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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.
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.
Attacking with the Jobava London System
The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.
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.
A few photos from behind the scenes at Norway Chess 2024! These were captured during the player interviews before the first round.
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) May 27, 2024
Photos: Abhyudaya Ram#chess #chessbaseindia #norwaychess #magnuscarlsen #praggnanandhaa #hikarunakamura pic.twitter.com/xT4hsCcDOH
Armageddon
| 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 |
Improve your chess with Tania Sachdev
On this DVD, well-known Indian WGM Tania Sachdev shows you how to evaluate certain positions and then find the right concepts and plans on the basis of her own games.
