Norway Chess Women: Vaishali stuns Humpy, grabs the lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/29/2024 – R Vaishali became the sole leader at the inaugural edition of the Norway Chess Women tournament after beating Humpy Koneru in their round-2 classical confrontation. Top seeds Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie stand in shared second place after defeating Anna Muzychuk and Pia Cramling, respectively, in Armageddon tiebreakers. | Photo: Stev Bonhage

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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.

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, Anna Muzychuk

Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk | Photo: Stev Bonhage

Vaishali 1 - 0 Humpy

Analysis by André Schulz

Vaishali Rameshbabu, Humpy Koneru

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

Standings after round 2

Rk Name FED Rtg Pts
1 R Vaishali IND 2489 4
2 Ju Wenjun CHN 2559 3
Lei Tingjie CHN 2548 3
4 Anna Muzychuk UKR 2505 2
Pia Cramling SWE 2449 2
6 Humpy Koneru IND 2545 1.5

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

<< Norway Chess: Carlsen beats Naka in Armageddon, leads
Jan Markos: Middlegame Secrets Vol.3 - The Career Paths of Bishops >>
Topics: Norway Chess 2024, Vaishali Rameshbabu
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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Norway Chess Women: Ju, Lei and Humpy prevail in Armageddon

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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Norway Chess: Three draws, three Armageddon deciders

5/28/2024 – All three classical games ended drawn in round 1 of the Norway Chess super-tournament. In the subsequent Armageddon tiebreakers, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and R Praggnanandhaa (pictured) prevailed to become the early co-leaders. The much anticipated clash between Carlsen and world champion Ding Liren saw the contenders agreeing to a 14-move draw in the slow game and Carlsen comfortably holding a draw with black in Armageddon. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram
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