Kazan GP Rd.4: Hou Yifan loses again, Danielian in the sole lead

by ChessBase
6/13/2012 – The women's world champion is definitely out of sorts. After losing in the second round to the bottom seed she lost today, again with the white pieces, against Lituanian GM Viktorija Cmilyte. Four games were decisive, and the win by Elina Danielian against Tatiana Kosintseva brought the Armenian GM 3.0/4 and sole first place, with a 2703 performance. Round four report.

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From June 9 to 23, 2012 Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, will play host to the FIDE Women's Grand Prix, part of a series of elite events organised by FIDE and Global Chess. There will be six tournaments over two years in various countries around the world. The winner of each tournament takes home 6,500 Euros, the total prize fund is 40,000 Euros. The overall winner will get a further 15,000 Euros at the end of the series. Starting time of the games is 15:00h (check your local time here).

Round four

In this round four players succeeded in winning their games. But the surprise was that world champion Hou Yifan lost a second game in the tournament, this time against Viktorija Cmilyte, and once again with the white pieces. The Chinese player had some problems with development after the opening and got into trouble. Viktorija Cmilyte got an advantage and converted the game into a better ending, where the power of two bishops proved to be decisive.


Lithuanian GM Viktorija Cmilyte (right) in her game against GM Hou Yifan of China


The reigning women's world champion is having a very bad spell

Elina Danielian (above right), playing with white against Tatiana Kosintseva, sacrificed an exchange in the middle game and created strong attack on the black king in return. With very little time left the Russian player could not find an exact defence and had to resign on the 39th move.

Humpy Koneru (above right) and Betul Yildiz ran out of time in the endgame, which looked more pleasant for black. But the Turkish player made a mistake which immediately changed evaluation in favor of Humpy Koneru, who did not give any chances to the opponent and converted her advantage into full point.

Alisa Galliamova (above left) lost her second game in a row. This time she was defeated by Nadezhda Kosintseva, who used inaccurate play by her opponent in the middle game.


Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk during round four

Two tense games Anna Muzychuk-Katerina Lahno and Alexandra Kosteniuk-Antoaneta Stefanova ended in draws.

GM Anna Muzychuk 2598
½-½
GM Keteryna Lahno 2546
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk 2457
½-½
GM Antoaneta Stefanova 2518
IM Alisa Galliamova 2484
0-1
GM Nadezhda Kosintseva 2528
GM Hou Yifan 2623
0-1
GM Viktorija Cmilyte 2508
GM Elina Danielian 2484
1-0
GM Tatiana Kosintseva 2532
GM Humpy Koneru 2589
1-0
WGM Betul Cemre Yildiz 2333

Standings after four rounds of play

Replay all games of round four on our Javascript player


Video stream of the round

The Russian organisers are providing a HD video stream
of the action with expert commentary from Kazan.

Photos and reports by Anastasiya Karlovich and Rashit Shiriyazdanov, with kind permission of FIDE

Links

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.


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