XIANGZHI BU (born Dec-10-1985, 39 years old) China PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] IM (1999); GM (1999); World U14 Champion (1998); Chinese Champion (2004); World University Champion (2012). Early years: Bu Xiangzhi was born in Qingdao in China and is China's 10th Grandmaster. A cousin introduced him to chess when he was six, and he made quick progress, winning the Qingdao Junior Chess Championship in 1993 and the Children's Championship of the National S.T. Lee Cup in 1997. In 1998 at the age of 12, he captured the titles of National Pupil Champion and World U-14 champion. In 1999, he became the then youngest-ever International Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 10 months, 13 days and the first to win the title before the age of 14. He remained the youngest Chinese to become a GM for 14 years until Wei Yi captured this honor in 2013. Classical tournaments: <1999-2002> Bu won the 1999 German Open and in 2000 he won the International Neckar Open in Deizisau, Stuttgart. In 2002, he scored 6/9 at the Aeroflot Open Group A. <2003-2005> Bu scored 6/9 (=6th, 0.5 points behind joint first place getters) at the Aeroflot Open (2003), and in December 2003, he won the 10th Aceimar International Open in Mondariz with 7.5/9. In 2004, he scored 5.5/9 in the Reykjavik Open (2004). In 2005, he came =2nd behind Wang Hao in the 7th Dubai Open, placed =3rd in the Sanjin International Hotel Cup (GM tournament) in China and scored 5.5/9 in the Aeroflot Open (2005). <2006-2008> In 2006, also in China, he came equal second in the Railway Hotel Cup GM tournament, behind Baadur Jobava and scored 5/9 at the Aeroflot Open (2006). In 2007, he won the Canadian Open (2007), the International Open in Germany with 8.5/9, the International Neckar Open, again in Deizisau, with 7.5/9, and came second at Corus Group B (2007). In 2008, Bu came =1st at the Gibraltar Chess Festival (2008) with 8.0/10 (performance rating of 2834), but lost the tie-break to Hikaru Nakamura. He won the Antwerp (2008) in Belgium in August 2008 with a score of 7.0/9 (+5, =4, -0; performance rating 2748), and came third behind Veselin Topalov and Levon Aronian in the Pu Kou Chess Tournament, Nanjing 2008. <2009-2011> He won the 1st Danzhou Tournament (2010) in China in June 2010 on tiebreak from Li Chao. He also scored 6.5/10 in the Moscow Open (2010), half a point behind the joint winners, and came 7th in the Aeroflot Open (2010) with 5.5/9, his only loss being to outright winner Le Quang Liem. In March 2011, he came =2nd in the 2nd Danzhou Tournament (2011). In October 2011, he scored 6/9 in the 1st Qin Huangdao Open Chess Tournament, placing =6th. <2012-2013> In January 2012, Bu scored 6/9 at the Moscow Open (=15th) and in February 2012, scored 5.5/9 (+2 =7 -0 and TPR 2692) at the Aeroflot Open (2012), placing =9th (10th on tiebreak), thereby maintaining rough parity with his rating for the bi-monthly rating period leading to 1 March 2012. Bu lost some ground, and rating points, in the Chinese Championship of 2012 (see below) but made up lost ground by winning the 3rd Danzhou Tournament (2012) on tiebreak ahead of co-leader Ni Hua to take the prize and the final spot in the Chinese Team for the Chess Olympiad (2012). In May 2013, he was 2nd with 6/9, a point behind Ding Liren, at the 4th Danzhou Tournament (2013), a category 15 event. In July-August 2013, Bu scored 8/11 to place =2nd alongside Dragan Solak and Mateusz Bartel at the Biel International Masters, a half point behind Pentala Harikrishna. <2014-2015> He had a quiet start to 2014 until June 2014, when he placed =1st with Ding Liren at the 5th Danzhou Tournament (2014), scoring 6.5/9. This result returned him to the "2700 club" for the first time since September 2009. He returned a stunning result to win the Politiken Cup (2014) outright, scoring 9/10 (+8 =2) to produce a TPR of 2881, providing another massive boost to his rating. A mediocre 7/9 at the 18th HZ Chess Tournament in Vlissingen in August 2014 took some of the rating sheen off his most recent accomplishments, but the September 2014 FIDE rating list still showed him at a career high rating of 2722. Since then Bu has suffered a mild lapse of form, scoring 2/4 against weak opposition in rounds 12-15 of the Chinese League, a slightly substandard 6/9 at the Millionaire Chess (2014), and a distant 5th in the Zonal qualifier 3.5, the latter dragging him down from the 2700 club. He finished 2014 with =3rd at the 24th Annual North American Open. 2015 was mainly occupied with team events, with his first standard tournament of the year being Bu playing in the category 17 6th Hainan Danzhou (2015), where he finished an unbeaten =5th, scoring 4.5/9. He was runner up to Wei Yi at the eight-player China