The 18th NSAU Cup Chinese Chess Group Tournament was held at NKU on November 25-26. Players from Tsinghua University, Peking University and Nankai University gathered together to compete for the title. After fierce rivalry, NKU won the group championship, and Fan Yue, a master's student at the NKU School of Journalism and Communication won the individual championship of Rapid Chess.
In the individual game of Rapid Chess, Fan Yue, the three time national individual title holder of college students, hit the line first with a record of 6 wins and 1 loss, winning the championship.
Fan encountered many strong opponents from two other universities in the games. He said that he was lucky to win in the first few rounds, but in the penultimate round, the stubborn defense from his opponent caused psychological fluctuations to him, though Fan was almost home free. Under the pressure of time, he made a mistake, so his opponent seized the opportunity and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Fortunately, in the final set, Fan calmed himself down and defeated his opponent.
In the group competition, each of the universities teamed up a group of four to compete for the championship through a round-robin competition.
The NKU team is composed of Shang Peifeng, Fan Yue and Wu Yuxuan, who attended the National Youth Mind Sports Games, and Zhang Jiageng who stood out from the intra-university competition; THU team is led by world champion and Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalist Zheng Weitong; and the team of PKU is represented by the rising chess star Zhang Jiashuo, as the commander.
In the first two rounds of the competition, NKU won 6-2 against PKU and THU won 7-1 against PKU, making NKU and THU the finalists. In front of the Grand Master Zheng Weitong, Shang Peifeng played wisely and always maintained the advantage. The idea of flying the “elephant” to mobilize the rook at the side in one move demonstrated his profound skills. In the end, the two sides almost used up their time and reached a draw. In the other three matches, NKU won 1 and drew 2, narrowly defeating THU 5-3 to win the championship.
Fan Yue said, This is my third time participating in the NSAU Cup tournament. I make friends in each competition through the rivalry of ideas, which allows me to understand the deeper meaning beyond victory and defeat. We are honored to see the world champion and Asian Games champion Zheng Weitong in the competition this year, and we cherish the opportunity to learn from and exchange with masters like Zheng. I hope the NSAU Cup will feature continued success in the years to come, and wish a long and prosperous friendship between the teachers and students of the three universities.
The NSAU Cup Chinese Chess Group Tournament is a traditional inter-university competition that has been held for 18 sessions. In this competition, the teams of teaching staff and alumni from the three universities also had matches with each other.
