European Women's Ch: Kashlinskaya takes the lead

Four wins in a row

Alina Kashlinskaya won the top game against Pauline Guichard in the 6th round of the European Women's Championship, reaching 5½ points and taking the sole lead after winning her fourth straight game. In the King's Indian Defence, the Russian WGM took the initiative in the opening with the white pieces and never relinquished her advantage.

Trailing by half a point is GM Marie Sebag with 5.0/6, who won with Black against Bulgarian FM Nurgyul Salimova. Let's have a look at how the leading women got there.

In Monday's fifth round, the six players with 3½ played against each other. Two games were decisive, one ended in a draw. Kashlinskaya and Guichard emerged victorious from the battles on the top boards. Guichard upset Ekaterina Atalik (part of a chess power-couple with GM Suat Atalik) while Kashlinskaya (of the even more powerful power-couple with GM Radoslaw Wojtaskek) defeated Jovanka Houska.

Kashlinskaya against Houska 

Improve your Tactics

The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.

Black was clearly winning here. Still, White tried 35.♘d6, with the idea of 36.♘e4 to threaten 37.♘g5+, but after 35...♞xg3! the game was over: 36.♔xg3 and now she was able to finish the game with 36...♛xe5+, followed by 37.♜xd6. Two moves later, White gave up.

On the adjacent board, Guichard prevailed against Atalik. 

Chess Endgames 9 - Rook and Minor Piece

Endings with rook and minor piece against rook and minor piece occur very frequently, even more often than rook endings, yet there's not much literature on them. This endgame DVD fills this gap. The four different material constellations rook and knight vs rook and knight, rooks and opposite coloured (and same coloured ) bishops and rook and bishop vs rook and knight are dealt with. In view of the different material constellations Karsten Mueller explains many guidelines like e.g. "With knights even a small initiative weighs heavily".

White came into the endgame with a piece up and devised a simple winning plan — checkmate! 34.♗c4 ♜b2 35.♔d4 ♜xg2 36.♔e5 ♜b2 37.♔f6 ♜b8 38.♔g5 (38.♔g5 ♜e8 39.♔h6) 38 ...♜b2 1-0

The third board saw Inna Gaponenko and Elina Danielian end in a draw, but was also contested, as the following excerpt proves:

So far, not a single piece has been exchanged. With 19...fxg5 Black took first: 20.fxg5 ♜df8 etc. The game later ended in perpetual check on move 48.

Aleksandra Goryachkina facing Marina Guseva as Elina Danielian

Elofavoritin of the tournament is Aleksandra Goryachkina and the young Russian grandmaster gave up her third draw in round five all to players rated between 200 and 300 Elo points lower., including yesterday's division against Marina Guseva. After winning in round six, she is back in contention.

Top results of Round 5

Kashlinskaya has set a furious pace, however, taking her fourth straight in the sixth round. The latest trend against King's Indian is 5.h3 and 6.Be3. White quickly played g4 and went on a kingside attack. 

King's Indian: A modern approach

Bologan: "If you study this DVD carefully and solve the interactive exercises you will also enrich your chess vocabulary, your King's Indian vocabulary, build up confidence in the King's Indian and your chess and win more games."

Black tried 15...a3 here provoking the startling 16.b4. After 16...♛xb4 17.♖b1 ♛a5 18.h6 ♝h8 White hopped in 19.♘f5. Now 19...gxf5 is impossible due to 20.♗xc5 making way for the white queen on g5. There followed 19...♝xf5 20. gxf5 ♞fd7 and now 21.♘b5. Whether or not Black trades on d2, the pawn on d6 is extremely weak and White is winning. 

On the next board Inna Gaponenko and Bela Kotenashvili played to a draw and both remain undefeated, a full point back.

Sebag followed in the footsteps of her compatriot Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, using the Najdorf with Black against Salimova.

After the long castling by Sebag, White sacrificed a piece with 22.♗xe6 fxe6 23.♘xe6, creating a wild and opaque position. In the endgame, however, Black's material advantage was decisive.

Elisabeth Paehtz spoiled a good position against Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant. 

How to exchange pieces

Learn to master the right exchange! Let the German WGM Elisabeth Pähtz show you how to gain a strategic winning position by exchanging pieces of equal value or to safely convert material advantage into a win.

Black is a pawn up and after the game the German number one among women took to Instagram to explain what happened next (complete with emojis):

Sometimes psychology plays a mature role in our decisions😔. After 40.h6 gxh6 I believed that 41.♖xf5 would win a piece due to the idea of ♘h6+ forking my queen and king. What I missed however was that after 41...exf5 my rock on b6 would protect my h6 pawn. I went 40...♛g6😣 instead and missed ♖xc5 which eventually is ending in a draw. Well what could one learn from that — never believe your opponents as [to] err is human.

Paehtz is now 1½ points behind the leader, in 18th place. She does not have to worry about qualifying for the World Cup, however, as she is already qualified with her result from last year.

Top results of Round 6

Standings after Round 6 (top 25)

All available games

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

Links

• European Championship for Women starts in Antalya
• European Women's Ch (Round 1-3): Fighting chess
• Official site
• Tournament Brochure
• Full results (Chess-Results)