Tashkent 03: Indians in the lead

The Tashkent Women's Grand Prix is currently being held in Uzbekistan from September 17th - October 1st. The tournament is part of the Women's World Championship cycle that will determine the next challenger for the world title. The twelve player round robin will feature 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.

Round 3

Lagno, Kateryna 1-0 Danielian, Elina
The Ukrainian player opened up with a relatively quiet version of the English, but things exploded suddenly as Lagno chose to sacrifice a pawn for quick development. She obtained decent compensation but it wasn't until she cleverly regrouped her stranded bishop from h4 to the long diagonal that she was able to get a decisive advantage. Danielian was always against the ropes and had an ugly defensive task from the beginning.

Elina: "I think I should have taken twice on e2: 12...Rxe2 13.Qxe2 Be6 14.Nxf6+ (14.Bxf6 gxf6 15.Re1 Bxd5 (15...Ne5 16.Qh5) 16.Bxd5 Ne5 17.Bxb7. After 13.Nxf6+ it was very difficult to hold my position. 17…h6 18.f4 18...Ng6 19.f5 Nxh4 20.fxe6 Ng6 21.exf7 Rxe2 22.Rxe2 Ne5 was much better. Knight on e5 is very strong."

Katya: "Of course I still have the advantage after 17...h6, but it is much easier for Black to defend here"

Elina: "It is funny that I saw all this but didn't believe in it"

Lagno suddenly changed the character of the position and her strong attack brought her a victory

Harika and chief arbiter Hazan Turdialiev share a joke prior to the game

Dronavalli, Harika 1-0 Girya, Olga
Harika played an exchange Slav, a variation that is somewhat unpleasant for Black but in which many draws have happened. The game was almost equal until Girya blundered a pawn to a cute tactic on move 18, and after that the Indian player was able to simplify to an unpleasant endgame and eventually win the game.

Harika: "10.Qd1 was in the game Aronian against Nakamura, I am not sure that after 13.Rc1 and 14.Be5 it is OK, but I thought that 13.h3 is too slow. 16…Qa5 is a very strange move, the main idea for Black was to play a6, and now suddenly I have all moves with a pleasant position.

I was thinking about 17.e4, but I didn't see any advantage after 17...dxe4 18.d5 exf3 19.dxc6 fxg2 20.Re1 Bxc6 21.Bxc6 bxc6 22.Qd7, and 17.Qb3 looked normal. When she played 17…Rfd8 I was thinking for five minutes trying to understand what is going on, if it is a blunder or not! 

 

Both players were lively during the post-mortem

Harika: It was an easily winning position, but I managed to make all the worst moves possible to make it hard! I had a plan with 26.Rfd1, but then suddenly saw a trap 26.Bf5, and when she replied 26…Qb6, I immediately played 27.Qf7. Then after I had to go back on b3, I decided to stop trying to give a mate and to play normal, so I changed queens. Later I saw that it was not good decision, but still it was clear for me that at the end I am winning so I was just developing pieces. I could play 47.f4 but decided to keep it as a threat and wait one more move.

I worried about 60…h4, but had only four minutes left, maybe after 61.gxh4 gxf4 62.e6 Black could play 62…Bd6".

These players had already played with the same colors in the Dilijan Grand Prix, and that game ended in a draw

Zhao Xue - Khotenashvili, Bela
A very important game for the standings. Zhao Xue was, with Koneru, the only player to have a perfect score going into this round. Khotenashvili had lost her first game and miraculously won against Muminova, so she was out to prove her talents. The Chinese player might have been too greedy as she quickly grabbed a pawn in the opening, but with her exposed king and discoordinated pieces it became hard for her to play. After White played 27.Nf1 it was clear that Black had an advantage, as such an awkward move is not played willfully. Despite missing many killing blows, the Georgian player was able to finish off her opponent eventually.

Khotenashvili kept missing opportunities to finish the game in time pressure, but it all worked out in the end

Bela: "From 7.Nge2 I didn't remember how this line is played"

Zhao Xue: "Maybe 13.Bg5 Nc4 14.Ra2 was better"

Bela: "After 20…c5 Black had good compensation for the pawn. After 26.Rf1 I was planning to exchange queens and rooks, and it was equal position. There was a repetition after 38.Qd2, but my opponent didn't see that."

