Lopota 07: Sun setting in Georgia

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 seven

The swimming pool hasn't been used by the players almost at all...

More room for the Georgian men's team, which arrived yesterday for a training session, to use!

Arbiter Marika Japaridze keeps everything under control

Ju Wenjun 1-0 Stefanova, Antoaneta
A very one sided game. Stefanova's early aggression was justified but she had to follow it up with care and precision, which she did not, and that led to her position collapsing by move 15.

Stefanova simply couldn't hold her position early on

Ju Wenjun is always looking at different angles to her positions

Dzagnidze, Nana 0-1 Hou Yifan
The game of the day, at as far as results go. Hou Yifan equalized without problems in a rare version of the Bogo-Indian. Dzagnidze's response seemed very mild at best and despite having the pair of bishops she had no advantage in the resulting closed position.

Dzagnidze's plan starting with 17.g4?! was misguided and some simplifications really put a spotlight on how weak her structure was and how much better the Chinese player's knight was compared to her own. Although technique in this game wasn't accurate in every move, Hou Yifan did play well enough to keep her slight advantage, turn it into real practical problems and in time pressure take an important victory.

Win after win. Hou Yifan's performance approaches 3000.

Harika, Dronavalli ½-½ Zhao Xue
Zhao Xue opened the game with 1.Nf3 b5!?, a speculative move at best. That being said the game did follow the Kramnik-Carlsen game from 2011... granted it was a rapid. At some point the Indian player must have made a mistake because by move 15 it was clear that Zhao Xue had enough pressure on the c4 pawn to maybe even claim a slight advantage.

The Chinese player had no problems taking this pawn for free and it seemed that she was cruising to victory, but her technique let her down. She played rather passively but always hanging on to her extra pawn. The mistake came late in the game when she played the inexplicable 41...g5? which allowed her opponent to threaten checkmate on g7 forcing Zhao Xue to give a perpetual. 41...e5 would have won the queen endgame without problems.

The innovator: Zhao Xue

Muzychuk, Anna ½-½ Koneru, Humpy
Muzychuk seemed to have some home prep as she obtained pressure in a dry Petroff. Her second Emil Sutovsky really shining in this game. However it seemed as if Koneru had enough to hold her own until Muzychuk bluffed with the move 22.h4!?. The pawn sacrifice does not seemed justified but Koneru was too scared to take it!

After that White's advantage was significant. Muzychuk squandered some opportunities by trading off too many pieces instead of using the ones she had on the board to create real pressure.

Anna came in with good ideas but couldn't bring the full point home

Humpy was certainly happy with a draw today

Kosteniuk, Alexandra 1-0 Khotenashvili, Bela
Playing the modern defense is always a double-edged sword. The idea is usually to avoid theory and get into complex positions early on. This backfired enormously on Khotenashvili who was simply lost by move 15. Kosteniuk held the advantage in every single sector of the board; the fact that the Georgian player lasted 17 more moves before basically being mated was almost a miracle.

Danielian, Elina 1-0 Muminova, Nafisa
The Armenian's ultra-aggressive set-up with long castling paid off quickly:

Elina created an attack out of seemingly nowhere

A beautiful sunset captured by Alina l'Ami. Breathtaking!

Standings after seven rounds

Round seven games

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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.