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.
In this Video-Course we deal with different dynamic decisions involving pawns. The aim of this Course is to arm club/tournament players with fresh ideas which they can use in their own practice.
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
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
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
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All games - Armageddon
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.
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