A second sole leader
Valentina Gunina entered the tournament at the exact same rating as Nana Dzagnidze — 2507, tied for places 3-4 in the starting rank. After four rounds, Dzagnidze led the tournament with the only perfect score. Gunina, after giving up an early draw in round two, won three straight, and in the past two rounds she has faced two former world champions: Anna Ushenina and Mariya Muzychuk. Gunina walked a tightrope after an exchange sacrifice against Ushenina, who did not find a way to make progress and acquiesced to a draw on move 30.
Top results of round seven
The key game of the round, with Gunina facing the top-seeded Muzychuk, turned out to be a one-sided affair.
The Italian Game is considered a sound but quiet opening without early trades, giving rise to rich positions where plans are more important than forced variations. So shows black's plans on this DVD.
A bitter setback in the title race for top favorite Mariya Muzychuk | Photo: Official site
Gunina leads the table with six points after this win. On her heels are six players, including Antoneta Stefanova. The Bulgarian is also able to call herself a world champion — she held the title from 2004 to 2006. In Vysoke Tatry, as usual, she shows her refreshingly unconventional style and scores well. In round six she won against the German player Sarah Hoolt, in the next round she defeated the strong Belarusian youngster Olga Badelka.
FM Claus Dieter Meyer has put under the microscope a comprehensive fund of topical and timeless games / fragments. On video Hamburg GM Dr. Karsten Müller has outlined corner points of Meyer's work and created 14 tests plus 10 interactive test sets.
Antoneta Stefanova | Photo: Official site
Besides Stefanova there's a relatively large group of Gunina's pursuers with 5½ points. Among them is Irina Bulmaga, who got a huge break from her opponent on move 41.
Based on his own playing experience, Grandmaster Daniel King reveals what is essential knowledge, saving you time in your studies. In the first section of the DVD he takes you through typical motifs and themes. In the second section he tests your knowledge with typical scenarios from actual games.
Video: 4 hours.
The players have just gained an extra 30 minutes on the clock, and despite black's extra pawn, in a queen ending there is no clear way to win after 41.Kh1. But White spent just a minute to play 41.Kg1? allowing the transition to a losing king and pawn endgame. 41...Qe3+ 42.Kf1 (42.Kh1 Qc1 43.Kh2 Qf4+ is no better) Qf4+ and Black's kingside majority decides.
The last player to reach 5½ with a seventh-round win is the biggest surprise: Klaudia Kulon, at 2319 Elo, has won four in a row. She too was able to capitalize on a big oversight from Marina Nechaeva, this time in the middlegame.
Play the winning move on the live diagram
Nechaeva played 37...Qd7 with equality but missed a golden opportunity to gain a winning advantage. Can you spot it?
Marina Nechaeva in 2016 | Photo: Andreas Kontokanis CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr
37.Ndf4! would have won. The pin on the long diagonal is crushing. After the forced 38.Bxe6 Nxe6 white has no way to stop a powerful ...f4 advance from coming in short order, and White cannot survive for long without suffering material losses.
Instead, Kulon grabbed the initiative with 38.h4 f4 39.Qf3 Ndc7 40.Bb4
This time the last move of the first time control was black's undoing. 40...Rd8 was mandatory, aiming to exchange queens. After 40...Rf5? the game is beyond saving.
41.Qe4! Rf7 42.h5 Kh8 43.Rd2 and White is in full control with her queen invading to g6 next. Kulon won without much difficulty.
The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.
Standings after seven rounds (top 20)
All games rounds 1-7
Translation from German and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson
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