Chess Kings (2015) knockout event. Championships: <Youth> In 1998, Bu won the World U14 championship. In 2000, he defeated Teimour Radjabov 6.5-1.5 in an eight game Future World Champions Match competition in New York. <Junior> In August 2001, he was =5th in the World Junior Championship held in Greece (won by Peter Acs) and in 2003 was fifth in the World Junior Championship (won by Aronian). <National> He was =1st in the Chinese Championship in 2002 and in November of 2004, he won the Chinese Championship with the formidable score of 9.0/11. He placed 2nd in the Chinese Championship of 2007, 3rd in the Chinese Championship (2009) behind Wang Hao and Ding Liren and =2nd in the Chinese Championship (2010) with 7.5/11. He came 5th with 5.5/11 in the Chinese Chess Championships (2012) and in April 2013, he placed =4th at the Chinese Championships (2013). <University> In August 2012, he easily won the 12th World University Chess Championship that was held in Portugal with a score of 8/9, 1.5 points clear of the field. <Continental> He came =4th in the 10th Asian Individual Championships (2011). <World> Also in 2003, he won the Zonal that entitled him to compete in the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2004) in Libya where he lost in the first round to Ashot Anastasian. He won the 2007 Zonal in China to qualify for the World Chess Cup (2007) in which he reached the 3rd round before losing to countryman Wang Hao. He fell to Yannick Pelletier in the 1st round of the World Cup (2009). Bu won the Asian Zonal Championship 2011, qualifying him to play in the World Cup (2011), where he beat Ahmed Adly, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Abhijeet Gupta in the first three rounds before losing to Vassily Ivanchuk in the Round of Sixteen, and exiting the tournament. Blindfold: In October 2007, he won the Bilbao Blindfold Chess World Cup (2007) by a 1.5 point margin, after defeating Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen , Pentala Harikrishna, Judit Polgar and Sergey Karjakin. Team play: (1) <Olympiads> Bu has played for China in six Olympiads, including 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012, scoring a team silver in 2006 when he played top board. He scored 6/10 on board 3 for China at the Chess Olympiad (2010) and 4.5/8 on board 4 for in the Chess Olympiad (2012) held in Istanbul, helping China to 4th place. <Russia vs China> Bu was a member of the men’s team in the Russia vs China matches in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008, scoring team gold in the last four events. <World Team Championships> He played for China in the World Team championships of 2005, 2013 and 2015: in 2005, he won the individual and team silver playing top board for China in the 6th World Team Championship (2005) at Beer Sheva, in the FIDE World Team Championship (2013) he again won individual and team silver, this time playing board four, and in the FIDE World Team Championship (2015) he placed fourth for board four, but this was sufficient to help his team to win its historic first-ever gold in this event. <Asian Teams> Bu played top board in the Chinese team that won the silver medal at the December 2006 Asian Games in Doha, and board three in the team that won gold at the Asian Games staged in Guangzhou in 2010. In 2008, he won a bronze medal on board two when the team won gold at the 2008 15th Asian Team Chess Championship in Visakhapatnam. In 2007 and 2009, he played for the Asian Indoor Games (Chess), coming away with team gold on both occasions. <European Club Cup> Bu played board four in the winning Ekonomist SGSEU Saratov team that won the gold medal at the 17th European Team Championship (2009). <Russian Premier League> In April 2008, Bu competed at the Russian Team Championship (2008) in Dagomys, Sochi, playing on board two for the team Shatar-Metropole (Buryatia), where he achieved a score of 6.5/10 (+3=7-0) and a performance rating of 2773 to win individual gold. <Chinese League> Bu Xiangzhi played for Shandong club in the Chinese League from 2005 until 2014 inclusive. During this time, he won team golds in 2007 and 2010 and team silver in 2006 and 2009. Perhaps dissatisfied with the team's performances in the last few years, he switched to the Chongqing team in 2015, helping his team to win silver. Rapid and Blitz Bu does not seem to favor the faster forms of the game. His best result was equal second, a point behind Wang Yue, with 4/7 at the 2nd Chinese Fame Grandmaster Invitation Blitz Tournament in July 2012. His 5/10 at the the 9th China-Russia Chess Match (Blitz) Tournament that was staged in Yinzhou, China in July 2015 was a strong result for his rating, as he defeated Maxim Matlakov and Vladimir Fedoseev, and drew with Peter