Bu Xiangzhi

Infobox Chess player
playername = Bu Xiangzhi


birthname = Bu Xiangzhi
country = CHN
datebirth = birth date and age|1985|12|10
placebirth = Qingdao, Shandong, China
datedeath =
placedeath =
title = Grandmaster (GM)
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating = 2714
(No. 26 on the October 2008 FIDE ratings list)
peakrating = 2714 (Oct 2008)

Bu Xiangzhi (Chinese: 卜祥志; Pinyin: Bǔ Xiángzhì; born December 10, 1985 in Qingdao, Shandong) is a Chinese Super Grandmaster-chess player.

In 1999, he became China's 9th Grandmaster at the age of 13.

In 1 April 2008, Bu and Ni Hua became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 elo rating line.

Chess career

Individual

At age six, Bu was first introduced to chess by an elder cousin (his grandfather was a strong "xiangqi" player), and his interest grew with his compatriot Xie Jun's women's world championship victory in 1991. [ [http://www.mtelmasters.com/en/interviews&article_id=17.html Bu Xiangzhi: I would bet on Topalov for victory in Sofia] ] He began taking chess seriously at the age of nine years and received early training from then on. During this time, the "Qingdao Daily" newspaper founded a local chess club which many children in the city went to, including the "Qingdao Daily"'s chief editor's son. His first chess book was a translation of the famous "My 60 Memorable Games" by Bobby Fischer, a player Bu admires. By 1993, he had already won the Qingdao Junior Chess Championship.

In 1997 this talent became the Children's Champion of the National S.T. Lee Cup. In 1998 at the age of 12, he captured the titles of National Pupil Champion and Under-14 World Youth Champion. In 1999 he finished seventh in the prestigious Tan Chin Nam Grandmaster Invitational Tournament.

A sponsor's contract with a mineral water producer of his home city Qingdao enabled to him in 1999 with his coach Ji Yunqi to travel to Europe to take part there in several international chess tournaments. In autumn 1999 he achieved within only two months three Grandmaster norms, with tournament wins at the 21-29 September Paks GM (Category 10) tournament (6/9 points) and 3-13 October Kluger Memorial Budapest First Saturday (Category 7) tournament (8.5/11 pts), and coming joint first in the 18-23 October "Qingdao Daily" Cup (6/8 pts). [ [http://teleschach.de/aktuelles/xiangzhi.htm Xiangzhi Bu, jüngster Großmeister der Geschichte] , TeleSchach : Schach aktuell. Update 24.10.1999. de icon] He was 13 years 10 months 13 days old when he scored the final norm, at the time the youngest person to achieve that title. He gave up the running status of the world's youngest Grandmaster to Sergey Karjakin in July 2002. Also in 1999 he won the German Open.

In 2000 in Germany he won in his first appearance the International Neckar Open in Deizisau, Stuttgart. Also in 2000, Bu defeated the Azerbaijani chess talent Teimour Radjabov 6.5-1.5 in an eight game Future World Champions Match competition in New York. They played two games a day at a time control of one hour for all the moves. The margin of victory was a little flattering to Bu with Teimour Radjabov missing a number of good chances on the first day and then having a bit of a disaster on day two losing both games. Radjabov had beaten Bu in the two game final of a Cadet's event held earlier in the year on the Kasparovchess.com site. In May 2000, Bu made his first appearance in a United States Chess Federation-rated tournament at the New York Open in New York City. Although touted as one of the tournament favorites, he lost in the first round to American life master Shearwood McClelland III in a huge upset. The loss was seen by some as a question of whether Bu was truly grandmaster strength; however he rebounded to finish with a respectable score in the event. [http://www.anusha.com/smirin.htm]

In December 2003, Bu won the 10th Aceimar International Open in Mondariz with 7.5/9. [http://www.fide.com/ratings/trarc.phtml?event16=388&codt=11] In November 2004, he became National Chess Champion of China in Lanzhou with a score of 9.0/11. [http://www.fide.com/ratings/trarc.phtml?event16=30&codt=15]

In July 2007, Bu won the Canadian Open Chess Championship in Ottawa, Canada. [ChessBase.com [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3992 "Chinese dragon wins Canadian Open"] , July 16, 2007.] In October 2007, he won the Blindfold Chess World Cup in Bilbao by a 1.5 point margin, defeating strong Grandmasters Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen, Pentala Harikrishna, Judit Polgar and Sergey Karjakin in the process [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4195 chessbase.com] ] .

