Wang Yue and Batkhuyag Munguntuul win World University Chess Championship

Wang Yue and Batkhuyag Munguntuul win World University Chess Championship

The 11th World University Championships in Zurich finished with an incredibly combative 9th round. “Grandmaster draws” seemed to be forbidden and almost every game finished in a decisive result. In the men’s tournament GM Wang Yue led the way. Although he had secured a decisive 1½ point lead already before the final game, he showed up in a fighting mood. Against GM Pavel Ponkratov (Russia) he quickly seized space and the initiative, winning first a pawn on the queenside and then quickly following up with a decisive attack on the kingside. Again it all seemed incredibly easy! With 8½ points out of 9 games and a rating performance of 2957 Wang Yue clearly overfilled the high expectations he and his fans had set before the tournament. With the 15,5 rating points won in Zurich, he makes a substantial step in direction of the top ten again, reaching place 13 or 14 of the “live rating” list.

Second place went to GM Anuar Ismagambetov (Kazakhstan) and third place to IM Davit Benidze (Georgia), both on 6,5 points.

In the women’s tournament the outcome was far less clear-cut than in the men’s. In the end, however, top seed IM (and WGM) Batkhuyag Munguntuul prevailed. Going into the final round, the 23-year-old Mongolian had a half-point lead.

As she did not have a good tie-break score and was chased by no less than seven players, she knew she had to win this last game in order to become champion. And win she did in excellent style. In an Open Spanish she went for an all-out attack against which WGM Irine Kharisma Sukandar (Indonesia) found no recipe. Silver and bronze medals go to Ljilja Drljevic (Serbia) and Sopiko Guramishvili (Georgia) who both won their last round games as White too. In fact the first five boards of the women’s tournament all saw the first player succeed!

In the combined nations’ ranking (one man and two women or vice versa) the race was even closer. At the end of the day the calculations gave the following result: 1 Mongolia 19; 2 Georgia 18½ (113) and 3 Russia 18½ (101).

A number of players fulfilled title norms. Grandmaster norms were achieved by Davit Benidze (Georgia) and by Lijlja Drljevic (Serbia, women’s grandmaster norm). International Master norms were achieved by Andika Pitra (Indonesia), Jonas Wyss (Switzerland), Peiman Mohajerin (Iran), Peter Poobalasingam (England) and Marco Gähler (Switzerland).

Final standings

Men: 1. GM Wang Yue (China) 8,5. 2. GM Anuar Ismagambetov (Kaz) 6,5 (38,5). 3. IM Davit Benidze (Geo) 6,5 (38,0, GM norm). 4. Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa (Mgl) 6,5 (37,5). 5. IM Vasily Papin (Rus) 6,5 (32,5) – 57 participants.

Women: 1. WGM Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mgl) 7,0. 2. WIM Ljilja Drljevic (Srb, WGM norm) 6,5 (37,5). 3. WGM Sopiko Guramishvili (Geo) 6,5 (37,0). 4. WIM Judith Fuchs (Ger) 6,5 (36,0). 5. Tamara Cheremnova (Rus) 6,0 (32,0) – 39 participants.

Nations’ ranking: 1. Mongolia 19. 2. Georgia 18,5 (113). 3. Russia 18,5 (101). 4. Kazakhstan 18. 5. China 17. – 10. Switzerland 14,5. – 17 nations.

Richard Forster
WUCC 2010
Kommunikation
www.wucc2010.ch