Ankara R02: Betul Yildiz wins, Ruan Luifei leads

From 15th to 29th September 2012 the sixth Women's Grand Prix is taking place in Ankara, the capital of Turkey and the country’s second largest city after Istanbul. It is the last of the 2011–2012 series of elite events organised by FIDE and Global Chess. The winner of each tournament takes home 6,500 Euros, the total prize fund is 40,000 Euros. The overall winner will get a further 15,000 Euros at the end of the series, and qualifies to challenge the Women's World Champion in 2013. Starting time of the games is 15:00h (check your local time here). The final round starts five hours earlier – at 10:00 a.m. local time. A full schedule with all pairings is given at the bottom of the page.

Round two

Ankara is very hot these days, but the participants seem to get accustomed to the weather conditions and came to the playing hall in good mood.

TCF board member Askin Keles made the first symbolic move in the game between Tatiana Kosinsteva and Antoaneta Stefanova. He chose 1.d4, which impressed both players very much, as Tatiana normally doesn’t play it.

After small discussion Askin made the move 1.e4 and game continued

The reigning Olympic Champion (Tatiana Kosintseva) made a second draw in a row against the former Women's World Champion. Another draw of the second round was in the game Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia against the Mongolian Munguntuul Batkhuyag.

There was a surprise black piece victory of the Turkish WGM Betul Yildiz...

... against Lithuanian GM and rating favorite in the match Viktoria Cmilyte (above left)

After the game the two players analyse on a demo board of the TCF

The other Turkish player, Kubra Ozturk (above right), was defeated by Ju Wenjun

The game Humpy Koneru-Zhao Xue finished in a draw after three-time repetition comparatively quickly. Humpy (above): It was complicated position with many different possibilities. I had some space advantage but at the same time my position was a bit shaky as my pawns could become weak. In the final position I could not find the proper plan to continue the game, so I decided not to take the risk."

Zhao Xue (above): I agree with Humpy that she had slightly better position because of space advantage, so I had to play carefully. I didn’t prepare to this position exactly because I know I cannot prepare for Humpy, as she always tries to surprise me (laughs).

Anna Muzychuk (above) repeated the game she had played in round one against Batkhuyag Munguntuul in round two. "The position which appeared today was more or less the same, just yesterday the rook was placed on d1 and today on e1. It’s not easy to prepare to this line as there are so many different choices. I thought the position was quite normal but when she started to attack I started to worry of course. In the endgame I thought that White should keep both rooks on the boards in order to have conterplay, otherwise my opponent could get into trouble."

Batkhuyag Munguntuul: "I think Anna improved the variation today as she has played Rd8 instead of Bf8. I had feeling that White's position is quite good, but at the same time if I don’t move Black will consolidate by playing Rd8, Bc8, so that’s why I decided to play actively."

Two world champions follow the analysis of Batkhuyag and Anna – do you know who?

Ruan Lufei-Monica Socko ended in a win for White

Polish GM Monica Socko tried to hold a worse endgame, but after long struggle was outplayed by Chinese WGM. Ruan Lufei: "I didn’t prepare for the opening. White has slightly better position because of isolated pawn d5, but I didn’t see a winning plan, and in time trouble I just wanted to make some moves and wait. After 33...g5 White is better because the f5-pawn becomes my target. After I had won it was not easy for Black to defend anymore."

Game commentary by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko

Pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich and Kema Goryaeva, courtesy FIDE

Endgame analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Our ChessBase Magazine columnist GM Kasten Müller is (naturally) following the games in Ankara. He sent us the following interesting endgame analysis:

Schedule and results of the Sixth Grand Prix in Ankara

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be 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.