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

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.

• Full report here with a guess-who photo at the end

Standings after four rounds of play

Replay all games of round four on our Javascript player

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

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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.