Wei Yi aiming to become China’s first real challenger to Magnus Carlsen
Leonard Barden
The Guardian, Friday 30 May 2014 12.11 EDT
The world’s youngest grandmaster turns 15 on Monday as he aims to become his country’s first player to contend seriously for the global crown.
China’s Wei Yi qualified as a GM at 13 years eight months, putting him fourth youngest on the all-time list where the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen, is third. Wei Yi also became the youngest ever to reach a 2600 rating and in the 2013 World Cup he knocked out the former finalist Alexei Shirov.
His subsequent progress has been slower, but his current 2634 rating is close to the world top 100 and makes him one of a handful of talents who can legitimately hope to become a future candidate for Carlsen’s throne.
A few weeks ago Wei Yi tied for third in the Chinese championship, half a point behind the winner, Yu Yangyi, who was the only player to beat the teenager. This week’s puzzle shows Yi’s best finish.
However, there are special problems for Wei Yi as he targets the world elite. China is unique among the leading chess nations in that it has several players in the top 100 despite little interest among its general population. The national game remains Chinese chess, which has different rules, and the country’s successes in international chess are due to well-directed government backing to identify young talent at an early age and provide intensive coaching and opportunities.
China will again be going for medals in the 150-nation world team Olympiad at Tromso, Norway in August. It will expect a top six finish among the men, and could take gold in the women’s event.
The frustrating development for Beijing is that, while its women players have won several world titles and the current champion, Hou Yifan, is the No2 female of all time behind only the legendary Judit Polgar, its male grandmasters seem to stall once they reach the world top 20-50. These have included Bu Xiangzhi, who was at one time the youngest ever GM, and Wang Hao and Wang Yue who have performed well in elite tournaments but have lacked consistency at the highest level.
China is still producing significant talents, among whom Li Chao, Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi are all in their early twenties and placing highly at international opens. But whereas a decade ago Chinese grandmasters often hunted in packs, the impression now is that, once established, they usually go their own way in gaining invitations. Arguably Chinese sports officials have been discouraged by the limited success of their previous efforts to develop a truly world class talent. Hence Wei Yi’s career has a wider significance in that, if his results take off, it will give chess a higher profile in the sports budget.
Full article here.
Nakamura will be the 1st Chinese World Champion.
Him? He cant even beat gm wesley so..
Another Nakamura heir apparent only that his chinese. Prove yourself first chinaman before proclaiming yourself as the real challenger to Magnus Carlsen… until the your just full of air like Nakamura. Instead of talking “future or hallucination” stuff, let your play do the talking. If you will win strong tournaments and claim up the ranking… Perhaps… Not even Aronian or Caruana or any top ten player except Nakamura would boast to be the real challenger to Carlsen. Grow up first.
Maybe you should “prove” that you know English before you try using it to criticize anyone….
And that “first chinaman”? Idiot!
Perhaps your ” china man” too right? Your an idiot too like the rest of your kind. Your chinese player talks a lot. Instead of just playing chess and showing the world what he got he runs his mouth more like Lance Stepheson of the defeated Indiana Pacers. Be humble and play strong and let people and/or the media do it for him not running his mouth to be the challenger to Carlsen typical Nakamura style – all air but no punch lol And that goes to you too lol
If Wei Yi want to be a top chess player, he has to live and play chess in Europe. Without enough exposer to top level chess tournaments, he is going no way.