Ni Hua

Ni Hua
World Mind Sports Games, 2008
Full name	Simplified Chinese: 倪华 Traditional Chinese: 倪華
Country	China
Born	(1983-05-31) May 31, 1983 Shanghai, China
Title	Grandmaster (2003)
FIDE rating	2658 (February 2014) (No. 89 in the December 2012 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2724 (April 2009)

Ni Hua (born May 31, 1983 in Shanghai)^[1] is one of China's top chess grandmasters and is the national team captain. In 2003, he became China's 15th Grandmaster at the age of 19. On April 2008, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzhi both became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 Elo rating line, after Wang Yue. He is ranked 89th globally, 14th in Asia, and 7th in China.

He also played 4th board at the World Team Chess Championship in January 3–14, 2010.^[2]

Career

Ni learned to play chess at six. He won the S.T. Lee Cup for under 14 year-olds in 1996 and 1997 and repeated the performance in a higher age group in 1999.

In 2000 he played in his first Olympiad in Istanbul, where he scored 5.5/9. In February 2000, he gained his first GM norm at the 1st Saturday GM Tournament in Budapest with 7/10 score. He achieved his second GM norm at the April 2001 China Team Championship in Suzhou with a score of 6.5/10. His third GM norm was achieved at the Tan Chin Nam Cup with a score of 6.5/9 in Qingdao in July 2002. In the 2001 China-USA Summit Match, Ni Hua scored notable victories against Dmitry Schneider and Hikaru Nakamura.

In February 2003, Ni had his Grandmaster title ratified. He achieved his GM norms at:^[3] the February 2000 1st Saturday GM Tournament in Budapest (score 7.0/10), the April 2001 China Team Championship in Suzhou (score 6.5/10), and the July 2002 Tan Chin Nam Cup GM in Qingdao (score 6.5/9).

In August 2004, Ni won the 1st Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.^[4][5] In the (August) 2004 FIDE World championship he beat Evgeny Vladimirov in round one but was put out by his fellow countryman Ye Jiangchuan in the next round.^[6]

Ni Hua (left) at the Macau 2nd Asian Indoor Games

Reggio Emilia chess tournament, 2009

In November 2005, the Chinese national team just needed one point to win the championship in the World Team Championship in Beersheba, Israel but Ni Hua's two endgame losses (to Karen Asrian of Armenia and Alexander Morozevich of Russia) in the final two rounds allowed Russia to clinch victory.^[7] Ni won the Chinese National Chess Championship twice consecutively in 2006^[8] and 2007.^[9] In December 2007, he won the Prospero Pichay Cup in Manila with a score of 7.0/9.^[10]

In April 2008, Ni competed at the Russian Team Championships in Dagomys, Sochi for the team Economist-SGSEU-1 (Saratov), where he achieved a score of 7.0/11 (+4=6–1) and a performance rating of 2735. In May–June 2008, he became the Chinese National Champion for the third time running with 7.5/11 points in Beijing and having a performance of 2666.^[11][12]

In early September 2008, he competed for team Mérida Patrimonio on board three at the Division 2 – CECLUB Spanish Club Chess Championship. His team mates were Dmitry Jakovenko (b1), Pavel Eljanov (b2), Zoltán Almási (b4), Ibragim Khamrakulov (b5) and Miguel Llanes Hurtado (b6). Ni Hua scored 4.0/5 (+3 =2 -0) and his team topped the group.^[13] (Team Victory Photo) In late September 2008, he competed at the 5th Russia v China Match in Ningbo where he scored 2.5/5 with a performance rating of 2700 for the men's team (with Wang Yue, Wang Hao, Bu Xiangzhi, Li Chao).^[14]

In January 2009 he won the 51st Reggio Emilia chess tournament, the first Chinese player to win this important event. In 2009, he made appearances at the Canada Open, 4th Kolkata Open, Russia v China match, Chinese National Championships, the Maotai Prince Cup China National Chess King & Queen Championships and the European Club Cup for the champions Economist Saratov.

He is to play at the London Chess Classic on December 7–16, 2009 to be held at the Olympia Conference Centre.^[15]

He has also been confirmed for the 2009/2010 Reggio Emilia edition (December 28 – January 6), and in Group B at the 72nd Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010 (January 15 – 31 January).^[16]

In April 2010 he won Asian Chess Championship in Subic Bay.^[17] In March 2011, came first in the 2nd HDBank Cup tournament in Ho Chi Minh.^[18]

China Chess League

Ni Hua plays for Shanghai chess club in the China Chess League (CCL).^[19]

Openings

Ni Hua almost always opens with 1.e4 with White and, usually, as Black, answers 1.d4 with either the Slav or Grunfeld and 1.e4 with either the Sicilian or French.

Notable chess games

• [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1267661, Nigel Short vs Ni Hua, International Kings Challenge 2003, Sicilian Defense: Lasker-Pelikan Variation, General (B33), 0-1]
• [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1366526, Ni Hua vs Mikhael Mchedlishvili, World Team Championship 2005, Nimzo-Indian Defense: Saemisch, Capablanca Variation (E29), 1-0]
• [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1507468, Ni Hua vs Peter Svidler, Russia vs China Match 2008, Sicilian Defense: Canal Attack (B51), 1-0]
• [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1481285, Ni Hua vs Sergei Tiviakov, Torneo di Capodanno 2008, Scandinavian Defense: Gubinsky-Melts Defense (B01), 1-0]

See also

• Chess in China

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ni Hua.

• Ni Hua player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• New In Chess profile
• 365chess profile
• PGN Mentor profile
• OlimpBase profile