Norway Chess Women: Vaishali stuns Humpy, grabs the lead

The first classical win in Stavanger

Out of the six classical games played so far at the Norway Chess tournaments — both the open and the women’s — only one has finished decisively, and the player who won this one game was Indian rising star R Vaishali. The 22-year-old stunned Humpy Koneru in the second round to become the sole leader in the women’s event. Vaishali prevailed with the white pieces in a double-edged encounter which saw Humpy failing to make the most of her advantage in the early middlegame.

Standing at a 1-point distance from the leader are Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie, who won Armageddon tiebreakers in rounds 1 and 2 after drawing their classical encounters. The two Chinese stars, who are also the highest-rated players in the field, collected wins with white over Anna Muzychuk and Pia Cramling, respectively, in Tuesday’s round.

Ju found a nice tactical shot to convert her clear advantage against Muzychuk in the rapid tiebreaker.

The prosaic 32.Rxd6 is winning for White, grabbing a crucial pawn and increasing an already major positional advantage. However, much stronger is 32.Bxh6, as played in the game — after 32...Qxf6, White counts with 33.Bg5+, a killer discovered check.

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There followed 33...Kg7 34.Bxf6+ Rxf6 35.Bxc6 bxc6, and the white queen is clearly stronger than Black’s rook and bishop. The world champion went on to convert her advantage into a 48-move victory.

Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk | Photo: Stev Bonhage

Vaishali 1 - 0 Humpy

Analysis by André Schulz

Vaishali, Rameshbabu2490

1–0

Koneru, Humpy2545

Norway Chess Women 2024 Stavanger28.05.2024[Schulz,A]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d3 h6 6.h3 d6 7.Na4 Bb6 8.a3 Ne7 9.Nxb6 axb6 10.Be3 10.c3 Ng6 11.0-0 0-0 12.Re1 Be6 13.Bxe6 fxe6 14.b4 Nh5 15.Ra2 Nhf4 16.g3 Nxh3+ 17.Kg2 Ng5 18.Nxg5 hxg5 19.Qg4 Kf7 20.Bxg5 Qd7 21.d4 Ke8 22.a4 Qf7 23.Ree2 Rh8 24.a5 b5 25.Re1 c6 26.a6 Rxa6 27.Rxa6 bxa6 28.Ra1 Kd7 29.Rxa6 Rh2+ 30.Kxh2 Qxf2+ 31.Kh1 Qf1+ 32.Kh2 Qf2+ 33.Kh1 Qf1+ 34.Kh2 Qf2+ ½-½ Schulze,L (2309)-Klek,H (2364) German Masters (Women) Darmstadt 2022 (4) 10...Ng6 11.Nd2 0-0 12.h4 d5 13.exd5 Nxd5 14.h5 Nge7 15.g4

White plays very impetuously. 15...b5 15...f5!? 16.gxf5 Nxf5 17.Qe2 b5 18.Bb3 Kh8-+ 16.Bb3 16.Bxb5?? Nxe3 17.fxe3 Qd5-+ 16...Be6 17.Rg1 Nxe3 18.fxe3 Bxb3 19.Nxb3 Nd5 20.Qf3 b4 21.a4 Ra6 22.Qe4 Qh4+ 23.Ke2 Rf6?! More solid was 23...Rd8 24.Nd2 Qe7 24.Rg2?! 24.Qxd5?? Qf2+ 25.Kd1 Qxg1+ 26.Kd2 Rf2# 24.Raf1!? Rxf1 25.Rxf1 Nf6 26.Rh1= 24...Rd8 25.Rag1 Rc6 26.Kd2 Qg5 27.Re2 Qe7 28.Kc1 The white king has at least managed to castle long artificially. Nf6 29.Qf5 Nh7 30.Rd1 Ng5 31.d4 e4

32.a5 Rf6?! 32...b6!? with the idea of 33.a6 Rcd6 34.Kb1 c5-+ 33.Qb5 c6 33...b6 34.Qc5= Qe6 35.Rg2 Rd5?! 35...Rf3= 36.Qxb4 White has won a pawn and consolidates her position in the next few moves. Rb5 37.Qc3 Nf3 38.Kb1 Qd5 39.Nc5 Ng5 40.b3 Rf3 41.Kb2 b6 The pawn break comes too late. 42.axb6 Also strong was 42.a6 bxc5 43.a7 Qd8 44.dxc5 Qa8 45.Qe5 Qxa7 46.Rd8+ Kh7 47.Qe8 Black is mated. 42...Rxb6 43.Ra1 Rb8 44.Ra7 Rf1 44...Rd8 45.Na6+- 45.Rd7 The queen is trapped. 1–0

Improve your Tactics

The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.

R Vaishali won the all-Indian confrontation against Humpy Koneru | Photo: Stev Bonhage

Standings after round 2

All games - Classical

All games - Armageddon

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.

Links

• Official site
• Nakamura beats Caruana to win Norway Chess (2023)
• Magnus Carlsen wins Norway Chess for a fourth straight time (2022)
• Carlsen wins Norway Chess, Firouzja shines (2021)