Cairns Cup: Gunina grabs the lead

by Antonio Pereira
2/14/2019 – Valentina Gunina, who started the inaugural Cairns Cup with a win and two draws, has now won four in a row — her latest victim was Anna Zatonskih — to grab the sole lead and overtake her compatriot Alexandra Kosteniuk. The other winner in round seven was Bela Khotenashvili, who was having a tough time in Saint Louis but recovered by taking down Irina Krush with the white pieces. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

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As good as it gets

Rounds 4-7 could not have gone better for Valentina Gunina, as four straight wins left her alone on top of the standings with a 6/7 score. Her latest victory was achieved with the black pieces against Anna Zatonskih — the American has lost the thread in Saint Louis and now shares last place on 2/7.

Perhaps due to Anna’s bad form — or simply because she is a fearless player — Valentina advanced her kingside pawns in the middlegame. Zatonskih answered with hesitant play and found herself in a tough spot when the struggle in the centre took off. White could not avoid losing the exchange in following sequence:

 
Zatonskih vs. Gunina
Position after 25.Nd4

After Black captured with 25…xd4, Anna’s alternatives were not very encouraging — capturing with the pawn would result in her position becoming too vulnerable against the f4-push, while capturing with the rook lost the exchange by force. She chose the latter and was material down after 26.xd4 e5 27.xe4 xd4. Saving the exchange on move 27 does not work due to the weakness on c3, as Black can easily pin the knight with her rooks from c7 and c8.

In the complications that arose after this sequence, however, Zatonskih created strong threats that stood in the way of Gunina’s plans. Nonetheless, the Russian’s material advantage was too much for White to handle when the endgame was reached:

 
Position after 44.Be5

White closed the e-file but Black’s penetration is still unavoidable: 44…b1+ 45.e2 c2+ 46.e3. And here came the killer blow:

 
Position after 46.Ke3

Valentina immediately played 46…d4+ and White resigned after 47.f3 d3+ 48.g2 g8, winning the queen.

Will Gunina keep her good form until Friday? | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

Before the rest day, Gunina was sharing the second place with Irina Krush and, after drawing her game against Kosteniuk from a position of strength, it seemed like the American was a strong contender for the title. Maybe this factor played a big role in Irina’s mind-set during her seventh-round encounter against an out-of-form Bela Khotenashvili — Krush saw this as a great chance to climb in the standings and overpressed with Black:

 
Khotenashvili vs. Krush
Position after 19.Nb3

The computer does not think Irina’s 19…g5 is a mistake, but her previous play created a position that called for this kind of move...when she usually excels at quieter positional contests.

When the time control was reached, Black’s kingside was rather exposed and Bela had a pawn to the good. A few moves later, Khotenashvili brought her last piece to the attack:

 
Position after 43...Qh7

After 44.c5, a pin and a mate threat prevented Black from capturing White’s pieces that were en prise at the time. The game continued 44…h8 45.xf7 xc5:

 
Position after 45...Rxc5

Black managed to capture the knight, but White counted on 46.g5 and there is no way for Black to save her queen against the threatened pin from h5. Krush gave up three moves later.

Bela recovered nicely from a couple of losses | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

In the other game relevant to the standings, Harika Dronavalli laid out a French Defence against Alexandra Kosteniuk’s 1.e4. An endgame was reached quite quickly, albeit after some complications that were proficiently handled by both players. Harika was a pawn up, but all pieces had been exchanged except the bishops of opposite colours. The Indian player kept pushing until move 48, but the inevitable pacific end to the game came when White had a perfect blockade on the dark squares.

With two rounds to go, only the Russians players have realistic chances of winning the tournament. Incidentally, Kosteniuk and Gunina are set to play on Friday’s last round, when the former women’s world champion will have the white pieces.

Harika was the one on the driver's seat | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club