Svidler, all of whom had much higher ratings; ironically he lost to the players that were closest to his rating, namely Daniil Dubov and Nikita Vitiugov. Notwithstanding the scarcity of his involvement in the faster forms of the game, Bu is, to date, in the top 100 in blitz and would be in the top 100 in rapid had he not become inactive. Ratings and rankings Bu's peak ranking was world #22 in April 2008 when his rating was 2708. His peak rating to date was in January 2016 when it reached 2724, at which time his world ranking was #29. References and sources (1) http://www.olimpbase.org/playersai/... Chessbase table of youngest grandmasters: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...; Wikipedia article: Bu Xiangzhi Last updated: 2017-08-10 05:25:54

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page 1 of 65; games 1-25 of 1,610  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. A Volokitin vs X Bu   0-1 36 1997 Wch U12 B45 Sicilian, Taimanov 2. X Bu vs D Smerdon   1-0 52 1998 Wch U14 Disney D60 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense 3. X Bu vs E Alekseev   ½-½ 54 1998 Wch U14 A45 Queen's Pawn Game 4. Khin Thaung vs X Bu 0-1 57 1999 Yangon B31 Sicilian, Rossolimo Variation 5. X Bu vs Than Soe Aung 1-0 25 1999 Yangon A60 Benoni Defense 6. J Liang vs X Bu   1-0 31 1999 Yangon B54 Sicilian 7. X Bu vs Zaw Oo   ½-½ 49 1999 Yangon D85 Grunfeld 8. M Aung Hlaing vs X Bu 1-0 42 1999 Yangon A70 Benoni, Classical with 7.Nf3 9. X Bu vs J Ye   0-1 45 1999 Yangon E83 King's Indian, Samisch 10. Thein Dan Oo vs X Bu 0-1 42 1999 Yangon B20 Sicilian 11. X Bu vs Moun Moun Latt 1-0 28 1999 Yangon E97 King's Indian 12. Htun Lynn Kyaw vs X Bu ½-½ 27 1999 Yangon B62 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer 13. X Bu vs V Sunthornpongsathorn   ½-½ 13 1999 Yangon D57 Queen's Gambit Declined, Lasker Defense 14. Khin Than vs X Bu   1-0 27 1999 Yangon B22 Sicilian, Alapin 15. X Bu vs Wynn Zaw Htun 1-0 36 1999 Yangon A22 English 16. O Ganbold vs X Bu   ½-½ 4 1999 Yangon A45 Queen's Pawn Game 17. X Bu vs M Al-Modiahki ½-½ 62 1999 Yangon A46 Queen's Pawn Game 18. X Bu vs P Hrvacic   0-1 33 1999 FSIM March D17 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 19. V Malada vs X Bu   ½-½ 54 1999 FSIM March A07 King's Indian Attack 20. X Bu vs A Turzo   1-0 60 1999 FSIM March A46 Queen's Pawn Game 21. G Kiss vs X Bu   1-0 48 1999 FSIM March B62 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer 22. X Bu vs T Gara   1-0 33 1999 FSIM March D85 Grunfeld 23. L Eperjesi vs X Bu ½-½ 42 1999 FSIM March A43 Old Benoni 24. X Bu vs M H Pham   ½-½ 23 1999 FSIM March A75 Benoni, Classical with ...a6 and 10...Bg4 25. X Bu vs A Gara   1-0 74 1999 FSIM March E81 King's Indian, Samisch  page 1 of 65; games 1-25 of 1,610

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 9 OF 10 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jun-21-10    feitang: Bu just won the The First Danzhou Hainan Super Tournament, congratulations to him. Jul-11-10    Tabanus: Yes, winner of the 1st Hainan Danzhou Super GM Tournament 11-20 June 2010: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr350..., congratulations! Aug-09-10    feitang: Xiangzhi is back, and doing great tournament performances (best score in Russia vs China match 2010). He deserve a biography update. Go Bu. Aug-10-10    Winter: You're doing great damage to the Russians, Xiangzhi! You're 'the' man. Keep it up! Aug-10-10    Check It Out: Xiangzhi's biography is twice as long as Anand's! Aug-12-10    feitang: Wow, what a biography update, good job CG. Oct-20-10    ex0duz: lol, yeah, that's a pretty detailed biography, and as some astute readers have pointed out.. "is twice as long as Anand's!" hahaha :P But back to the main man.. Bu really needs to pick up his game, and reclaim his crown as China's top player. It's like he's been overtaken by the two Wangs.. Yue/Hao etc. I remember Bu was the first 2700+ player from China, and he's not even 2700 anymore, which is sad. Does anyone know about his motivation, or why he's dropped so low? Has he admitted defeat for the top spot to Wang Yue/Hao? He should reclaim his past glory, and get back into the 2700 club. China needs him for the Olympiads and stuff(if they really want to have winning chances, rather than just chances to place in top 3, but yeah.. i think they need a 4th 2700+ to compete with russia/ukraine and other powerhouses, like Azerbaijan or Armenia, who is surprisingly strong for their lack of super GM' over 2700 or 2750 etc), and it's always nice to see new faces(especially asian ones) at super tourneys, which are dominated traditionally by Europeans(as is Chess in general). Current FIDE rating: 2676 Is that accurate and his current live rating? Can anyone tell me the