Lopota 05: Unstoppable?

The fifth stage of the the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series 2013-2014 is taking place in Lopota, Georgia from the 19th of June until the 1st of July 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 five

What are these sausages doing there?! Find out in our rest day report next time around!

The last Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk was a one sided tournament. Hou Yifan had no problem taking the event and crushing the competition; are we seeing a repeat of this dominance?

Hou Yifan 1-0 Stefanova, Antoaneta
Stefanova's set-up was not as usual as it seemed, and actually her position had interesting strategical ideas by having strong pressure against the weak d4 pawn. However she made the mistake of putting too much pressure there before finishing development and her king in the center proved to be too weak. In a very unpleasant position, but far from lost, Stefanova committed a blunder and it was all over by move 25.

Hou Yifan's latest victim: Antoaneta Stefanova

Hou Yifan is still under strong pressure from two players trailing by only half a point

Ju Wenjun 1-0 Zhao Xue
A very tense battle. Ju Wenjun's early exploits in the kingside looked more dangerous than what they actually were, but Zhao Xue wasn't able to create huge amounts of counterplay either. White's pressure continued well into the endgame. In time trouble a critical position was reached; Zhao Xue had the choice of capturing a pawn but transposing into a dangerous-looking pawn endgame or trying to survive down the pawn. She chose the latter which proved to be the wrong choice.

Ju Wenjun won again. She is happy about it!

Zhao Xue fell to both of her Chinese compatriots this tournament

Dzagnidze, Nana 1-0 Koneru Humpy
Despite Dzagnidze's early slight advantage from the opening it seems it was the Indian player that was more in tune of the demands of the position and she slowly outplayed her opponent. White's awkward pieces left her struggling for equality, but she was never much worse. The tables quickly turned when Koneru blundered a simple combination that netted the Georgian a pawn and the initiative. From then on Dzagnidze did not look back and she converted the full point.

An important game for the top standings

Harika, Dronavalli ½-½ Khotenashvili, Bela
A very even game all through-out. White's Catalan reached a typical structure in which Black had an extra pawn but they were tripled on the open c-file. White was never able to actually take this pawn and by the time she did the game was simplified enough to the point it was nothing but a dead draw.

Bela Khotenashvili is tied with Zhao Xue and Alexandra Kosteniuk,
normally a good thing but not in this tournament

Harika is only a point behind Hou Yifan

Muzychuk, Anna 1-0 Muminova, Nafisa
Another game that showed the dangers of leaving your king in the center:

Nafisa has only been able to accumulate half a point so far

Anna sits in the middle of the field with 3.0/5

Kosteniuk, Alexandra ½-½ Danielian, Elina
White's advantage going into the endgame was obvious: the pair of bishops gave her good chances there. However she immediately started to misplay it and she underestimated how weak her bishop on a2 would become. Danielian's pieces swarmed the kingside and took pawn after pawn. In a winning position the Armenian player then made mistake after mistake, squandering all of her advantage. Kosteniuk salved the game but made it hard on herself by going in to a rook and bishop vs. rook endgame (she didn't quite need to do this) and had to suffer for many hours to hold the draw.

Alexandra and Elina fought to their last breath for a draw

Standings after five rounds

Round five Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos and information by Alina l'Ami, 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.