Nalchik GP: Zhao Xue still with a perfect score after four rounds

by ChessBase
10/12/2011 – The 26-year-old Chinese GM has won all her games at the FIDE Grand Prix that is being staged in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. This translates to a nominal performance of 3289. In second place is another Chinese player, WGM Ju Wenjun. Before the free day on Thursday we bring you a big illustrated report from Nalchik on rounds three and four.
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The third stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged from 8th to 23rd of October in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, in the Hotel Sindika. The playing days are October 9-12, 14-17, 19-21, the rounds start at 15.00h Moscow time (13:00h CEST, 7 a.m. New York)..

There are with twelve titled GM participating. Women's world champion Hou Yifan is not one of them, nor is her challenger Koneru Humpy – the two will play the title match in November. The following are the participants in Nalchik (in rating order and with Wiki links):

1
 Nadezhda Kosintseva 
RUS
GM
 2560
2
 Katerina Lahno
UKR 
GM 
 2554
3
 Tatiana Kosintseva  
RUS
GM
 2536
4
 Ju Wenjun
CHN
WGM
 2536
5
 Antoaneta Stefanova
BUL
GM
 2528
6
 Viktorija Cmilyte
LTU
GM
 2525
7
 Alisa Galliamova
RUS
IM
 2498
8
 Zhao Xue
CHN
GM
 2497
9
 Zhu Chen
QTR
GM
 2490
10
 Alexandra Kosteniuk
RUS
GM
 2469
11
 Munguntuul Batkhuyag
MGL
 IM
 2465
12
 Ekaterina Kovalevskaya
RUS
 IM
 2421

Round three: Zhao Xue becomes the sole leader

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

 Ti. Name Rtng  Ti. Name Rtng
Res.
GM Lahno Kateryna 2554 IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina 2421
½-½
GM Zhu Chen 2490 IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2467
1-0
GM Zhao Xue 2497 IM Galliamova Alisa 2498
1-0
GM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2560 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2469
1-0
GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2528 GM Cmilyte Viktorija 2525
½-½
GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2536 WGM Ju Wenjun 2536
½-½

Chinese GM Zhao Xue climbed to absolute first place, having managed to win all three initial games. On Tuesday in the third round she defeated Alisa Galliamova with the white pieces.

The Russian IM managed to equalize the game after the opening, but then started to play desperately, and on the 30 move she made a mistake and lost a pawn. Zhao took a good advantage of her opponent’s mistake and in the endgame she confidently realized her extra material.

Zhao Xue (2497) - Galliamova,A (2498) [D45]
Nalchik WGP 2011 Nalchik RUS (3), 11.10.2011
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 b6 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.0-0 Be7 9.Rd1 0-0 10.b3 Rc8 11.Bb2 c5 12.cxd5 exd5 13.dxc5 bxc5 14.Ne2 g6 15.Qc3 Qb6 16.Rac1 Rfd8 17.Ne5 Nxe5 18.Qxe5 Qe6 19.Qg3 Nh5 20.Qf3 Bf6 21.Bxf6 Nxf6 22.Qf4 Kg7 23.h3 a5 24.Rd2 Nd7 25.Bb5 Ne5 26.a4 h6 27.h4 Qe7 28.Rcd1 Rd6 29.Qg3 Rcd8 30.Rc1 Rf6 31.Rdc2

31...Rc8? 32.f4 Nd7 33.Bxd7. Deflecting the queen. 33...Qxd7 34.Rxc5 Rxc5 35.Rxc5 Qe7 36.Rc3 Qb4 37.Qe1 Re6 38.Qd2 Rc6 39.Kf2 Rxc3 40.Qxc3+ 1-0.

Two more games ended decisively: former women's world champion Zhu Chen (above) was stronger than Munguntuul Batkhuyag: the Mongolian IM played an unfortunate opening and lost a piece at move 20. Top seed Nadezhda Kosintseva defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk, who missed a tactical shot on move 38.

