Sharjah 05: Battles after the Penguins

The sixth and final stage of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series 2013-2014 is taking place at the Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club, (UAE) from the 24th of August until the 7th of September 2014. Over eleven rounds, twelve of the strongest women players in the world will compete in the round robin tournament with the standard FIDE time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, with 30 minutes being added at that point and an additional 30 seconds per move through the entire game.

Free Day

The players took the time on their free day to visit some of United Arab Emirates top attractions, and that meant the shopping malls. The first stop was the Mall of the Emirates. The multi-level shopping center currently features more than 560 international brands, more than 700 stores, 11 anchor stores with a total gross leasable area (GLA) of 234,479 sqm including department stores, fashion, lifestyle, sports, electronics and home furnishing outlets.

The players went out in small groups to shop around

A small break

Others went to Dubai Mall. Behind the players is a relatively complete Diplodocidae. Featuring a long tail sweeping behind, and an equally slender long neck rising eerily high as if bracing for battle, the prehistoric dinosaur stands at an impressive, 24.4 meters long and 7.6 meters high. 

Finally the players went to see a true statement of opulence... penguins under the blistering dessert!

Ski Dubai features real snow and is home to 20 penguins!

The penguins were quite friendly

Some curious players were gentle with them...

While others displayed a lot more affection!

Zhu Chen with an Emperor Penguin, the tallest of any penguin species

Maybe petting the penguin was some kind of good luck charm?

Round Five

Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg ½-½ Ju Wenjun
The players somehow found a repetition in the opening. This suits Batchimeg, who continues with a good tournament, and Ju Wenjun who draws with Black and keeps her lead. Two rests days in a row is not bad either.

In the pack of suitors with 3.5/5 and +21 rating points, a good tournament for Chimy

Danielian, Elina 1-0 Zhao Xue
White's slight pressure was not handled by Zhao Xue in the best way possible. A strong break-through on d5 emphasized Black's bad position and a bad mistake caused her position to be ripped apart even faster.

Alina l'Ami ½-½ Zhu Chen
The player from Qatar certainly outplayed her younger opponent. The light-squared blockade that she obtained thanks to her pawn sacrifice gave her better activity all over the board. However nothing was ever very clear. If Zhu Chen had any real chances it was with the move 26...Bc4! which she missed, but even then her advantage was far from decisive.

Thanks to this draw every player in the tournament has at least half a point

Muminova, Nafisa ½-½ Ushenina, Anna
The tense position in the center led to some interesting pawn trades. Ushenina had a way to obtain a very slight advantage, but she miscalculated and instead ended up slightly worse in the endgame. Muminova's edge was never anything too great and the Ukrainian player had very few troubles holding on to the draw.

It's Ushenina's birthday! The Ukrainian ex-World Champion turns 29 today.

Hou Yifan 1-0 Kosintseva, Tatiana
If anything, it seemed that Kosintseva was steadily outplaying the World Champion. She won a pawn that was hard to hold on to, but instead she managed to install a powerful blockading knight on e5. Hou Yifan had compensation for it with a powerful bishop, but the edge was still Black's in the endgame.

However, as soon as the endgame was reached, the contrary happened. With every move the Chinese player strengthened her position while Kosintseva gave more and more space. Eventually a powerful exchange sacrifice left Hou Yifan in a winning position and she converted well.

It seems that Hou Yifan can win from any position

Dronavalli Harika ½-½ Koneru Humpy
Not the most exciting of games. Humpy chose a good line and equalized without problems, subsequent piece trades left the players in a drawn endgame.

A peaceful game between the Indian players

Round Five Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Standings

All photos by Maria Emelianova

Pairings and Schedule

Links Official tournament site All Games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.