
Women's World Championship
Ekaterinburg, Russia, March 10–27, 2006
The World Women's Championship is being held from 10-27
March 2006, in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
The knockout event has 64 participants, with reigning
world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria defending her title.
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Today
the next big favourite stumbled: Alexandra Kosteniuk is number four in the
current FIDE women's rankings, but will move to number two in the April 1st
list (with only Judit Polgar ahead of her), thanks to her great performancs
at the recent Aeroflot tournament, where she won around 17 Elo points.

Alexander Kosteniuk, out in round three
In round three of the FIDE Women's World Championship Alexandra drew her first
game with white against Viktorija Cmilyte, an IM and WGM from Lithuania, who
happens to be Alexei Shirov's wife. In the second game Cmilyte launched a double
rook attack on the seventh rank, took the full point and had a ticket to the
next round.

The happy winner: IM Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania
France's Marie Sebag drew both her regular games against Qin Kanying of China,
then both ladies won their rapid games with black. In the blitz games Sebag
won twice to proceed to round four.

China's Qin Kanying, knocked out by...

...the only western European left in the event: Marie Sebag of France
Ex women's world champion Maia Chiburdanidze also had a long struggle, drawing
both her regular and rapid games against China's Ju Wenjun. Maia went through
to the next round by winning both her blitz games.

Georgia's long-time world champion Maia Chiburdanidze
Alisa Galliamova of Russia vs Iweta Radziewicz of Poland was the big drama
of the day. In their regular game Galliamova traded down to a rook and bishop
vs rook ending, which was a theoretical draw. But she wanted to test Radziewicz
defensive skills, her nerves or just her constitution and kept trying to win
the position for another fifty moves.

Triumph and tragedy are just a move apart: Iweta Radzievicz
After that came the rapid chess tiebreak games, and this is what happened
in the first one:
Galliamova,A (2467) - Radziewicz,I (2421) [A46]
FIDE WCh Women KO Ekaterinburg RUS (3.3), 16.03.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.c3 e6 4.Bf4 Nc6 5.e3 cxd4 6.exd4 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0
8.Qc2 d6 9.Nbd2 Re8 10.0-0 Bf8 11.Rfe1 h6 12.h3 b6 13.b4 Bb7 14.b5 Na5 15.Nb3
Bxf3 16.Nxa5 bxa5 17.gxf3 Nd5 18.Bg3 Rc8 19.c4 Qf6 20.Qd2 Nb6 21.Rac1 e5 22.Qxa5
exd4 23.Rxe8 Rxe8 24.Qxa7 Qg5 25.Rc2 Qc5 26.Kg2 Ra8 27.Qb7 Ra3 28.Qe4 g6 29.Bf4
Nd7 30.Bc1 Nf6 31.Qe2 Ra8 32.Rb2 Re8 33.Qd2 d5 34.Rc2 Ne4 35.fxe4 dxe4 36.Bxe4
Rxe4 37.Qd3 Qf5 38.Qf3 Qe5 39.c5 f5 40.b6 (40.c6 and 41.b6 was quite
a simple win) 40...Bxc5.
White is still winning and should proceed with 41.Qb3+ Kg7 42.Qb5 and the
exchange of queens. Instead Galliamova played an unsound exchange sacrifice:
41.Rxc5 Qxc5 42.Qb3+ Kg7 43.b7.
Looks good for White? Not really, because the intended 44.b8Q is met with
44...Rg4+ 45.Kf1 Qxc1+ 46.Ke2 Re4+ 47.Kf3 Qh1+ 48.Kg3 f4+ 49.Qxf4 Qg1+ 50.Kf3
Rxf4+ 51.Kxf4 Qxf2+ and Black has ended a pawn up. After a longish think Galliamova
probably saw this all and went for 44.Kh2. But that turns
out to be much worse, since it allows 44...Re1 and the threat of 45...Qh1+
with mate in three cannot be adaquately met. There was a collective groan in
the Polish language when Iweta, after some thought, missed the knockout punch
and played 44...Qc7+. Now Black's task is much harder, though
she should still probably win. 45.Kg2 Re8 46.Bb2 Rb8 47.Bxd4+ Kh7 48.Qe6
Qxb7+ 49.Kh2 Rd8 50.Qf6 Qd7 51.Be5 Rg8 52.a4 g5 53.a5 f4 54.a6 h5 55.Qb6.