In the 2006/2007 season, he played in the German Bundesliga on board one for "TV Tegernsee". For the 2007/2008 season he plays on board two. [ [http://www.schachbundesliga.de/vereine/rangliste.aspx?t=1&vnr=14#vdata1 schachbundesliga.de] ]

In January 2008, at the 6th Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar, Bu came joint first scoring 8.0/10 (+7, =2, -1; Elo performance 2834) but lost on the two game blitz play-off tie-break to Hikaru Nakamura. [ [http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2008/index.html Gibraltar Chess Festival 2008] ] In April 2008, Bu competed at the Russian Team Championships in Dagomys, Sochi for the team "Shatar-Metropole" (Buryatia), where he achieved a score of 6.5/10 (+3=7-0) and a performance rating of 2771. In his super-tournament debut in Sofia, Bulgaria at the M-Tel Masters (Category 20) tournament in May 7-18, 2008, he came fifth out of six players (Levon Aronian, Ivan Cheparinov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Teimour Radjabov, Veselin Topalov) having scored 3.0/10 (+1, =4, -5; Elo performance 2594). [ [http://www.mtelmasters.com/ M-Tel Masters 2008] ]

He competed at the "Inventi" Grandmaster Tournament in Antwerp, Belgium on 23-31 August 2008. He won the tournament with a score of 7.0/9 (+5, =4, -0) and a performance rating of 2748. [ [http://www.inventichess.com/ InventiChess] ]

In September 2008, he competed at the 5th Russia v China Match in Ningbo where he scored 2.5/5 with a performance rating of 2707 for the men's team (with Wang Yue, Wang Hao, Ni Hua, Li Chao). [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4921 Fifth China vs Russia Match in Ningpo] ]

National team

Bu has played regularly since 2001 in the Chinese national team. With the World Team Chess Championship in 2005 in Beersheba, [ [http://www.olimpbase.org/playerst/5v7jjr1b.html OlimpBase :: World Men's Team Chess Championship :: Bu Xiangzhi ] ] and with the Chess Olympiad in 2006 in Turin he achieved on the top board very good results and won individual and team silvers in each event. He played first board in the 2006 Chess Olympiad, where the Chinese team finished in second place. He won four games and drew eight, including his games against top Grandmasters Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian. He has played in two previous Chess Olympiads in 2002 and 2004, both on board four. [ [http://www.olimpbase.org/players/5v7jjr1b.html OlimpBase :: Men's Chess Olympiads :: Bu Xiangzhi ] ]

He was part of the team that won silver at the December 2006 Asian Games in Doha. [ [http://www.olimpbase.org/playersag/5v7jjr1b.html OlimpBase :: Asian Chess Games :: Bu Xiangzhi ] ] He won an individual bronze medal on board two as the team won gold at the 2008 15th Asian Team Chess Championship in Visakhapatnam. [ [http://www.olimpbase.org/playersa/5v7jjr1b.html OlimpBase :: Men's Asian Team Chess Championship :: Bu Xiangzhi ] ]

ee also

*Chess in China
*Chess prodigy: List of youngest grandmasters

Further reading

* "Interview with Bu Xiangzhi" by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, "New in Chess" (2002/6 edition) [ [http://www.newinchess.com/Magazine/MagazineDetails.aspx?MagazineID=150 Magazine - New In Chess ] ] .

References

* [http://www.coruschess.com/participants.php?year=2007&group=2&bio=5 Biography of Bu Xiangzhi] , Corus Chess 2007.
* [http://www.mtelmasters.com/en/interviews&article_id=17.html Bu Xiangzhi: I would bet on Topalov for victory in Sofia] (2008 Interview)

External links

*fide|id=8601445
* [http://www.newinchess.com/Bu_Xiangzhi__-ip-9854.html NICBase Online Info] at New In Chess
*chessgames player|id=10762
* [http://sports.sina.com.cn/star/bu_xiangzhi/ Bu Xiangzhi] at Sina Sports
* [http://chess.vrsac.com/search/player_e.asp?FC=8601445 Rating data for player Bu, Xiangzhi]
*Chessmetrics Ratings: [http://db.chessmetrics.com/PL/PL5186.htm Bu Xiangzhi]
* [http://www.benoni.de/schach/elo/his.html?id=8601445 Elo rating with world rankings and historical development since 1999] (benoni.de/schach/elo) for Bu Xiangzhi