Rostov R6: T. Hou Yifan resumes winning streak

The Rostov Chess Federation in collaboration with FIDE and Global Chess is organising the first event for the 2011/2012 Women's Grand Prix series. The tournament is being held in the Don-Plaza Hotel and runs from August 1st (arrival, opening) until August 15 (departure). The eleven rounds are between August 2nd and 14, with rest days on the 6th and 11th. The start of the games from of rounds 1-10 is 3:00 p.m. local time, round 11 at starts at noon local time. The winner receives 6,500 Euros out of a total prize fund of 40,000 Euros, and the overall winner of the Women's Grand Prix will win a further 15,000 Euros at the end of the series.

Round six report

Lufei Ruan-Tatiana Kosintseva 0:1
The game was a Scheveningen in which White played the thematic e5 push on move 19 but found herself clearly worse after the exchanges that followed. Black was able to focus on a debilitating weakness in her opponent's camp, the weak pawn on d3, which she was able to capture on move 31, gaining an essentially winning position. The endgame took Tatiana all the way to move 63, but she had a forced mate when her opponent at last resigned.

Lufei Ruan and Tatiana Kosintseva in their press conference after the game

Kateryna Lahno-Ekaterina Kovalevskaya ½:½
A Tarrasch in the QGD in which Black played an interesting line with 6...cxd4 7.Nxd4 Qb6. A clearly well prepared Ekaterina Kovalevskaya had everything under control and after some heavy exchanges was able to force a draw by repetition. It was her third half-point in this tournament.

Kateryna and Ekaterina – in the press conference after their game

Hou Yifan-Elina Danielian 1-0
The reigning women's world champion chose the 6.c3 line in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation and forced her opponent to play with double pawns in the f-file. Black's attempt to brake up the white position with 19...c5 was ill-fated and gave Yifan a full pawn and a winning edge. The game is well worth replaying, especially with a chess engine explaining the tactical nuances.

Antoaneta Stefanova-Nadezhda Kosintseva ½-½
A Queen's Gambit Ragozin saw Black temporarily sacrifice a pawn for an advantage in the development, but then lose heart and simplify the position by exchanging queens and returning the pawn. The resulting rooks + knight endgame did not give either of the players real winning chances, and a draw by repetition was the result after 44 moves.

Humpy Koneru-Anna Muzychuk ½-½
The Ukraining GM Anna Muzychuk, who now plays for Slovenia, chose the Leningrad Variation of the Dutch Defence. Humpy Koneru played a double bishop fianchetto and disrupted the centre with 13.e4. Black went for the thematic counterattack a7-a5-a4, transferring her knight from a6 to b3 and playing 19...e5. By move 36 Humpy had a clearly better position with a rook for bishop and pawn, but she was not able to make headway and the game ended with the obligatory repetition after 48 moves.

Alisa Galliamova-Alexandra Kosteniuk ½-½
The game was a classical Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5, which the former women's world champion messed up in the opening. "I could have resigned by move ten," said Alexandra Kosteniuk. We think that is exaggerated, but certainly by move 16 Alisa Galliamova had a winning advantage. However an error on move 22 turned everything around. GM Vitaly Kiselev, whose daily game summaries are very useful, has promised detailed analysis of this game on the official site on Tuesday.

Anastasiya Karlovich, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Alisa Galliamova in the press conference

Pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich and
Kema Goryaeva with kind permission of FIDE

Current standings

Schedule and results

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