European Women's Championship: Hoang in the sole lead

by ChessBase
3/8/2012 – The leader after four rounds, GM Marie Sebag, drew her next two games, while GM Thanh Trang Hoang won both of hers to tally up 5.5/6 points with a 2727 performance. Sebag, Gunina, Foisor and Cmilyte are half a point behind the Hungarian player (Hoang), and five more players with 4½ points behind them before the free day on Thursday. Round six report.

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The European Individual Women Chess Championships are being held from 2 to 13 March, 2012, in the Anatolian Hotel in Gaziantep, Turkey. The event will be followed by the European Rapid Championship and European Blitz Championship (15-18 of March). The EIWCC consists of eleven games. The rate of is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. Games start at 16:00h local time.

Organizers and prize fund: The Turkish Chess Federation, with the sponsorship and support of the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, under the auspices of the City of Gaziantep and the European Chess Union, provided a prize fund of 150,000 Euro for all three events. This is the biggest prize fund in the history of European Women's Chess events. For the first time in the chess history the European Women's Champion will get a higher prize sum, 20,500 Euros, than the Champion of the (Open or "Men's") European Individual Championship, which will be held in Plovdiv after this event.

Round five

The tournament leader, French GM Marie Sebag, who had thus far maintained an absolute result, gave away her first half a point, making a draw against the Russian IM Valentina Gunina. She was immediately caught by Cristina-Adela Foisor, who defeated Nino Khurtsidze. The Georgian player blundered a rook in slightly better endgame and had to resign immediately.

[Event "European Women's Championship"] [Site "GAZIANTEP"] [Date "2012.03.06"] [Round "?.2"] [White "Khurtsidze, Nino"] [Black "Foisor, Cristina-Adela"] [Result "0-1"] [PlyCount "76"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Bg4 4. cxd5 Bxf3 5. dxc6 Bxc6 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. f3 e6 8. e4 Be7 9. Be3 O-O 10. Be2 a6 11. a3 b5 12. O-O Qb8 13. Qc2 Qb7 14. Rfc1 Bd7 15. Nb1 Rfc8 16. Nd2 a5 17. Nb3 Be8 18. Nc5 Qb8 19. Bd3 Nd7 20. e5 Nxc5 21. dxc5 g6 22. c6 Ra6 23. Be4 Qa8 24. Qc3 a4 25. Rc2 Rb8 26. Bc5 Bxc5+ 27. Qxc5 Qa7 28. Qxa7 Rxa7 29. Rd1 Kf8 30. Rd4 Ra6 31. Kf2 f5 32. exf6 Kf7 33. Ke3 Kxf6 34. Rc5 Rbb6 35. Kd2 Bxc6 36. Bxc6 Rxc6 37. Rxb5 Rd6 38. Rbb4 (38. Rbb4 c5 {and White loses a rook.}) 38... c5 0-1

Thanh Trang Hoang became the third leader after beating Nastassia Ziaziulkina with the black pieces. Behind Sebag, Foisor and Hoang at 4½ points there were six players at four points. Nana Dzagnidze and Nadezhda Kosintseva, players from top ten, were still unable to improve their tournament situation.

Round six

Hungarian GM Thanh Trang Hoang took over the sole lead after beating her sixth round opponent Olga Girya (who exchanged queens and got a disadvantage knight endgame). On the first board Cristina-Adela Foisor allowed Marie Sebag to get an advantage. Under the time pressure the French GM offered a draw even though she still had winning chances.

Valentina Gunina, who had the black pieces against Antoaneta Stefanova, gave away two pawns for the attack. Former women's world champion grabbed the material and got a position with clear edge, but her inaccurate play let Black find the way to her king. Stefanova was mated on move 77.

