Master profile
Li Laiqun
李来群
By the Xiangqi Arena editorial team ·
- Games
- 590
- Era covered
- 1990–2008
- Archive record
- 221W · 204D · 165L
The player
Li Laiqun, born in Handan, Hebei in 1959, is a four-time national individual champion - in 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1991 - and one of the first four players to be named a grandmaster. His 1982 title was historic: the first national championship won by a player from north of the Yellow River, breaking the south’s long monopoly.
A player of great positional subtlety, he was for a decade one of the strongest in the country and a Five Rams Cup champion. Around 1996 he stepped away from professional chess to build a business career, becoming one of Hebei’s leading property developers.
The games here catch the light positional touch that made him so difficult to face, in the years of his championship prime.
Li Laiqun - Lü Qin, 1998
1998 National Individual Championship · 1998 · Li Laiqun (red) vs Lü Qin (black)
Li Laiqun, the 1982 national champion and one of the first four players to be named grandmaster, takes red against Lü Qin. Li was the great subtle positional player of the Hebei school, and this is a Central Cannon guided with a very light touch.
The book line runs a full twelve moves before the first chariot trade on move twenty, and the exchanges gather in the thirties. Li keeps two cannons and the more harmonious position, and grinds Lü Qin down in a heavy-piece ending. Positional xiangqi of the highest class.
Red won · 46 moves
The starting position.
Key moments
All the moves
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Li Laiqun - Liu Dahua, 1998
1998 National Individual Championship · 1998 · Liu Dahua (red) vs Li Laiqun (black)
Li Laiqun with Black against Liu Dahua, two former champions in a tight, technical fight. Li’s patience is the story of the game.
A chariot trade on move twenty-two is the first capture, the exchanges peak in the late twenties, and Li steers the remaining pieces into a favourable ending with the extra soldier that matters. A quiet, exact win inside sixty-four plies.
Black won · 32 moves
The starting position.
Key moments
All the moves
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