Master profile
Li Laiqun
李来群
- Games
- 590
- Years of the dated games
- 1990–2008
- Archive record
- 221W · 204D · 165L
National titles: Men's national individual champion: 1982, 1984, 1987, 1991
The player
李来群 (Li Laiqun) was born in Handan, Hebei, in September 1959 and began professional training in 1977. He won the national individual championship four times, in 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1991, and his 1982 title was the first won by a player from north of the Yellow River. He also won the Five Rams Cup in 1984. From 1996 he turned to business and founded a property company in Hebei.
In the archive he played Hu Ronghua 99 times, more than any other opponent, and won 28 of those games. As Red his best score came with the Pointing Finger: 67.1% over 70 games.
Both games below come from the 1998 national individual championship, where he beat Lü Qin with Red and Liu Dahua with Black. In them you can see the subtle positional style that marked his play.
In the archive
| As Red / as Black | 289 games as Red, 301 as Black |
|---|---|
| Score | 61.4% as Red, 48.3% as Black |
| Most played systems | Central Cannon as Red (156 games) · Screen Horses as Black (86 games) |
| Best-scoring system | Pointing Finger as Red: 67.1% over 70 games |
| Most frequent opponent | Hu Ronghua (99 games) |
| Longest game | 299 plies against Hu Ronghua |
Li Laiqun - Lü Qin, 1998
1998 National Individual Championship · 1998 · Li Laiqun (red) vs Lü Qin (black)
Li Laiqun, who won the national title in 1982 and was one of the first four players named grandmaster, has Red against Lü Qin. Li was the subtle positional player of the Hebei school, and he steers this Central Cannon game with a light touch.
Both players follow the main line for six full moves, and the first capture, a chariot trade, comes only on move ten. The exchanges gather around move eighteen. Li keeps his two cannons and the more harmonious position, then wears Lü Qin down in an ending with chariots still on the board. This is positional xiangqi of a very high 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 has Black against Liu Dahua, and two former national champions play a tight, technical game. Li's patience decides it.
The first capture is a chariot trade on move eleven, and the exchanges peak around move fifteen. Li then steers the remaining pieces into a good ending in which his extra soldiers make the difference. It is a quiet, exact win in sixty-four plies.
Black won · 32 moves
The starting position.
Key moments
All the moves
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