"Kazakhstan vs The World": "The World" takes the lead

As part of the World Championship match in Kazakhstan, a women's team of Kazakhstan plays a match against a team with some of the best women players in the world. Eight women (plus one substitute) per team will play two days of rapid chess and one day of blitz chess over three days (17-19 April). The venue is the International Financial Centre in Astana.

The Kazakh team includes the country's top players Bibisara Assaubayeva, Zhansaya Abdumalik and Dinara Saduakassova. The world team is led by Hou Yifan.

The Kazakh team

The World's team

Gulmira Dauletova, Women's GM and Executive Director of the Kazakh Chess Federation, is the team captain for Kazakhstan. Dana Reizniece-Ozola takes over this task for the World Selection.

Four players per team will be junior players from the U14, U16, U18 and U20 age groups. A double Scheveningen system will be used.

The board points are added and will give the final result. In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by lot.

The prize money is $50,000 USD: the winning team will receive $30,000 USD of this, with $20,000 USD divided equally between the adult players and $10,000 USD between the youth players. The runners-up will receive $20,000 USD.

The rapid games are played with a time limit of 15+10, the blitz games are played with a time limit of 3+2.

The idea for this match came from GM Darmen Sadvakasov. He is a five-time national champion of Kazakhstan and a former World Junior Champion.

The world selection won the first round 4.5:3.5. In the second round, the World Selection even came to a 5.5:2.5 victory. Round three went to the World Selection with 5:3. In the fourth round, the Kazakh team finally also won a round, 4.5:3.5.

Best players were Harika Dronavalli and Zsoka Gaal (16) for "The World" and Alua Nurmanova (U16) for Kazakhstan.

After the first day "The World" leads 18.5:13.5. 

Games

Links

Official site