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Standings after round seven

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1.d4 Predecessor: 1.c4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.d4 Nf6 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 c5 6.d5 e6 7.0-0 exd5 8.cxd5 d6 ½-½ (48) Klein,D (2491)-Bok,B (2620) Belgium 2017 1...Nf6 2.c4 e6N 2...g6 3.g3 c5 4.d5 Bg7 5.Nc3 0-0 6.Bg2 d6 7.Nf3 e6 8.0-0 exd5 ½-½ (29) Tomashevsky,E (2702)-Svidler,P (2763) Palma de Mallorca 2017 3.g3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Bg2 Bg7 8.Nf3 0-0 9.0-0 Re8 10.Bf4 h6 A62: Modern Benoni: Fianchetto Variation without early ...Nbd7 10...Bf5 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bxf6 Bxf6 13.Nd2 Bc8 14.Nc4 Bxc3 15.bxc3 b5 16.Nd2 Nd7 17.Re1 a5 18.Qc2 ½-½ (29) Tomashevsky,E (2702)-Svidler,P (2763) Palma de Mallorca 2017 11.Re1 g5 12.Bd2 Bf5 White has an edge. 13.h4 g4 14.Nh2 Qb6 14...Bg6= Predecessor: 14...h5 15.Bf4 a6 16.a4 Qc7 17.Nf1 Bg6 18.Nd2 ½-½ (48) Klein,D (2491)-Bok,B (2620) Belgium 2017 15.e4       White is really pushing. Bg6 16.e5 dxe5 17.Nxg4 Nxg4 18.Qxg4 f5 19.Qe2 Nd7 20.h5 And now Na4 would win. Bh7 20...Bf7 21.g4 21.Rac1± 21...e4= 22.gxf5 Bxf5 23.Bf4 Nf6 24.d6 Kh7 24...Qc6= 25.Qd2 25.Rad1± 25...Qc6 26.Rad1 Rad8 27.Nd5 Nxh5 Threatens to win with ...Bd4. 28.Bh2 28.Qc1!= remains equal. 28...Bd4! 29.Ne7?      
29.Ne3 is a better chance. Rg8 30.Qe2 30.Nxf5? Rxg2+ 31.Kxg2 e3+ 32.Kf1 Qh1+ 33.Ke2 Qxh2-+ 29...Rxe7!-+       Remove Defender 30.dxe7 Rg8 ( -> ...Qg6) 31.e8Q? 31.Re3 Qg6 32.Bg3 Nxg3 33.fxg3 Qxg3       Pin 34.Rde1 31...Qxe8 31...Rxe8? 32.Kh1-+ 32.Kh1
32...Rxg2!       33.Kxg2 Qg6+ 34.Bg3 Bg4 34...Qg4 35.Rh1
35...e3!      
35.Qc1 Bf3+ 36.Kh2 Nxg3 Accuracy: White = 30%, Black = 59%.
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Paehtz,E2466Kosteniuk,A25320–12019A62Cairns Cup 20191.1
Dzagnidze,N2513Krush,I24350–12019A37Cairns Cup 20191.2
Gunina,V2501Khotenashvili,B24911–02019C84Cairns Cup 20191.3
Harika,D2471Sebag,M2476½–½2019B51Cairns Cup 20191.4
Zatonskih,A2428Abdumalik,Z24680–12019D84Cairns Cup 20191.5
Krush,I2435Gunina,V2501½–½2019A06Cairns Cup 20192.1
Kosteniuk,A2532Zatonskih,A2428½–½2019C42Cairns Cup 20192.2
Sebag,M2476Abdumalik,Z2468½–½2019C84Cairns Cup 20192.3
Harika,D2471Dzagnidze,N2513½–½2019D20Cairns Cup 20192.4
Khotenashvili,B2491Paehtz,E24661–02019A11Cairns Cup 20192.5
Abdumalik,Z2468Kosteniuk,A25320–12019C78Cairns Cup 20193.1
Gunina,V2501Harika,D2471½–½2019C42Cairns Cup 20193.2
Paehtz,E2466Krush,I2435½–½2019B67Cairns Cup 20193.3
Zatonskih,A2428Khotenashvili,B24911–02019A56Cairns Cup 20193.4
Dzagnidze,N2513Sebag,M24761–02019B51Cairns Cup 20193.5
Sebag,M2476Kosteniuk,A25320–12019C47Cairns Cup 20194.1
Krush,I2435Zatonskih,A24281–02019D31Cairns Cup 20194.2
Dzagnidze,N2513Gunina,V25010–12019B11Cairns Cup 20194.3
Khotenashvili,B2491Abdumalik,Z24680–12019A45Cairns Cup 20194.4
Harika,D2471Paehtz,E2466½–½2019E73Cairns Cup 20194.5
Kosteniuk,A2532Khotenashvili,B24911–02019D94Cairns Cup 20195.1
Abdumalik,Z2468Krush,I24350–12019B13Cairns Cup 20195.2
Gunina,V2501Sebag,M24761–02019B90Cairns Cup 20195.3
Zatonskih,A2428Harika,D2471½–½2019D31Cairns Cup 20195.4
Paehtz,E2466Dzagnidze,N2513½–½2019B90Cairns Cup 20195.5
Krush,I2435Kosteniuk,A2532½–½2019E39Cairns Cup 20196.1
Gunina,V2501Paehtz,E24661–02019E00Cairns Cup 20196.2
Harika,D2471Abdumalik,Z24681–02019C50Cairns Cup 20196.3
Dzagnidze,N2513Zatonskih,A24281–02019D00Cairns Cup 20196.4
Sebag,M2476Khotenashvili,B2491½–½2019C47Cairns Cup 20196.5
Kosteniuk,A2532Harika,D2471½–½2019C19Cairns Cup 20197.1
Zatonskih,A2428Gunina,V25010–12019E10Cairns Cup 20197.2
Khotenashvili,B2491Krush,I24351–02019D02Cairns Cup 20197.3
Abdumalik,Z2468Dzagnidze,N2513½–½2019C11Cairns Cup 20197.4
Paehtz,E2466Sebag,M2476½–½2019B90Cairns Cup 20197.5
Gunina,V2501Abdumalik,Z2468½–½2019A34Cairns Cup 20198.1
Dzagnidze,N2513Kosteniuk,A2532½–½2019E20Cairns Cup 20198.2
Sebag,M2476Krush,I24351–02019B66Cairns Cup 20198.3
Harika,D2471Khotenashvili,B2491½–½2019A10Cairns Cup 20198.4
Paehtz,E2466Zatonskih,A2428½–½2019C42Cairns Cup 20198.5
Kosteniuk,A2532Gunina,V2501½–½2019C65Cairns Cup 20199.1
Krush,I2435Harika,D24711–02019E94Cairns Cup 20199.2
Khotenashvili,B2491Dzagnidze,N25130–12019D00Cairns Cup 20199.3
Abdumalik,Z2468Paehtz,E24661–02019C97Cairns Cup 20199.4
Zatonskih,A2428Sebag,M24761–02019D11Cairns Cup 20199.5

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Antonio is a freelance writer and a philologist. He is mainly interested in the links between chess and culture, primarily literature. In chess games, he skews towards endgames and positional play.

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