Norway Chess Women: Ju, Lei and Humpy prevail in Armageddon

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/28/2024 – Much like in the open section, all three classical games ended drawn in round 1 of the Norway Chess women’s tournament. In the Armageddon tiebreakers, rating favourites Ju Wenjun, Lei Tingjie (pictured) and Humpy Koneru all came out on top and are now sharing the lead with 1½ points each. In the most imbalanced classical encounter of the day, Pia Cramling failed to make the most of a clear advantage against Humpy. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

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Rating favourites score

Remarkably, the organizers of the Norway Chess super-tournament decided to put forth a parallel women’s competition with an identical number of players, the same format and an equivalent prize fund — i.e. the players are fighting for a share of the 1,690,000 NOK (approx. 160,000 USD) prize fund, with 700,000 NOK (approx. 67,000 USD) reserved for the winner.

World numbers 2, 3 and 5 in the women’s FIDE ranking made their way to Stavanger, and all three rating favourites prevailed in the round-1 Armageddon tiebreakers after signing draws in the classical encounters. Ju Wenjun defeated R Vaishali with white, Lei Tingjie got the better of Anna Muzychuk with black, and Humpy Koneru drew Pia Cramling with black.

Cramling was the one closest to scoring a win in the slow game, as she got a clear advantage against Humpy in a queenless middlegame.

Cramling v. Humpy

White here lost her advantage by capturing the pawn with 26.Rxa6. Crucial was to keep the rook on the fifth rank, either with 26.Rg5 or 26.Rd5. The main idea is to give up an exchange if the black knight jumps to f5, since White’s main trump in the position is the very annoying pawn on g7 — a potential Rf8 might be decisive eventually.

After the text, on the other hand, there followed 26...Kb7 27.Ra3 Nf5, allowing Black to coordinate her pieces successfully.

White still had a slight edge, but Humpy showed good defensive skills until getting a 37-move draw. As mentioned above, the Indian star drew the ensuing tiebreaker to grab 1½ points.

Muzychuk 0 - 1 Lei

Armageddon

Muzychuk, Anna25050–1Lei, Tingjie2548
Norway Chess Women Armageddon 2024
Stavanger27.05.2024[CC]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.e5 Nfd7 7.N2f3 Nc6 8.Bf4 Be7 9.Bb5 Qb6 10.c3 Nc5 11.Qc2 Bd7 12.Be2 Nxd4 13.Nxd4 0-0 14.0-0 Rac8 15.Be3 a5 16.a4 Qc7 17.f4 f6 18.exf6 Bxf6 19.Nb5 Qb8 20.Rae1 Kh8 21.Qd1 b6 22.Bd4 Ne4 23.g3 e5 24.fxe5 Bxe5 25.Bg4 Bxb5 26.axb5 Rcd8 27.Bf5
This is a losing blunder, played when White had a slight advantage with the bishop pair. Better was 27.Bf3 also threatening the knight, e.g.: Bxd4+ 28.Qxd4 Rfe8 27...Bxd4+ 28.Qxd4 Nxg3
Likely what Muzychuk missed! 29.Re7 29.hxg3 Qxg3+ 30.Kh1 Rf6 is devastating: 31.Re6 Rxf5 32.Rxf5 Qh3+ 33.Kg1 Qxf5 with a winning queen and rook endgame for Black 34.Re2 Rf8 29...Rf7 Another brilliant tactical shot, deflecting the rook away from the e-file! 30.Rxf7 30.Rfe1 Rxe7 31.Rxe7 Nxf5 wins easily. 30...Ne2+
31.Kg2 Nxd4 32.cxd4 Rf8 Black forces simplifications, and her queen is stronger than the rook and bishop on the open board. 33.Bd7 Rxf7 34.Rxf7 Qd6 35.Bf5 g6 36.Bd7 Qb4 37.Rf2 Qxd4 38.Be6 Qe4+
0–1

Standings after round 1

Rk Name FED Rtg Pts
1 Ju Wenjun CHN 2559 1.5
Lei Tingjie CHN 2548 1.5
Humpy Koneru IND 2545 1.5
4 Anna Muzychuk UKR 2505 1
R Vaishali IND 2489 1
Pia Cramling SWE 2449 1

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All games - Armageddon

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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