Chengdu R2: No one perfect

The city of Chengdu in China is hosting the Women's World Chess Team Championship from April 18th to 28. The organizers are Chinese Chess Association, FIDE World Chess Federation, with the support of Board and Card Administrative Center of General Administration of Sport of China and Chengdu Municipal Government.

The best teams of the world will participate in the coming championship, among which the previous event's Women’s World Team Champion, the three highest-placed teams in the FIDE Olympiad prior to the event, the four Continental Champions, a team from the organizing federation, a team to be nominated by FIDE President. The ten countries are: China, Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, Poland, Armenia, Georgia, Egypt and Kazakhstan. Every team consists of five players and the team-winner will be determined in a round-robin event after 9 rounds. Time control is 90 minutes per 40 moves and thirty minutes until the end of the game plus 30 seconds increment per move.

This year's participants are Kazakhstan, India, China, USA, Ukraine, Russia, Gerogia, Armenia, Poland and Egypt.

Round Two

The arbiter, hard at work

The plalyers get wanded down before the game. No cell phones, no cheating!

Ju Wenjun lost in the highest rated single encounter of this tournament

A nice game by Humpy who took out Ju Wenjun. Black's weaknesses on the center led to problems on the backrank ultimately. Ju Wenjun launched a counter-attack, but a cold blooded king walk finished the game perfectly. Meanwhile Lei Tingjie punished Mary Ann Gomes' weaknesses on a Benoni after the Indian's counterplay was squelched.

Lei Tingjie is a Chinese prodigy. She's 2444 and only 17. There is only one person higher rated and younger than her: Aleksandra Goryachkina who is playing for Russia in this tournament. We will see how quickly Lei Tingjie's career takes off, she has been stuck at the same rating for about a year.

Armenia posing before an important game

Gunina's second loss in a row came in a very strange game. Not knowing important details in a sharp Ragozin, she found herself in a lost position out of the opening. The last 30 or 40 moves of the game did not have to be played. Meanwhile Gaboyan was doing a good job of holding Girya to a draw, but she inexplicably went for complications instead of playing solid in a drawish position, and Girya won the game.

Elina Danielian demolished Valentina Gunina

Not even the stiffest of stare-downs helped Susanna Gaboyan today

Amina Sherif from Egypt

The skill difference in this match-up was never in question.

Two mating attacks on the bottom boards gave a full point to each team:

Karina Sczepkowska-Horowska wins longest name and most consonants in a row

Klaudia Kulon saw herself in the wrong side of a mating net

Katerina Nemcova comes from a strong performance in the U.S. Chess Championship

Finding time to pose while delivering checkmate: Alisa Melekhina was America's only win today

Ukraine put the World Champion in, but not her sister

Young Zhansaya Abdumalik was powerless against Mariya Muzychuk

Ukraine came back with a vengeance! After being humiliated by Poland over the board, the Ukrainian team took out on Kazakhstan. Muzychuk showed a clearly better understanding of the Sveshnikov over Abdumalik, while Ushenina and Gaponenko won nice games with White. Things could have been worse for Kazakhstan as Dauletova was lost against Zhukova.

Replay Round Two Games

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Standings

Schedule

Round 1 - April 19, 15:00 Beijing

Round 2 - April 20, 15:00 Beijing

Round 3 - April 21, 15:00 Beijing

Round 4 - April 22, 15:00 Beijing

Round 5 - April 23, 15:00 Beijing

Round 6 - April 25, 15:00 Beijing

Round 7 - April 26, 15:00 Beijing

Round 8 - April 27, 15:00 Beijing

Round 9 - April 28, 11:00 Beijing

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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.