Astana R3: Russia beats Turkey 4-0

The city of Astana in Kazakhstan is hosting the Women's World Chess Team Championship from March 2nd to 12 in the Duman Hotel in Astana. Ten best teams in the world are participating: China, Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, France, Turkey, Georgia, Rumania and Kazakhstan. Each team consists of five players, with four playing in each of the nine rounds of this round robin tournament. Time control is 90 minutes per 40 moves and thirty minutes until the end of the game plus 30 seconds increment per move.

Round three

The third round started with the symbolic move in the game Ju Wenjun-Anna Zatonskikh made by Chinese Ambassador Zhou Li. He came today to support his compatriots and it obviously helped the Chinese girls, who confidently won against the American team with 3.5-0.5 score.

“The Turkish team came here to learn and gain experience”, the captain and coach of the team, GM Adrian Mikhalchishin (above right), said in an interview. Everyone could notice that Turkey showed really stubborn defence in the previous rounds. Nevertheless the luck was not on the side of Turkish girls today as they lost all the games in the match against Russia.

The outcome of the match Ukraine versus Kazakhstan was not easy to predict till the end. Katerina Lahno outplayed the leader of the team Guliskhan Nakhbayeva relatively quickly, but on the last board Inna Gaponenko lost to Abdumalik Zansaya, the youngest participant in the tournament. In the time trouble Inna missed winning chances and made a few crucial mistakes.

The world champion Anna Ushenina was also close to getting herself into big trouble today, but her opponent didn’t find very nice move 26…Kh8 and Anna Ushenina was able to force a draw.

Once again Natalia Zhukova left alone in the playing hall and the outcome of the match depended on the result of her game (against WIM Davletbayeva Madina, above right). After a few hours of play the Ukrainian IM got an advantage and played precisely till the end to save the match.

The Georgian team has recovered after yesterday's defeat and showed a great result in the match against France. Silvia Collas was the only French player, who managed to grab half a point in her game against Nino Khurtsidze, while all the others were defeated.

WIM Natacha Benmesbah, 2266, facing IM Salome Melia, 2419 – white won in 86 moves

The only match which finished in a draw was India versus Romania.

After the third round China and Russia still keep the lead in the tournament and will play against each other in round four. Ukraine and Georgia shares the third place.

Photos from Astana by Anastasiya Karlovich

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Schedule and 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.