Shenzhen: Hou Yifan in the sole lead after eight rounds

by ChessBase
9/15/2011 – The 17-year-old Chinese world women's championship has a plus four score and a 2650 performance, and leads by half a point ahead of GM Zhao Xue. Anna Muzychuk and Ruan Lufei share the third/fourth places another half-point further down. Friday is a free day, where the players will visit local schools. Our report after round eight includes photos provided by the organisers.

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The second stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged from 5th to 20th of September in the Wuzhou Hotel in Shenzhen, China. The tournament is being organized by the Shenzhen Press Group in collaboration with FIDE and Chinese Chess Federation. The participants include the current Women World Champion Hou Yifan and the former World Champion Zhu Chen, the current European Champion Viktorija Cmilyte. The winner of the tournament will receive 6,500 euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 Euros. Games startat 3:00 p.m. local time (round 11 starts at noon). Rest days are September 11th (after round four) and September 16th (after round eight).

Round 6 – Tuesday, 13 September 2011
This round was quite peaceful – five games were drawn and the only one game was decisive. Playing White a former World Champion, Zhu Chen, managed to win against Armenian Elina Danielian. Ruan Lufey and Munguntuul Bathhuyagh signed the score sheets after 14 moves, while other players continue to play. The games between four leaders Hou Yifan-Anna Muzychuk, Zhao Xue-Tan Zhongyi finished with drawn results, and this outcome didn’t change the tournament situation among the leaders. Viktorija Cmilyte saved the worse position against Betul Yildiz. Full report here.

Round 7 – Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Two out of five leading players managed to win – Hou Yifan defeated Tan Zhongyi and Ruan Lufey was stronger in the game against Betul Yildiz. All other games were finished with drawn results. Viktorija Cmilyte missed some chances to win in the game against Zhao Xue. Three other games Ju Wenjun-Munguntuul Bathhuyagh, Anna Muzychuk-Zhu Chen and Elina Danielian-Ekatrina Kovalevskaya finished peacefully. After seven games World Champion Hou Yifan and silver medallist of the World Championship Ruan Lufey share first place, half a point ahead of Zhao Xue and Anna Muzychuk. Full report here.


Elina Danielian in round six


Anna Muzychuk in her round six game against Hou Yifan (draw in 49 moves)


Tan Zhongyi vs Hoe Yifan in round seven (Black won in 29 moves)


Former women's world champion Zhu Chen


Runner up in the women's world championship Ruan Lufei


Chinese WGM Tan Zhongyi

Round 8 – Thursday, 15 September 2011
This round produced four decisive games, including two wins with the black pieces – by Elina Danielian over Munguntuul Bathhuyagh and Ju Wenjun over Betul Yildiz (Danielian took five and a half hours and 87 moves for her win). The other winners were Women's World Champion Hou Yifan, who defeated Viktorija Cmilyte and Zhao Xue, who won a 32-mover against Ruan Lufei. This put Yifan in the sole lead with a 2650 performance. Full report here.

[Event "Shenzhen WGP 2011"] [Site "Shenzhen CHN"] [Date "2011.09.15"] [Round "8"] [White "Hou Yifan"] [Black "Cmilyte, V."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B76"] [WhiteElo "2578"] [BlackElo "2525"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "2011.09.07"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. g4 Be6 10. O-O-O Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Qa5 12. a3 b5 {Not such a good idea, as the next few moves prove.} 13. g5 Nd7 14. Nxb5 Qxd2+ 15. Rxd2 Rfc8 16. Nxa7 Bxd4 17. Nxc8 Be3 18. Nxe7+ Kf8 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. exd5 Ne5 21. Be2 Ra4 22. c3 Bxg5 23. Kc2 Bxd2 24. Kxd2 {White is two pawns up and clearly on the way to victory.} Ke7 25. Ra1 Rh4 26. a4 {The start of an almost perfect "Excelsior" of the a-pawn that will decide the game.} Kd7 27. a5 Kc7 28. a6 Kb8 29. a7+ Ka8 30. b4 Rxh2 31. Ke3 f5 32. Bb5 f4+ 33. Kxf4 g5+ 34. Kg3 Rb2 35. Ra3 h5 36. Bc6+ Nxc6 37. dxc6 h4+ 38. Kh3 Rf2 39. b5 Rxf3+ 40. Kg4 {with a forced mate to follow.} 1-0


Viktorija Cmilyte and Hou Yifan in the press conference after their game


Ju Wenjun on a winning path against...


...Turkish WIM Betul Yildiz, who is not having a good tournament


After eight rounds in second place: GM Zhao Xue


Professional photographers in action


Now you know how these wonderful pictures are made!

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich and He Long

Standings after eight rounds


Links

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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