[Event "European Women's Championship"] [Site "GAZIANTEP"] [Date "2012.03.07"] [Round "?"] [White "Stefanova, Antoaneta"] [Black "Gunina, Valentina"] [Result "0-1"] [PlyCount "154"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. e3 Bf5 7. Rc1 e6 8. Qb3 Bb4 9. Bb5 O-O 10. Bxc6 Bxc3+ 11. Rxc3 bxc6 12. f3 Nh5 13. Ne2 Nxf4 14. Nxf4 Rb8 15. Qa3 Rb5 16. Rxc6 Qb8 17. b3 e5 18. Ne2 Bd3 19. Qd6 Qe8 20. dxe5 d4 21. exd4 Qa8 22. Rc7 Rd5 23. Qe7 a5 {White is now three pawns up and clearly winning.} 24. e6 Rf5 25. Qd6 fxe6 26. Ng3 R5f6 27. Nh5 R6f7 28. Rxf7 Rxf7 29. Kd2 Bf5 30. Rc1 a4 31. b4 Qe8 32. Ng3 Rd7 33. Qf4 Bg6 34. Rc5 Qd8 35. Ke3 h6 36. Ne2 a3 37. Qe5 Bb1 38. Nc3 Bf5 39. g4 Bg6 40. Ne4 Kh7 41. g5 h5 42. h4 Qb6 43. Rb5 Qa6 44. Qb8 Rf7 45. Nd2 Qa4 46. Nb3 Rf8 47. Qb7 Rf7 48. Qb8 Rf8 49. Qb6 Qa8 50. Qb7 Qd8 51. Qc6 {White is still two pawns up, but her advantage is slipping rapidly.} Be8 52. Qc2+ Bg6 53. Qc3 Qe7 54. Ke2 Rf4 55. Rb8 Rxh4 56. Qc8 $2 {Understandable: a mate-in-one threat should save the day, shouldn't it? } Rh2+ 57. Ke1 Bc2 58. Nd2 Rh1+ 59. Kf2 Rh2+ 60. Ke1 Rh1+ 61. Kf2 Rh2+ 62. Ke1 Bd3 63. f4 Qd6 64. Qg8+ Kg6 65. Nf3 $2 {White was in a bad way, but now it is a forced win for her opponent.} Rh1+ 66. Kf2 Rf1+ 67. Kg2 Rxf3 (67... Qd5 68. f5+ Kxf5 69. Rf8+ Kg4 {was even more devastating.}) 68. Kxf3 {and Black mates.} Qd5+ 69. Kg3 h4+ 70. Kxh4 Qh1+ 71. Kg3 Qe1+ 72. Kh3 Bf5+ 73. Kg2 Be4+ 74. Kh3 Qh1+ 75. Kg3 Qg2+ 76. Kh4 Qf2+ 77. Kh3 Bf5# {What a tragedy for the former women's world champion.} 0-1

Before the free day Hungarian GM Thanh Trang Hoang (above) has 5.5 points in her pocket. Four other participants, Marie Sebag, Valentina Gunina, Cristina-Adela Foisor and Viktorija Cmilyte, are half a point behind.


The youngest participant, Nisa Sahin Hayrun, acquiring experience in tournments

Top standings after six rounds     

#
Sd
 Ti.
Name Rtng
FED
Pts
Perf
BH.
BH.
wins
1
21
GM
Hoang Thanh Trang 2438
HUN
2727
16½
19
5
2
7
GM
Sebag Marie 2512
FRA
5
2685
22
25
4
3
8
IM
Gunina Valentina 2511
RUS
5
2683
19
21½
4
4
31
IM
Foisor Cristina-Adela 2398
ROU
5
2667
20
20½
4
5
9
GM
Cmilyte Viktorija 2497
LTU
5
2658
19
22
5
6
6
GM
Kosintseva Tatiana 2513
RUS
2586
20½
23½
4
7
1
IM
Muzychuk Anna 2583
SLO
2571
18½
21
3
8
20
IM
Khurtsidze Nino 2447
GEO
2534
18½
21
4
9
3
GM
Lahno Kateryna 2546
UKR
2514
15½
18
3
10
29
WGM
Paikidze Nazi 2406
GEO
2365
16
18
3
11
5
GM
Stefanova Antoaneta 2531
BUL
4
2515
20
23
3
12
51
WGM
Schleining Zoya 2326
GER
4
2515
19
19½
3
13
33
WGM
Guramishvili Sopiko 2395
GEO
4
2492
19
21
3
14
28
WGM
Girya Olga 2406
RUS
4
2475
19½
22
3
15
17
WGM
Pogonina Natalija 2449
RUS
4
2447
15½
18
2
16
15
IM
Mkrtchian Lilit 2458
ARM
4
2444
15½
18½
3
17
12
GM
Danielian Elina 2478
ARM
4
2444
14½
16½
3
18
30
IM
Melia Salome 2400
GEO
4
2419
17
18½
3
19
24
IM
Romanko Marina 2417
RUS
4
2416
14
16
3
20
19
IM
Javakhishvili Lela 2448
GEO
4
2412
17
18½
2
21
26
IM
Repkova Eva 2416
SVK
4
2410
15
17
3
22
25
IM
Gaponenko Inna 2416
UKR
4
2407
16
18½
3
23
23
GM
Zhukova Natalia 2435
UKR
4
2385
13
14½
3
24
46
WIM
Goryachkina Aleksandra 2341
RUS
4
2327
15½
16
3

Remaining schedule

Thursday March 8
Free – International Women Day
Friday March 9
15:00
7th Round
Saturday March 10  
15:00
8th Round
Sunday March 11
15:00
9th Round
Monday March 12
15:00
10th Round
Tuesday March 13
11:00, 19:00  
11th Round, Closing Ceremony
Wednesday   March 14
Departure-Arrival Day
Thursday March 15
Rapid
Friday March 16
Rapid
Saturday March 17
Blitz
Sunday March 18
Blitz
Monday March 19
Departure Day

All photos by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich, with kind permission of the TCF


Links

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