Mariya Muzychuk leads in the Monaco GP

The FIDE women’s Grand Prix cycle for the year 2015-16 has begun with the first leg being held in Monte Carlo, Monaco from the 3rd to the 15th of October 2015. The Grand Prix (GP) cycle consists of four tournaments being held in period of 2015-16. The schedule for these events is as follows:

1. Monte Carlo, Monaco, 3rd-15th October 2015
2. Kish, Iran, February 2016
3. Tbilisi, Georgia, May 2016
4. Chengdu, China, July 2016

The players have to select any three of the above events, and their aggregate points from those three events will decide the eventual winner. The GP champion qualifies for the World Women’s Championship Match (Challenger) in 2017. In case the World Women Champion and the winner of GP cycle are the same then the second place in the GP standings gets a chance to challenge the World Champion.

16 players will be playing in the Grand Prix cycle. Four are from World Championship, Sochi 2015

1. Mariya Muzychuk (World Champion)
2. Natalija Pogonina (World Championship finalist)
3. Pia Cramling (Semi-finalist)
4. Dronavalli Harika (Semi-finalist)

Six players by rating

1. Hou Yifan
2. Koneru Humpy
3. Nana Dzagnidze
4. Ju Wenjun
5. Anna Muzychuk
6. Valentina Gunina

Two nominations by FIDE President

1. Alexandra Kosteniuk
2. Antaoneta Stefanova

For the remaining four players, one player will be nominated in each leg by the organizers.

After this introduction about the FIDE Grand Prix cycle 2015-16, let us turn our attention to the Monaco GP which is being held in the Monte Carlo Casino.

The twelve participants on the rest day (from left to right front row): Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, Pia Cramling, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalija Pogonina, Humpy Koneru, Anna Muzychuk, Mariya Muzychuk; (back row left to right): chief arbiter Anastasia Sorokina, Hou Yifan, Almira Skripchenko, Nataliya Zhukova, Nana Dzagnidze. The player who is missing is Antanoeta Stefanova.

Let’s have a look at the cross table after four rounds:

Reigning World Champion, Mariya Muzychuk,
leads by a full point after four rounds with a score of 3.5/4

Mariya started the tournament with a brilliant technical endgame display against Antanoeta Stefanova. She used her two bishops to create weaknesses on both flanks and penetrated with her king. This first game was good enough to convince us that the reigning world champion was in excellent form.

In her next round she made short work of Nana Dzagnidze in a game that lasted only twenty moves. Let’s have a look at that one:

With 2.0/2 Mariya seemed invincible. But she was stopped in her tracks by the lowest rated player in the tournament, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh of Iran, in the third round. After a long struggle the players agreed to a draw.

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (2397), who is playing for the first time at such a high level tournament, has been doing very well with draws in the first three rounds against the Muzychuk sisters and Nataliya Zhukova. She lost her fourth round game to Alexandra Kosteniuk.

In the fourth round, Mariya faced Zhukova, and the two played quite a sedate variation of the Anti-Grunfeld which reached the following position after ten moves:

Nataliya Zhukova – Mariya Muzychuk, round four

Black to play

Three games had reached exactly the same position that we have on the board above, the most important being Ni Hua against Wei Yi from September 2015. In all those battles the black player went for the simple 10…Bg7. After 11.Bxc3 Bxc3 12.dxc3 the position is roughly about equal, with some chances for White. As Mariya Muzychuk said after the game, “I did not want to play for just two results. I wanted to go for three!” She played 10…Ne4 11.Bxh8 f6, which is objectively dubious but practically not so easy to play for both players due to the unconventional material balance.

After 17 moves, Black’s pawn structure was a complete wreck with all the pawns being isolated and a couple of them being doubled. But Mariya kept fighting and in the end was rewarded with a full point.

The post-game conference between Zhukova and Muzychuk. Look how sure Zhukova was
about the merits of her position right until the very end, but was unable to hold the game.

With a win against Mariya, Nataliya Zhukova (above) could well have been the joint leader,
but instead she lost and is now in the tenth position with 1.5/4

Just like the World Cup in Baku, the organizers have disallowed the players from carrying
their own pens and watches to the tournament hall – as an anti-cheating measure

The highest rated women’s player in the world, Hou Yifan, is having not such a great event. She beat Pia Cramling convincingly but won from a nearly lost position against Natalija Pogonina. She drew with Anna Muzychuk and lost her game to Humpy Koneru from a very promising position. In spite of this loss, Hou Yifan is in joint second position.

You usually do not see Hou Yifan as quiet and as she was in this press conference

How about a nice round of roulette? No, this was at the
drawing of colours: Humpy Koneru with her mother Latha

Humpy had a wonderful start to her tournament. Not only was she 2.5/3 but had also beaten Hou Yifan in their personal encounter. However, in the fourth round, she lost from a very comfortable opening position against Stefanova.

Antanoeta Stefanova is having a topsy turvy event. Wins against Humpy Koneru and
Alexandra Kosteniuk have been offset by losses to Pia Cramling and Mariya Muzychuk

Pia Cramling is in joint second position with a score of 2.5/4

The French/Moldovan-Russian connection – Almira Skripchenko (left)
shares a light moment with Alexandra Kosteniuk before the start of the game

Almira has been having quite a bad event with two draws and two losses and is currently in the eleventh position with 1.0/4. On the other hand, Kosteniuk is doing pretty well with 2.5/4.

Recently wed Pavel Tregubov and Aleksandra Kosteniuk, proud owner of a selfie stick

Refreshments are available to all the players, with selected chocolates, juices and tea

Absolutely! Russian IM Natalija Pogonina

Natalija should not have lost her game to Hou Yifan. But in spite of that loss, she is doing quite decently with 2.0/4, scoring an important win against Anna Muzychuk

Be sure not to miss some excellent live commentary on the official website by
the living legend Ljubomir Ljubojevic (assisted by strong grandmaster Jeroen Piket)

The older Muzychuk, Anna, has not been able to keep up with her sister and is currently on 1.5/4.

In last position after four rounds is Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov acknowledging the efforts of the chief sponsor of the event

WIM Anastasia Sorokina is the chief arbiter of the event

Lovers of the game might recall the strong tournament held in Monaco 1967, which was won by….

….none other than the great Bobby Fischer!

An appeal to our French readers who understand this cartoon, specially made for the
FIDE Women’s Grand Prix: please explain it to us in the comments section below!

The translation, supplied by Richard Mathews, Australia, is: "It seems that some (women) are stronger than the men?!!" – "Evidently, after all one gives check to the king rather than the queen."

Pictures from the official website

Addendum

In the meantime round five is over and it produced the following results:

Round 5 on 2015/10/08 at 15:00

Ranking Crosstable after Round 5

Links Official tournament site Download 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 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.