Norway Chess Women: Ju beats Cramling, grabs the lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
6/5/2024 – Two classical games ended decisively in round 8 of the Norway Chess Women tournament, with Ju Wenjun beating Pia Cramling and Lei Tingjie beating Humpy Koneru, both with the white pieces. The remaining encounter saw R Vaishali prevailing in Armageddon against former sole leader Anna Muzychuk. These results left Ju in the sole lead, 1½ points ahead of Muzychuk. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

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Two clear frontrunners

With two rounds to go at the inaugural Norway Chess Women event, Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk are the favourites to end up taking the title. Ju stands in sole first place, 1½ points ahead of her Ukrainian colleague, while Lei Tingjie and R Vaishali stand 2 points further back and still have outside chances of claiming the title.

Ju grabbed the sole lead by beating Pia Cramling in their round-8 encounter, while former leader Muzychuk lost to Vaishali in Armageddon. The remaining encounter saw Lei getting the better of Humpy Koneru in their classical-chess confrontation.

Humpy’s 61...Kd2 was the losing mistake.

Lei v. Humpy

Black could have kept the battle going with 61...Re7+, since White can only escape a perpetual check via 62.Kg6 Re8 63.Kf6, but after 63...Rc8, everything is still under control and White will need to look for a more sophisticated way to make progress.

Instead, the game followed with 62.Rh1 e2 63.h8Q Rxh8 64.Kxh8

The problem for Humpy is that she cannot regain the rook with 64...e1Q, since that would lead to a losing pawn endgame. Thus, the rook and two pawns will easily win the game for Lei. Resignation followed shortly after.

It should be noted that all this sequence was played with both contenders playing with less than a minute on their clocks. The players in Stavanger only get 10-second increments after reaching move 41.

Lei Tingjie

Still with outside chances of winning the tournament — Lei Tingjie | Photo: Stev Bonhage

Ju 1 - 0 Cramling

Analysis by André Schulz

Ju, Wenjun25601–0Cramling, Pia2449
Norway Chess Women 2024
Stavanger04.06.2024[Schulz,A]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd2 b6 6.Bd3 Bb7 7.Nge2 More common here is 7.Nf3 7...d5 7...Bxg2 8.Rg1 Bf3 9.Rg3 Bh5 10.e4 With the strong centre and the open g-file, White has compensation for the pawn she has given up. 8.cxd5 exd5 9.0-0 Re8 10.Rc1 a6 11.f3 Bd6 12.g4 h6 13.Qe1 c5 14.Qh4 Nbd7=
15.Qf2 Nf8 16.h4 Ne6 17.Kh1 17.Qg2 Nd7 18.f4= 17...b5 18.a3 18.dxc5? Nxc5 is too dangerous for White: 19.Bb1 d4 20.Nxd4 Nxg4-+ 18...Nd7 19.Rg1 Ndf8 20.f4 cxd4 21.exd4
21...Nc5 22.Bc2 22.dxc5? Bxc5 23.Qxc5 d4+ 24.Kh2 24.Ne4 Rxe4 25.Bxe4 Bxe4+ 26.Rg2 Qxh4+ 27.Kg1 Bxg2 28.Kxg2 Qxg4+ 29.Kf2 Qh4+ 30.Kg2 30.Kf3 Qh3+ 31.Ng3 Ng6 with a strong attack. 30...Qg4+ with perpetual check. 24...Qxh4# 22...Ne4 23.Nxe4 dxe4 24.Be3 Rc8 25.f5 Qd7 25...g5!? 26.hxg5 26.fxg6 Nxg6 26...hxg5= 26.Bb3 Rxc1 27.Nxc1 Bb8 28.Ne2 Bd5 29.Bxd5 Qxd5=
30.f6 Ne6 Also playable was 30...g6 31.Bxh6 Nh7= 31.fxg7 Kxg7? The losing move. The correct reaction was 31...Nxg7 e.g.: 32.Bxh6 e3+ 33.Qg2 Qe6= 32.Rf1 Nf8 33.Qf6+ Kg8 34.Bxh6 e3+ 35.Kg1 Ne6 35...Ne6 36.Qxf7+ Black is mated.
1–0

Pia Cramling

Pia Cramling during round 7 | Photo: Stev Bonhage

Standings after round 8

Rk Name FED Rtg Pts
1 Ju Wenjun CHN 2559 14.5
2 Anna Muzychuk UKR 2505 13
3 Lei Tingjie CHN 2548 11.5
R Vaishali IND 2489 11.5
5 Humpy Koneru IND 2545 8
6 Pia Cramling SWE 2449 5.5

All games - Classical

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All games - Armageddon

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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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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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