other 2 chinese players(Wang Hao/Yue etc) live ratings and current FIDE Ratings also? Yeah, i could check myself, but i'm lazy and i also want to read your posts(in the hopes that you guys comment aswell and answer my other questions along with giving me their ratings n @#$%). He also seems to be the oldest out of the 3, he's 24 currently(25 @ December). Wang Yue is next in line, @ 23 yrs of age, and Wang Hao is the baby, having just turned 21. Seems like Wang Hao has the biggest potential, but i think he will have much more trouble vs the super elite GM's, when compared with Wang Yue, who seems to have a much more solid style, and Wang Yue has also had very good super GM tourney results(and having claimed some good scalps in the process.. like beating Carlsen twice already). I think Wang Yue also has a much stable/solid psyche/mentality, and he's tough like that.. while Hao seems to be more prone to slipping up/choking(or whatever you wanna call it). In his recent games(like in Shanghai), it seems he has a decent opening, and gets winning chances in the middle game, only to blunder and lose horribly in what was meant to be a won position.. and i don't think it is the result of time trouble, but just him choking from the pressure or in anticipation of winning. I hope he can overcome this and play 'dry' or 'boring' chess.. well not really boring, but just change your style of play to suit your mentality. If you can't handle fire on board and it's detrimental to your play, you should either change our play, or fix your psychological problem. I guess some can play like that(Morozevich), but not everyone can 'live on the edge, and play purely to benefit off others 'mistakes'. I can't remember what Kramnik called it, when referring to 'risk takers'(like Moro, or even Kasparov).. like calling them unsound lines and that with the popularization and revolution that engines has had on the game, a style that will only get more rare and less effective as time goes by. For the sake of chess and out of personal bias, i really really hope that he's wrong. -_- Heh.. Anyway, i've gone completely off topic, so let's get back on topic. Bu seems to be a hard working positional player too, but i think Wang Yue is just more talented and hard working, and he also enjoys playing those 'dry' kind of endgames, whereas i think Bu enjoys more tactical games, even if he does tend to play 'offbeat' positional openings. Wang Hao on the other hand, i think he was a tactical player to start off with, but has recently changed his style to be more positional/solid.. and he's still in the middle stages of his 'transition' or 'experimentation' with other systems, which i think would be a good thing in the long run and in the best interests of his 'chessical' development. Perhaps that's also what Carlsen is also doing, with all his losses and seemingly 'experimental' openings.. like him playing(and losing) in some kind of Alekhine defense vs Adams @ the recent Olympiad. Anyway, if you've read up to here, then i think it's a good time to say thanks, and that I hope you guys can answer my questions and continue the discussion in the direction that i've tried to take it in. Thanks again all. =] Dec-10-11    Ladolcevita: Happy Birthday to GM Buxiangzhi! Dec-10-11    Penguincw: Happy B-Day! Apr-24-12    Nightsurfer: It may not be by chance that the name of <Bu Xiangzhi> is similar to that great Chinese contribution to the culture of Chess, namely the Chinese version of Chess that is called <XiangQi>. The expert Professor <David H. Li> has put forward the thesis that the remarkable success of Chinese players in the international Chess circuit is entirely due to the fact that those players are all weaned on <XiangQi>, the fast and combative Chinese version of Chess, please compare http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail... . Therefore - with regard to the first steps by <Bu Xiangzhi> on the sector of Chess - one has to know that <Bu Xiangzhi>'s grandfather was a strong <XiangQi> player and that, after <Bu Xiangzhi> was first introduced to Chess by an elder cousin, please compare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bu_Xia..., the ambitious boy's interest grew with his compatriot Xie Jun 's women's world championship victory in 1991 - a triumph that was the 2nd step after Xie Jun first had stunned the world of Chinese Chess <XiangQi>. Apr-24-12    Nightsurfer: Apart from <Bu Xiangzhi> and Xie Jun there are more big names among China's RISING STARS who have first learned Chinese Chess <XiangQi> before switching to International Chess, namely the female star Zhu Chen - plus the male top performers Zhong Zhang and Wang Yue , please check out their corresponding personal pages! Apr-24-12    Nightsurfer: