Cxg4). This is a little bit unusual. I haven't seen that before. I don't think it's too good for Black. You'll have to ask a few more guys. Maybe there's some new variation." "Usually the Black cannon does not come out like that. It stays back, and aims at the elephant on the third line (the g-file). Now that threat is gone." "Red's move, Rook up six (13. Rb7), that's a good move. Now it's hard for Black to find a move. I can't see one." Red's opening is familiar to Peter. He said: "H3-5 (11. Hge2) is a standard move. Liu Da Hua first came up with that move in about 1980. In Toronto, we play this very often too. The horse has to come back eventually, so Red plays it in advance." Peter Sung is the webmaster for the Xiangqi Homepage, and the author of CCHVIEW 3.5. He has won several Toronto championships, and was runner-up in 1999. He played in the recent Shenyang and Shanghai tournaments. As Ye LIN correctly pointed out, the game so far (up to the 18th move, with a couple of transposed steps) followed the 10th round encounter between DaHua LIU and GuanLin YANG in the 1982 Chinese national. 19.P7=8 by LU is an improvement over the 19.P7=6 by DaHua LIU in the original game. (Actually it was 19.P3=4, as the game was left-right reversed - LIU started with 1.C8=5.) The original game was drawn after 61 moves. It was voted as the 'best game' of the event. - David Woo After 20...Rf2 Black has an initiative on his left side. Red cannot afford to weaken his defence there any more. 21.Rg6 (attempting a cheap trick: Cxg10X ) loses immediately to 21...Rxf1+! 22.Kxf1 Hg3+ 23.Ke1 Rf1X. If Red cannot resist the temptation to win a horse with 21.Rxf8 Cxf8 22.Rxc8, Black will have all pieces attacking with Red's defence badly weakened: 21...Rxf1+ 23.Ke2 Rxg1. Red chooses to strengthen the defence with 21.Ade2. Moving the other advisor 21.Afe2 would leave a serious weakness: 21..Ch1 22.Ei3 Rg2! with double check threats. A good rule of thumb in Xiangqi is to counter-attack when attacked. Remembering that, Black's choices 21...Hd10 and 21...Ch8 release the pressure and let Red breathe. More likely Black will continue to press with Rg2, attacking Cg5. The board is on fire, and every step requires precise calculation. Can the world keep up with Lu?
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Choose the next move: Lu is back - after winning the Chinese championship with 8/11!
Grandmaster Qin LU is taking on the rest of the world in a xiangqi challenge similar to the one held by chess champion Garry Kasparov. Lu is the reigning Qi Wang - effectively the world champion - so this rematch generates lot of excitement in the Chinese chess community. The match began on 6 November. The rate of play is one move per day. The official site of this
match is: http://chess.online.tj.cn The same team are helping the MSO cover the
match: Bill Brydon and Peter Sung of
the Toronto Xiangqi Association, top Finnish player
Jouni Tolonen and David Woo of the Xiangqi
Review.
For the first
game, click here. |
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The starting position of
Xiangqi: In Chinese notation, the files are numbered one to nine, from right to left, movement along ranks given as number of points moved, from the viewpoint of each player. The system we are using here is based on David Woo's from the Xiangqi Review. An alternative notation is: |
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Qin LU vs. the World II
Algebraic
Xiangqi Notation