The chess match between the national teams or Russia and China will take place 1st-9th of July 2012 in Sankt Petersburg, Russia. This is a traditional match between the two countries, from the establishing in year 2001, the matches took place in 2001 in Shanghai, 2004 in Moscow, 2006 in Argun, 2007 in Nizhni Novgorod, 2008 in Ningbo, 2009 in Sochi, and 2010 in Ningbo.
The 2012 match will be a practice friendly between two of the strongest teams in the world and their last check before the record breaking Olympiad in Istanbul. Each team will consist of six people – 5 players and 1 captain.
The tournament format is each plays each (Scheveningen), total 5 rounds of classical chess from the 2nd to 6th of July, additional two rounds of rapid chess will be played on the 7th and 8th. All games will be live on Chessdom.com, while the best examples will be featured at the CEWN pdf magazine.
While the Chinese align most of their top players for the match, the captains of Russia have decided to use the opportunity to check possible options for the 4th and 5th board at the Olympiad. Even so the match is very balanced regarding the ELO ratings. Here are the complete teams of China and Russia.
Men teams
Russia
Evgeny Tomashevsky (2738)
Dmitry Jakovenko (2736)
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2716)
Nikita Vitiugov (2703)
Maxim Matlakov (2668)
China
Wang Hao (2738)
Li Chao B (2703)
Wang Yue (2690)
Ding Liren (2679)
Yu Yangui (2626)
Women teams
Russia
Valentina Gunina (2530)
Alexandra Kosteniuk (2457)
Natalia Pogonina (2447)
Olga Girya (2414)
Baira Kovanova (2391)
China
Zhao Xue (2549)
Ju Wenjun (2529)
Shen Yang (2419)
Huang Qian (2417)
Ding Yixin (2353)
See the main contenders of Russia and China at the Olympiad men here and women here.