The game was very interesting, especially after White grabbed the pawn on h5.
If she could have found better defensive resources than a pawn is a pawn, after all.

Zhao Xue was not happy about missing a repetition later in the game

Muminova, Nafisa 1-0 Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan
Yesterday Muminova showed excellent handling of the opening, obtained a winning position and lost. Today, she showed no understanding of the opening, obtained a clearly worse position from the opening, and won. Sometimes that is how chess works! Black's central control gave her an advantage throughout the game, and although she did not have to allow the exchange sacrifice that happened in the game, she was still better after that. A moment of panic during time pressure when Muminova sacrificed her queen with 35.Qxf5!? cost Nakhbayeva the game; had she calmly taken the queen and played Kg7 she surely would have won.

The lesson of time pressure is one that keeps being taught in Tashkent

Nafisa: "It was strange to have such results: yesterday I lost a winning position and today I did the opposite ...  Actually I was calculating the line with 11.Bxd6 Rd8 12.Na4 Qa7 13.e5 Nxe5 14.Bxe7 Rxd1 15.Raxd1 Bd7 16.Bc5, but didn't like something. In the opening I forgot all the variations, and my opponent was also playing this line for the first time. 14.Bf4 is a new move. Maybe 12.Rad1 is not necessary - just Qg3 instead.

Guliskhan: I was afraid of 16.f5, I thought it was a dangerous move. After 16…Kh8 and 17…Rac8 my position had already consolidated. If my opponent played 18.e5 dxe5 19.fxe5 Nd7 20.Qh3 g6 I was going to sacrifice on g6."

Nafisa: "Of course I had to play 25.Bxe4 instead of Nxc4, but already I think my position was not pleasant"

Guliskhan: "After my last blunder 35…Bxe3 I got a very difficult position: the knight goes to f6 and my king is in trouble"

On the scoreboard! Muminova wins her first game of the Grand Prix

Stefanova, Antoaneta 0-1 Ju Wenjun
Stefanova must really be kicking herself about this one. She was winning basically the whole game: starting from a middlegame position in which Black sacrificed a pawn for some compensation, the Bulgarian kept pushing the Chinese player back and away from activity to compensate for the material deficit. Eventually Stefanova had an extra pawn and a winning position, but a complete lack of care for Black's advancing pawns meant that Ju Wenjun was able to suddenly queen, and that was the end of the game.

Ju Wenjun: "10.Qd2 surprised me, and after that I was thinking too much and got into time trouble. I totally forgot to play 19…a5, and after 21…a5 White had a pleasant position. She was playing very accurately, the position was very bad for Black, and after time control she was winning with 45.Kxe2, but I was very lucky that she got herself in time pressure. The position should still be holdable for White, but 50.Nxa5 was a decisive mistake."

Ju Wenjun simply kept advancing her pawns, and Stefanova
found herself in a position wher she simply could not stop them

Koneru, Humpy 1-0 Kosteniuk, Alexandra
Humpy played a toothless opening but somehow Kosteniuk was not able to fully equalize. She blindly repeated White's plan which is a good way of getting into trouble in this kind of Zukertort style of setups, basically doing anything but this and playing more solidly should give equality. A strange series of moves starting with 10...Re8 eventually landed the Russian in trouble and Humpy showed great technique and easily scooped a full point.

Solidly in first place, half a point ahead of her compatriot Harika Dronavalli

Alexandra: "I couldn't equalize, and after 13…Bf8 already didn't like my position"

Humpy: "Maybe there was no need to capture 12…cxd4, the position is normal"

Evgeny Miroshnichenko: "10…Re8 was a strange decision, I can't find the idea of this move. Probably 10…Rc8 should have been played instead"

The ex-World Champion is currently at the bottom of the table with 0.5/3 along with Danielian and Nakhbayeva

Pictures by Maria Emelianova

Standings

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Schedule

The games start at 11:00h European time, 13:00h Moscow, 5 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be 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