WWch Semis G1: Cramling scores first

Tournament conditions

The Women's World Chess Championship takes place from March 17 – April 7 in Sochi, Russia. The knock-out tournament is attended by 64 players, including the former World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), the three-time Russian champion Valentina Gunina, the World Vice-Champion Humpy Koneru (India), as well as other leading grandmasters. Unfortunately, the reigning champion Hou Yifan was unable to come for personal reasons, but as the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix she will still be able to challenge the new champion to a match.

The first five rounds consist of mini-matches of two games played at 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move. The final match will consist of four games.

In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by a series of tiebreak games: two rapid games of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the score remains equal, the players then proceed to two more games played at 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the score continues tied a final mini-match will be played of two blitz games of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move. Finally, an Armageddon game will be played to decide the winner in which White has five minutes and Black has four minutes, with a three-second increment per move after move 61. Black will be declared the victor if the game is drawn.

Round five - game one

And then there were four

Playing white, Mariya Muzychuk, opted for a Scotch game, an opening that came as no surprise as he had employed in against Humpy Koneru in the previous round. Harika Dronavalli responded with a rare variation, and quickly took her opponent out of the her preparation in a couple of moves the players started to explore an unknown territory.

Mariya Muzychuk has made it this far through tenacity and tactical opportunism. Will she
make it two Indians in a row? Or will Harika "Evergrin" Dronavalli be her downfall?

The queens were exchanged, and a complicated ending arose with White having a spatial advantage. Muzychuk played actively but left Black counterplay and with a timely pawn sacrifice Harika created a strong passed pawn, forcing further simplifications and a draw.

Pia Cramling and Natalia Pogonina went for a popular line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. White's slight pressure did not evaporate even after most pieces were exchanged. Black's position remained passive. Pogonina missed the best moment for trading minor pieces, and later had to do this trade under less favorable circumstances. This led to a favorable rook endgame for the Swede.

Aside from her obvious strength, all the players who know her agree that one thing that
sticks out with Pia Cramling is her unquestioned love of the game even after so many years

As Cramling explained after the game, "You need to have active pieces. You should find more targets. When I put a pawn on h5, there was a target on h6. It was quite logical that pawn should go further."

Pia Cramling vs Natalia Pogonina

While the games were still underway, FIDE Vice-President Israel Gelfer said he could only
compare Pia Cramling to "Lasker or Kortchnoi. Those two great players had been playing
and fighting for so many years. It’s obvious and clear that Pia loves the game so much. She
has been playing for so many years and with such enthusiasm. We can only salute her."

Report by Albert Silver and Eteri Kublashvili
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili, Anastasia Karlovich, and Vladimir Barsky

Semifinal pairings / results

Schedule

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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.