European Women's Ch: Fighting chess

Round 2

Already on the second day of action, eight out of the ten top boards finished drawn, and Goryachkina split the point once again, despite out-rating her opponent by over two-hundred points. And they were not short draws, as only Badelka v Khotenashvili on board two did not reach the time control. In fact, upsets were seen in both decisive encounters. Russian IM Evgenija Ovod took down top French player Marie Sebag and the veteran from Scotland Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant got the better of Polina Shuvalova.

Ovod calculated precisely to find the right way to go after Sebag underestimated her attacking chances:

Power Play 20: Test Your Attacking Chess

Grandmaster Daniel King presents ten exemplary attacking performances. At key moments he stops and asks you to play a move. King then gives feedback on the most plausible continuations. It’s the next best thing to having your own personal trainer!

Try your own variations on the diagram above!

Marie had just continued her queenside expansion with 21...b4, failing to notice that it was necessary to defend f7 and e6 with a move like 21...♛f8 or 21...♜e8. Evgenija thought for fifteen minutes before choosing the correct way to start the attack: 22.♘exf7. After 22...♜xf7 23.♖xe6 ♛d8 24.♕g6 Black managed to stave off the direct threats against her king, but ended up in a miserable ending after having lost way too many pawns:

After having reached the time control, Sebag gave up in this position.

Marie Sebag has enough time to bounce back | Photo: Official site

An instructive endgame snippet was seen in the game that faced Russians Anastasia Bodnaruk against Elena Semenova. The general principle of trying to keep your pawns on the opposite colour of your bishop is key in this case:

Chess Endgames 11 - Rook against Bishop

The more reduced the material, the more important it is to correctly assess the potential of your own and the enemy pieces. This is particularly true in endgames with unbalanced material. This DVD begins with a discussion of asymmetrical material balances, including
rook against bishop, rook and knight against two bishops, two rooks against rook and bishop, queen and rook against queen and bishop, rook and knight against bishop and knight, rook against two bishops.
Video running time: 8 hours 26 min.

Bodnaruk closed the deal with 65.h7+ ♚h8 66.♗g6!, and Black cannot capture the bishop without allowing either the h or f-pawn to queen. Semenova continued with 66...♝b3, but the white bishop went on to grab the pawns on f7 and e6 to eventually get the full point after 74 moves.

All fighting for the fourteen spots at the World Cup | Photo: Official site

Round 3

Eight players had managed to get two straight wins before round three, but they all signed peace treaties when paired against each other — boards one and two did it quickly, while the battles on boards three and four lasted 46 and 65 moves, respectively. 

A couple of curious incidents were the talk of the town on Saturday. First, Ana Matnadze forgot about a basic trick in the Sicilian Dragon against Pia Cramling and was already lost as early as move 9:

The Accelerated Dragon - a sharp weapon against 1.e4

After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6! leads to the so-called "Accelerated Dragon Defense". On this DVD the Russian grandmaster and top women player Nadezhda Kosintseva reveals the secrets of her favourite opening.

9...♞g4? gives up a piece after 10.♗xg4 ♝xg4 11.♘xc6 ♝xd1. Ana could have resigned with a clear conscience at that point, but instead chose to grieve for a while at the board and only gave up after move 30. With this win, Pia joined the leading pack and was paired against Elina Danielan in round four. 

Cramling had it easy on Saturday | Photo: Official site

Those following the game Maria Gevorgyan versus Deimante Cornette live probably thought there was some problem with the broadcasting of the moves or that some strange episode led to the game ending in a playable albeit difficult position for Black. Can you find the way to defend against Black's threats? White to move:

The most logical way to continue is with 24.0-0-0, and that is precisely what Gevorgyan did. The reason this move was not shown on the broadcast, however, is that castling long is an illegal move! White had played 14.♖b1 and then returned with 16.♖a1, making it impossible to castle on that side. Sadly for Cornette, she did not realize this was the case and went on to lose the game after a long struggle. Incredible!

Eight rounds to go | Photo: Official site

Standings after Round 3 (top 30)

...130 players

All games

Links

• Official site
• Full results (Chess-Results)
• European Championship for Women starts in Antalya