English Chess Forum

Starts today, allegedly, though there appears to be no website, no coverage, no nothing....

Correction: we do now have a website

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Wed May 02, 2018 1:43 pm

Starts today, allegedly, though there appears to be no website, no coverage, no nothing....

First round is tomorrow, presumably early morning our time. This is of course an internal Chinese affair, and they are notoriously indifferent about publicity, but I do agree that this is disappointing.

TWIC

The challenger has white in game 1. First half of the match is in the "Intercontinental Hotel Puxi, near the historic centre of Shanghai", May 3rd-10th. Then the match moves to Chongqing finishing on May 20th

Further details on ChessBase. Should be a close match and at the time of writing it also should have already started but so far nothing on Chess24, ChessBomb etc....

PS I see by Ian Rogers tweets broadcasts will start in about three minutes! Four commentators, commentary in Mandarin. Guess I'll just look at the pictures.

I thought it was 8:30 am uk time? Not sure if that is with or without the 30 min broadcast delay though

chess24 live

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Thu May 03, 2018 8:32 am

I thought it was 8:30 am uk time? Not sure if that is with or without the 30 min broadcast delay though

chess24 live

Hope you are right Mick. The ChessBase article said it was a 3pm kick off in Shanghai which would be 8am here and 8.30am with the broadcast delay but IT problems often do occur in the start of these things so maybe that's it.

PS We're off with a QGA!

Nice preparation by Black I'd have said

Game 1 of 10 was a 63 move draw. Game 2 same time tomorrow ie UK 8am start but with a 30 min broadcast delay.

Report from Chess24 on yesterday's game.

"You would be forgiven for not having realised a World Championship match was about to take place, since the pre-publicity for the chess world’s showcase women’s event amounted to almost nothing - even an official website appeared only on the day of yesterday’s opening ceremony. That was disappointing, but not uncommon for events held in China, where top notch organisation and treatment of the players is often accompanied by haphazard broadcasts."

There is an unusual twist for this match though:

"The first five rounds will be held in Ju Wenjun’s birthplace, the 24 million people metropolis of Shanghai, before switching 1500km west to Tan Zhongyi’s birthplace, Chongqing, which has a mere 8.5 million or so in its central urban area (but over 30 million in the municipality as a whole!)."

Game 2 Tan, Zhongyi 0-1 Ju, Wenjun

Given the amount of time White has had to prepare it appears Tan's opening play was remarkably weak.

Chess.com report on games 1 & 2

Game 3 tomorrow

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Sat May 05, 2018 8:35 am

Chess.com report on games 1 & 2

Game 3 tomorrow

Ian Rogers "Weird press conference after Ju Wenjun's win over Tan Zhongyi in the second game of the Women's World Chess Championship in Shanghai. Ju looked seriously depressed at having beaten her friend, while Tan was able to smile and even laugh."

Catalan in game three

I would fancy my own chances against a 2500+ player from here