In case that you would like to know more about that mysterious Chinese brand of chess that has been the basis of so many Chinese careers in International Chess, namely the thrilling <XiangQi>: herewith the link that will lead you to a clip that the German program of MTV has produced on Chinese Chess aka XiangQi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NBX... The Chinese version of Chess can be compared to modern strategic <tabletop games>, please compare a clip that features the climax of a game of <XiangQi> after having transformed the traditional pieces into units on a tabletop: Red army corners Black General, and that is the matrix of the dreaded <HORSE-CANNON-PALCORNER-CHECKMATE> - please watch the final moves in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ef... The foregoing clip has transformed the final moves of the friendly game <Rene Gralla vs Phan Thang, Hamburg 2003> into a scenario of <Chinese Battle Chess>. That very game <Rene Gralla vs Phan Thang> has been battled out on February 28th, 2003, at Hamburg, Germany, at the place of the Vietnamese <Doctor Quang Nguyen-Chi> at the square <Berliner Platz> in the eastern part of Hamburg. The well-known <Doctor Quang Nguyen-Chi> is a mentor of Chinese Chess, herewith a photo: http://shaolinchess.de/svalban0.gif . Apr-25-12    Nightsurfer: The name-dropping, namely with regard to players who both play International Chess and <XiangQi>, can be continued: members of the club are the former coach of the Women's Chinese Olympic Team, that is Liu Wenzhe; the World Champion in International Chess 2004, that is Rustam Kasimdzhanov; the most handsome guy in the chess circus, that is Alexander Grischuk , and the former German candidate to become World Champion of International Chess, that is Robert Huebner , please check out the personal pages of these players! Apr-26-12    Nightsurfer: The game that has been featured in the <XiangQi>-video that has been aired by MTV, please se my third and last posting dating from <Apr-24-12>, namely the contest between the well-known German experts on e-sports and electronic games, that is to say: Daniel "Budi" Budiman (herewith the biography: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel...)/ Red vs. Etienne Cedric "Eddy" Garde (herewith the biography: http://www.esport.de/wiki/Etienne_G... )/Black - please see once more again the clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NBX... - , can be watched from the first move to the last check by following the link as follows: http://www.gameone.de/blog/2010/9/g... , you have just to click on the second picture on that page! Jun-08-12    blade2012: Congratulations to Bu Xiangzhi for his win in 3rd Danzhou Tournament (2012)! Dec-10-12    brankat: Happy Birthday! Feb-24-13    Dionysius1: Thanks <nightsurfer>. I like the look of the pieces and board in the video you link to. Your last link in your most recent post. Jun-26-13    Nightsurfer: <Dionysius1> Thank you so much that you like that! If one plays Chinese Chess with pieces like that - instead of the traditional flat disks of <XiangQi> - it is a thrilling and very entertaining game! And it's got the potential of challenging our beloved International Chess!! Jul-06-14    Penguincw: Welcome back to the 2700 club Bu Xiangzhi! His recent performance at the 5th Danzhou Tournament helped him gain 14 points to leap to 2707. However, countryman Ding Liren did edge him out on tiebreaks (both finished with 6.5/9). Jul-28-14    Billy Vaughan: Bu Xiangzhi's recent results have given him 38 points, more than is almost ever seen at the ~2700 level in just one rating period. Jul-30-14    Penguincw: Congratz to Bu Xiangzhi for winning the Politiken Cup (2014) a full point ahead of 4 competitors with a score of 9/10 (+8,-0,=2). He continues to leap to career highs, as from that tournament alone he gained 24 points and leaps to world #24, which is a gain of 30(!) spots. However, he still trails Ding Liren for #1 Chinese player, but only by 10 points. Too bad he's not participating at the upcoming Olympiad: his team could really use him. Jul-30-14    SimonWebbsTiger: @<penguincw> Bu failed to qualify in an event to set the team. He finished fourth, where 1st and 2nd were required. Jul-30-14    SimonWebbsTiger: ps. He seems to have taken it nicely. "I have played many times before for China," he said in Elsinore. He is already on the road. In Vlissingen(?) and then the million dollar open in Las Vegas! Aug-03-14    Oxnard: This guy went into a 5-6 year lull after cracking the 2700 barrier in 2008. Now he's propelled himself to an all time high of 2732 (live rating)! Oct-12-14    Ke2: Incredible drawing trick from Bu today in the Millionaire Open. 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