In round six, the first round after the rest day, Humpy Koneru had a clearly winning position against Alice Lee. The Indian GM, however, made a mistake in a hard-fought position and lost.
IM Alice Lee has now beaten three grandmasters in this tournament - Kosteniuk, Deshmukh and Koneru - while drawing against two others, Assaubayeva and Tan. Lee's only defeat came against IM Tsolakidou. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Both players followed a long theoretical line in the Nimzo-Indian. Lee was clearly better prepared and quickly built up a huge advantage on the clock. Her plan to capture the a-pawn with the knight was not the best, however. Koneru initially gained the advantage, but then missed a sacrifice on g7, and the young American punished the mistake ruthlessly and in impressive fashion.
Round 6 results
The game between the tournament leader and the player at the bottom of the standings ended in a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Tournament leader Tan Zhongyi faced former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, who had made a disastrous start to the event. After opening with four defeats, Kosteniuk scored her first half-point against Stavroula Tsolakidou in round five. Against the leader, she added another half-point to her tally. The game ended after 49 moves. The position remained within drawing margins throughout. After a fighting Queen's Gambit Accepted, the two players reached an endgame with two knights each, which ended in a repetition of moves.
A prominent visitor at the Cairns Cup: Arjun Erigaisi has travelled to Saint Louis from the Esports World Cup in Paris | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The game between Anna Muzychuk and Vaishali Rameshbabu also passed without any major excitement. After another draw in which the position remained balanced throughout, Muzychuk has 3 points after signing six draws. Vaishali is 1 point behind her.
Carissa Yip, by contrast, will have reason to be frustrated. She had a clearly better position against Bibisara Assaubayeva, but apparently fell for a bluff. On move 29, Assaubayeva began a dubious knight manoeuvre. Yip could simply have taken the piece with a pawn or first captured the g-pawn on the kingside. Instead, she appeared to be taken by surprise and made two mistakes over the next three moves. The position suddenly became equal and the game ended in a draw.
The two chasers Stavroula Tsolakidou and Divya Deshmukh agreed to a draw after an evenly balanced game | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Divya Deshmukh was unable to make use of a slight initiative in the endgame and drew against Tsolakidou. In round seven, she will face leader Tan. Tan has 4½/6, while Divya is on 3½. It is therefore an important game for both players: can Deshmukh draw level, or can Tan pull further ahead with a win? Assaubayeva and Tsolakidou will face each other - both are level with Deshmukh in the chasing group.
| Advertising |
.jpeg)