6/20/2024 – Alexandra Kosteniuk was the only player to score a full point in round 6 of the Cairns Cup. Kosteniuk’s win over Mariya Muzychuk left her tied for second place with Harika Dronavalli, as they stand a half point behind sole leader Tan Zhongyi. In the one decisive game of the round, Muzychuk blundered in a materially balanced minor-piece endgame. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Instead of focusing on a rigid repertoire, the course presents key games, important strategic ideas, and opening knowledge to equip you with the essential tools to outmanoeuvre your opponents.
€49.90
5 decisive games in 6 rounds
A fighter at heart, Alexandra Kosteniuk has been one of the contenders in more than half the games that ended decisively so far at the Cairns Cup in Saint Louis. After six rounds, 9 encounters have finished with decisive results, and Kosteniuk has played in 5 of them. The Swiss representative has won 3 games, lost 2 and only drawn once in the women’s event taking place at the World Chess Hall of Fame.
Round 6 saw Kosteniuk beating Mariya Muzychuk with the white pieces. The younger of the Muzychuk sisters played the Caro-Kann Defence and got a slightly better position out of the opening. A mistaken rook swap by Muzychuk allowed Kosteniuk to restore the balance, and the contenders eventually reached an endgame with a pair of bishops (for white) against a knight and a bishop with two pawns per side. The evaluation remained balanced until Muzychuk blundered on move 56.
Kosteniuk v. M. Muzychuk
56...Kg5 (instead of 56...Kf6 or 56...Kf5) was the losing mistake - see full analysis of the game below
Kosteniuk made the most of her opponent’s mistake and went on to score a 68-move victory.
Thanks to this win, Kosteniuk leapfrogged M. Muzychuk in the standings, as she now stands in shared second place a half point behind sole leader Tan Zhongyi. Kosteniuk is tied on points with Harika Dronavalli, who drew Anna Zatonskih with white on Wednesday.
Round 7 will see Tan playing white against Elisabeth Paehtz, while both Kosteniuk and Harika will play with the black pieces, against Zatonskih and Anna Muzychuk respectively.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.
Mariya Muzychuk analysing the position from a different perspective | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
2nd Move Anti-Sicilian Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12090 games from Mega 2025 or the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 874 are annotated.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes, Andrew Martin guides you through all the key ideas you need to know to play with confidence. Whether you’re looking to surprise your opponents, or simply want a straightforward weapon against e5, the Centre Attack has you covered.
€9.90
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