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

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):

Round three: Zhao Xue becomes the sole leader

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

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.

• Full report on round three here

Round four: Zhao Xue still on maximum score

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

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.

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...

Current standings

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Copyright ChessBase