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Tan Zhongyi and Alice Lee remained perfect after the second round of the Cairns Cup in Saint Louis, scoring their second consecutive victories to share the lead on 2/2. Three of the five games ended decisively, while the other two were solid draws in which neither side managed to create serious winning chances.
Round 2 results
Lee collected a second straight victory, this time against fellow overnight leader Divya Deshmukh. As in her first-round win over Alexandra Kosteniuk, the US rising star eventually reached a rook ending with an extra pawn.
The position remained defensible, but Lee continued to apply pressure and gradually outplayed her opponent to secure the full point. Deshmukh consequently dropped back to 1/2.
Annotations by Stefan Liebig
Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Tan followed up her opening-round win over defending champion Carissa Yip by defeating Humpy Koneru. The Indian grandmaster had missed a winning opportunity in round one before settling for a draw, and suffered a more difficult result on Tuesday.
The key moment came when Tan found the strong 25.b4!, which opened lines and placed Black under immediate pressure.
Koneru was soon forced to give up an exchange.
The resulting compensation for Black proved insufficient. Tan maintained control thereafter and converted to move to 2/2.
Round two in progress | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Yip recovered from her first-round defeat by beating Kosteniuk. Against the Petroff Defence, Yip adopted an ambitious setup by pushing her kingside pawns, setting an aggressive tone early in the game. Yip's advantage became increasingly substantial, and by the later stages Kosteniuk's best practical chance was to exchange queens on move 34.
34...Qf6? allowed Yip to continue pressing with 35.Rf3, while her queen occupied a dominant central position on e4. Yip converted without much difficulty.
Carissa Yip | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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