2010 Women's World Championship - Round two started

The Women's World Chess Championship is being held at Hatay, Turkey, from December 2nd to 25th. It is a 64-player knockout tournament, with two-game mini-matches qualifying a player to the next round, until the final and 6th round, which is a four-game match to determine the champion. In the event of a draw after the two tournament time-control games, there will be a rapid game tie-breaker, followed by a possible blitz playoff, and finally an armageddon blitz game. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, and a 30-second increment per move as of the first move. The games are held daily at 3 PM local time (2 PM Paris / 8 AM New York / 5 AM Los Angeles). The full schedule is available here.

Note that the organizers pulled out all the stops to provide coverage of the highest quality, including daily live video coverage during the rounds.

The second round of hostilities

Round two - day one

In many ways, the second round was the first day of genuine competition all-round, since whatever disparities had existed in the first round, were mostly non-existent in the second. This isn't to say there weren't some remarkable upsets. The most conspicuous was by one of the Elo leaders, Tatiana Kosintseva, who quickly built a crushing position against her Greek opponent, Yelena Dembo. Though she missed the most precise continuation per the engines, she seemed to be positioning her pieces for a straightforward sacrifice that would leave her with a won position nonetheless. Instead, rather incomprehensibly, she proceeded with a series of exchanges that saw her entire advantage evaporate. A few moves later, seemingly affected by this rude change of affairs, she blundered tragically, and was unable to save the game. Although she is certainly capable of it, she will not only need to put this out of her mind, but absolutely win her next game with the black pieces, if she wishes to stay in the competition.

Tatiana Kosintseva had the white pieces and a black day against Yelena Dembo

Kosintseva,Tatiana (2581) - Dembo,Yelena (2454) [B67]
WCh Women Antakya TUR (2.1), 07.12.2010

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7 9.f3 h6 10.Be3 b5 11.Kb1 Ne5 12.Bd3 Be7 13.g4 b4 14.Nce2 d5 15.exd5 Nxd5 16.Nf4 Nxe3 17.Qxe3 Qa5 18.h4 Nxd3 19.Nxd3 Qc7 20.Ne5 Rd8 21.g5 g6

The position is won for White, and there is more than one way to bring the point home. 22.Qe4 Although not the most precise, placing additional pressure on g6 is also strong. The quickest way is 22.h5! Bxg5 23.f4 Bf6 24.hxg6 fxg6 25.Nxg6 and Black loses material. 22...h5

23.Ndc6?! This, on the other hand, is a mystery. By playing Qe4, and allowing Black to close the kingside with h5, the only logical reason was to sac the piece on g6, which would also be the strongest move, so why this? 23.Nxg6! fxg6 24.Qxg6+ Kf8 25.Nxe6+ Bxe6 26.Rxd8+ Bxd8 27.Qxe6 Qf7 (27...a5? 28.Rd1 Rh7 29.f4) 28.Qxa6 Kg7 (28...Qxf3? 29.Rf1) 23...Bxc6 24.Rxd8+ Qxd8 25.Nxc6 Qd6 26.Ne5 Qd5 27.Qxd5 exd5 28.Rd1 Bc5 29.Rxd5 Bf2 30.Rd8+? A tragic blunder. Clearly Kosintseva realized how badly she had botched her position and was affected by this. She no longer had any advantage, but after this she is lost. 30...Kxd8 31.Nxf7+ Ke8 32.Nxh8 Bxh4 33.Kc1 Bg3 34.Kd1 Kf8 35.Nxg6+ Kf7 36.Nh8+ Kg7 37.Ke2 Be5 38.c4 bxc3 39.bxc3 Kxh8 40.c4 Bf4 0-1 [Click to replay]

German IM Elisabeth Paehtz showed great form in her first game against Viktorija Cmilyte, navigating through a series of treacherous paths that could easily have left her lost quickly and brutally. Instead, she consistently found the most precise continuations and emerged with a won position that she duly converted.

Paehtz played a very fine game to start her match against Cmilyte with a win

Cmilyte,Viktorija (2514) - Paehtz,Elisabeth (2474) [A10]
WCh Women Antakya TUR (2.1), 07.12.2010

1.c4 d6 2.Nc3 Nd7 3.g3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg2 e5 6.d4 Ne7 7.0-0 0-0 8.e4 exd4 9.Nxd4 Nc6 10.Nde2 a5 11.Rb1 Nc5 12.Be3 a4 13.f4 Be6 14.Nd5 Bg4 15.h3 Bxe2 16.Qxe2 Re8 17.e5 Nd7 18.Qf2 dxe5 19.f5 Nd4 20.f6 Bf8 21.Bg5 Bc5 22.Kh2 Ne6 23.Be3 c6 24.Bxc5 Ndxc5 25.Qe3 Kh8 26.Qh6 Qd6 27.Ne7 Rad8 28.Rbd1 Qxd1 29.Rxd1 Rxd1 30.h4 Nd7 31.Bh3 Nxf6 32.Bxe6

Elisabeth had played a very precise game, stepping very confidently through the dangerous complications. Here she finishes with a last surgical move. 32...Rd6! 32...fxe6? 33.Nxg6+ Kg8 34.Nxe5 with a big advantage for White.; 32...Rxe7 33.Qf8+ Ng8 34.Bxf7 Rd8 35.Qxd8 Rxf7 36.g4! also with a large white advantage. 33.Nxg6+ fxg6 34.Bh3 Rd4 35.Qg5 Kg7 36.b3 axb3 37.axb3 e4 38.Qe3 Rd3 39.Qb6 Re7 40.Qc5 Kf7 41.h5 Rd2+ 42.Kg1 e3 43.hxg6+ hxg6 44.Bf1 e2 45.Bxe2 Rexe2 46.Kf1 Ng4 0-1 [Click to replay]

The World Champion drew her first game

GM Kateryna Lahno also drew her opening game against GM Hoang Thanh Trang

Though readily giving the photographer a warm smile...

American IM Zatonskih had daggers in her eyes for French GM Sebag, whom she beat

French champion Skripchenko (2460) drew against Georgian Dzagnidze (2551)

The local dark horse hero of round one, Yildiz, succumbed to Mariya Muzychuk
in their first encounter.

Pictures by Turkish Federation

 
Europe Echecs is providing daily video reports

Round two 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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

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