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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 and Anna Muzychuk | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Analysis by André Schulz
R Vaishali won the all-Indian confrontation against Humpy Koneru | Photo: Stev Bonhage
| 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 |