Kosintseva,N (2560) - Kosteniuk,A (2469) [C42]
Nalchik WGP 2011 Nalchik RUS (3), 11.10.2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.c4 c6 9.Qc2 Na6 10.a3 f5 11.Nc3 Nc7 12.b4 Qe8 13.Bb2 Kh8 14.c5 Be7 15.Ne5 Bf6 16.Ne2 a5 17.f3 axb4 18.axb4 Rxa1 19.Rxa1 Qh5 20.Rf1 Qh6 21.Bc1 Ng5 22.Nf4 g6 23.Re1 Qg7 24.Bf1 Nf7 25.Nfd3 Nd8 26.Nf4 Nf7 27.Bb2 Kg8 28.b5 Nxe5 29.dxe5 Bg5 30.Bc1 Bxf4 31.Bxf4 Ne6 32.Bd2 f4 33.Bb4 Rf5 34.Qa2 Qc7 35.Qb2 b6 36.cxb6 Qxb6+ 37.Qf2 Qxf2+ 38.Kxf2

38...c5? 39.Bxc5 Nxc5 40.Rc1 Bb7 41.Rxc5 Rf8 42.b6 Rc8 43.Rxc8+ Bxc8 44.Ke2 Kf7 45.Kd3 g5 46.Kd4 Ke6 47.Bd3 h6 48.Bh7 1-0.

Round four: Zhao Xue still on maximum score

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

 Ti. Name Rtng  Ti. Name Rtng
Res.
IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina 2421 WGM Ju Wenjun 2536
½-½
GM Cmilyte Viktorija 2525 GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2536
1-0
GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2469 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2528
0-1
IM Galliamova Alisa 2498 GM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2560
½-½
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2467 GM Zhao Xue 2497
0-1
GM Lahno Kateryna 2554 GM Zhu Chen 2490
½-½

Chinese GM Zhao Xue won her fourth game in a row, this time with the black pieces against a Worrall Attack in the Closed Ruy Lopez played by her opponent IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul from Mongolia. This give Huao Xue a perfect score and an astronomical performance rating of 3289.

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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Qe2 The Worrall Attack in the Closed Ruy Lopez. In 1992 Nigel Short used this twice against Anatoly Karpov and won both games. b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.d3 Bb7 10.Nbd2 Re8 11.a3 Bf8 12.Re1 h6 13.Ba2 Nb8 14.b4 Nbd7 15.Bb2 c5 16.exd5 Nxd5 17.Ne4 Qb6 18.Qd2 Qg6 19.c4? bxc4 20.dxc4 Nf4 21.Nh4 Qg4 22.f3 Nh3+ 23.Kf1 Qxh4 24.Qxd7 Bxe4 25.Qxh3 Qxh3 26.gxh3 Bxf3 The dust has cleared and Black is a healthy pawn up. 27.b5 e4 28.a4 Re6 29.Bb1 Be7 30.Ra3 Rd8 31.Rxf3 Desperation - but the game cannot be saved. exf3 32.Rxe6 fxe6 33.bxa6 Ra8 34.Kf2 Rxa6 35.Bc2 Rb6 36.Ba3 Rd6 37.Kxf3 Rd2 38.Be4 Rxh2 39.Bc1 Rxh3+ 40.Ke2 Rc3 41.Bd2 Rxc4 42.Bc6 Rc2 43.Kd3 Ra2 44.Bc3 Bf6 45.Bxf6 gxf6 46.Kc4 Kf7 47.Kxc5 Ke7 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Munguntuul,B2465Zhao Xue24970–12011C86Nalchik WGP 20114


Two losses in two rounds: Mongolian IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul


In second place with a 2702 performance: WGM Ju Wenjun

In the above picture we see two former world champions: Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk lost her third game in a row (after winning game one), against Bulgarian GM Antoneta Stefanova, who had the black pieces.


Another Russian GM, Tatiana Kosintseva (above in blue), was defeated by...


... GM Victoria Cmilyte from Lithuania


Fifty percent with four draws: GM Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine

Current standings

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