The Chinese - Future Force in the Chess World

It's about time I did a post about chess, darlings! Here is Andy Soltis column from the New York Post: CHINA'S UNKNOWNS RULE THE BOARDS By ANDY SOLTIS September 23, 2007 -- CHESS CHINA, where chess was illegal during the Cultural Revolution, has emerged as one of the world's leading chess nations - without producing individual stars. In the last few weeks, a visiting Chinese national team defeated Russia 521/2-47½ in Nizhny Novgorod, then trounced the British national team, led by Michael Admas and Nigel Short, by 28-22 in Liverpool. The Chinese managed to do this without having a single player among the world's 20 highest-rated grandmasters. Who are those guys? Well, they do have a future star in 20-year-old Wang Yue, ranked 22nd in the world. But the strength of Chinese chess seems to lie in solid base of young, less-known masters. Chinese players have the highest average rating of any nation on the most recent world chess federation list. Their 330 players average 2245. (The United States is fifth with an average of 2204). They are also extraordinarily young. The average age of the British team in Liverpool was 29. For the Chinese it was 20. Two of the world's top players under age 20 are Chinese. Three of the world's seven highest-rated girls are Chinese.