Khanty 03: Good day for the Chinese

The fourth stage of the the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series 2013-2014 is taking place at the Ugra Chess Academy, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from the 8th of April until the 22nd of April 2014. It is a twelve-player round robin with time controls of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, with 30 minutes plus an additional 30 seconds per move for the rest of the game. The total prize fund is 60,000, with the winner getting 10,000 Euro.

Round Three

The Ugra Chess Academy is always home to local youth playing the King's Game

Ushenina, Anna ½-½ Kosteniuk, Alexandra
The Orthodox variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined is usually a quiet and positional affair. This game definitely did not go that way and the position was very messy for many moves. Ushenina's positional pressure seemed to hinder Kosteniuk's attempts to attack the kingside and it seems that the Ukrainian must have had a winning shot at some point or another, exploiting the awkward placement of Black's knights. However she missed her opportunity and the game ended in a dramatic draw.

Kosteniuk had some problems during the game but managed the draw in the end

The ex-World Champion, Anna Ushenina, has one loss, one win and one draw

Zhao Xue 1-0 Stefanova, Antoaneta
A very strange game. Zhao Xue manage to get an advantage from the opening by stifling her opponent's counterplay and retaining her positional advantages, but her play afterwards allowed Stefanova to activate her pieces powerfully. The Bulgarian missed a precise continuation that might even have started to swing the game in her favor, but instead she lost a pawn and ended up in a difficult endgame. Eventually this difficult endgame turned hopeless as Zhao Xue slowly but surely converted her extra pawn... only to blunder her advantage again! Stefanova reached a book drawn rook endgame, but she blundered majorly missing the following:

Stefanova blundered half a point in the first game due to bad
endgame technique, and today she blundered another half point for the same reason

Zhao Xue is second with two wins and one loss

Girya, Olga ½-½ Muminova, Nafisa
White's Opening pressure paid off as Girya won a pawn, but it was not for free. Black had insufficient compensation for the missing foot soldier but she retained drawing chances as her pieces were rather active. Girya underestimated her opponent's position with the move 33.g3? with exposed her king to an unusual tactic that Muminova exploited perfectly. This newfound counterplay forced a repetition and the game ended in a draw, which is not what Girya wanted.

A wonderful resource by the player from
Uzbekistan allowed her to draw down a pawn

The press conferences have had a very friendly tone,
the players freely sharing their ideas

Muzychuk, Anna ½-½ Lagno, Kateryna
Muzychuk's experiment in the Sicilian gave Lagno no trouble at all. Black equalized easily, traded off all the pieces and obtained a comfortable draw.

A smile before the battle, though today Lagno
didn't have problems holding Muzychuk to a draw

Hou Yifan 1-0 Dzagnidze, Nana
Black's dubious plan of mixing ideas in the Maroczy Kan seems strange at best, but it was apparently home preparation according to Dzagnidze's comments in the press conference after the game. She underestimated White's play and Hou Yifan obtained a crushing attack that she finished off in style:

A confident Hou Yifan is a point ahead of the field

Dzagnidze unsure of what went wrong today

Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg
Wihte's solid approach in the Spanish paid off as Black's position was riddled with weaknesses, and the more the position opened up the more glaring it was that Tuvshintugs was going to be unable to hold on to all her pawns. However in time pressure Konsintseva was unable to accurately fend off her opponent's threats, and she allowed too much counterplay. The Mongolian player exploited this perfectly and she never let Kosintseva have the advantage again.

Round Three Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Standings

Photos by Nikolay Bochkarev, from the official website

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All Games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.