Khanty 07: Leaders advance

The fourth stage of the the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series 2013-2014 is taking place at the Ugra Chess Academy, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from the 8th of April until the 22nd of April 2014. It is a twelve-player round robin with time controls of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, with 30 minutes plus an additional 30 seconds per move for the rest of the game. The total prize fund is 60,000, with the winner getting 10,000 Euro.

Round Seven

Round seven action

The young audience got a treat today

Girya, Olga 1-0 Kosteniuk, Alexandra

Today Alexandra Kosteniuk was on the receiving end of a brilliancy

Muzychuk, Anna 1-0 Zhao Xue
Zhao Xue certainly did not equalize from the opening, and once Muzychuk broke the center open with d4 it was clear that too many of the Chinese player's pieces were misplaced. An obvious and simple exchange sacrifice, which on top of that gave the Slovenian player two pawns, ripped apart Black's king shelter and from then on it was easy for Muzycuhk to win the game.

Anna Muzychuk (right) took out an important competitor today

Hou Yifan 1-0 Ushenina, Anna
The rematch between the World Champion and the ex-World Champion culminated and yet another victory for Hou Yifan. Their previous encounter, in the European Club Cup, also favored the Chinese. This time Hou Yifan stayed away from the main theoretical routes, but Ushenina got an acceptable position. At some point though she miscalculated the transition to the endgame and her opponent accurately calculated the consequences of the rook endgame, which ended with Hou Yifan simply queening her pawns.

"Not this girl again!"

Hou Yifan somehow seems to have Anna Ushenina's number

Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Stefanova, Atoaneta
An unusual Spanish variation lead to an unusual game. In the major piece endgame White tried to trap Black's queen out of activity by sacrificing a pawn, but Stefanova gave it back to force a drawn rook endgame.

Tatiana Kosintseva only has 2.5/7.
Batchimeg Tuvshintugs is the only player behind her.

Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg 0-1 Muminova, Nafisa
The players essayed a topical variation of the Rubinstein Nimzo-Indian and the game was approximately equal for a while, both of them trying to do as much as they could with their strategical advantages. Disaster came for the Mongolian player when she moved 24.Rf1?? missing the devastating 24...Ng4!! After that happened the game was basically over.

A little friendly chat before the game turned
into a lot of blood spilled over the board

Dzagnidze, Nana ½-½ Lagno, Kateryna
Dzagnidze must have been surprised by Lagno's opening choice as she forced a repetition in a still theoretical position.

Nana was probably not expecting the Gruenfeld defense

An easy and solid half point with black for Kateryna

Round Seven Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Standings

Photos by Nikolay Bochkarev, from the official website

Schedule and results

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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.