Black has thrown away her winning chances, and now hands them over to the
opponent: 55...g4? Now White has excellent winning chances
after 56.Qb1+, but probably out of sheer exhaustion (and lack of time on the
clock) Galliamova plays 56.a7?, handing the win back over
to Black. 56...g3+ 57.fxg3 and now 57...Qd2+ 58.Kh1 Qd5+ 59.Kh2
Qxe5 would win. But after 57...fxg3+? the result was only
a draw. A score of Polish fans watching the game on Playchess were in deep
turmoil, especially since their player ran into a knight fork in the second
rapid game and was unceremoniously knocked out of the tournament.

Through to round four: Alisa Galliamova
It is interesting to note that of the 13 top ranked players 11 have already
been eliminated. Only the fourth and fifth seeds, Maia Chiburdanidze and Xu
Yuhua remain in the competition. There are three Russians left in the event,
two Georgians, and one participant each from China, Lithuania and France. Russia
had 13 players at the start of the event, Georgia six, China nine.

Mystery lady: IM Nino Khurtsidze of Georgia

Still in: IM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, runner-up of the WWCC 2004

Alexandra Kosteniuk with a dear friend

What happened to mommy? Meet Moxi, the resident of Alexandra's handbag

The playing hall in Yekaterinburg

Performers at the opening ceremony of this Women's World Championship

The theatre, centre of cultural activities in Yekaterinburg
All photos by courtesy of Pufichek, www.kosteniuk.com
Results of round three
Name |
Rtng |
G1 |
G2 |
R1 |
R2 |
B1 |
B2 |
SD |
Total |
Round 3 Match 01 |
Galliamova, Alisa (RUS) |
2467 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
|
|
|
2.5 |
Radziewicz, Iweta (POL) |
2421 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
|
|
|
1.5 |
Round 3 Match 02 |
Sebag, Marie (FRA) |
2415 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
4 |
Qin, Kanying (CHN) |
2469 |
½ |
½ |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2 |
Round 3 Match 03 |
Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina (RUS) |
2458 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
½ |
|
|
|
2.5 |
Peng, Zhaoqin (NED) |
2407 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
½ |
|
|
|
1.5 |
Round 3 Match 04 |
Kosteniuk, Alexandra (RUS) |
2514 |
½ |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
0.5 |
Cmilyte, Viktorija (LTU) |
2475 |
½ |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
1.5 |
Round 3 Match 05 |
Ju, Wenjun (CHN) |
2290 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
0 |
|
2 |
Chiburdanidze, Maia (GEO) |
2511 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
1 |
|
4 |
Round 3 Match 06 |
Xu, Yuhua (CHN) |
2502 |
½ |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
1.5 |
Kosintseva, Tatiana (RUS) |
2479 |
½ |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
0.5 |
Round 3 Match 07 |
Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman (IND) |
2479 |
½ |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
0.5 |
Matveeva, Svetlana (RUS) |
2428 |
½ |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
1.5 |
Round 3 Match 08 |
Khurtsidze, Nino (GEO) |
2430 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
Hou, Yifan (CHN) |
2269 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
Schedule
Opening Ceremony/Players' meeting |
10 March |
Round 1: |
2 days play + tiebreaks |
11-12 March |
Round 2: |
2 days play + tiebreaks |
13-14 March |
Round 3: |
2 days play + tiebreaks |
15-16 March |
Free Day |
1 day free |
17 March |
Round 4: |
2 days play + tiebreaks |
18-19 March |
Round 5: |
2 days play + tiebreaks |
20-21 March |
Free Day |
1 day free |
22 March |
Round 6: |
4 days play |
23-26 March |
Tie-breaks/Closing Ceremony: |
27 March |
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