Tashkent 10: Humpy leads, one to go

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 10

Kosteniuk had her chances, but she ended up with her second draw of the tournament

Kosteniuk, Alexandra ½-½ Ju Wenjun
Kosteniuk obtained a minimal advantage from the opening and through a complicated series of events she emerged a pawn up in a queen endgame. With the exposed position of her king it was a hard path to a win, but it seems as if she was almost there. 65.Kg5! would've won her a second pawn and made Black's resistance futile, but she erred and let Ju Wenjun find a last second perpetual.

A little bit of luck doesn't hurt anyone: Ju Wenjun escaped the jaws of defeat today

"And right out from the opening I already thought the game will be the first to finish today as the endgame with queens and bishops was completely drawish. She could play 28…Qc6 and Qd6 and we shake hands", - said the Russian on the press conference. "But here she surprised me so much with Kg7! But I don't know what happened at the end. I was very happy with 57.Kg4, and was already about to play 61.Kg5, but then got scared from some checks. And at least I could have taken on g6. I couldn't decide when to capture it and finally never did that."

Danielian, Elina ½-½ Girya, Olga
Both players followed the game between Karjakin-Van Wely of 2009 and it's hard to say what Danielian had planned in terms of an improvement. The aforementioned game ended in a draw and in this case Black was able to eat away at White's pawn structure while the Armenian created a strong counterattack; however this attack was only good enough for a perpetual right before Black's a-pawn promoted to a queen.

Danielian is at -1 and all of her three losses have come to the leaders: Humpy, Harika and Lagno

Nakhbayeva has finished in last place and she must still face Lagno tomorrow

Koneru, Humpy 1-0 Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan
This was an important game for Humpy. She was white against the lowest scoring player in the tournament, and she needed to avoid another mistake to retain her lead. Today's game however was incredibly clean, largely aided by Nakhbayeva's terrible choice of an opening. The sequence that the Kazakh chose is known to be inferior, and it left her with a terrible position after only ten moves of chess. Humpy didn't even find the most exact way to an advantage, but the way she chose was good enough for a free pawn and she outplayed her opponent from then.

The duel of pursuiters ended in a draw

Lagno, Kateryna ½-½ Khotenashvili, Bela
Lagno chose the Bishop Opening, mainly utilized to avoid any kind of opening theory. Black obtains equality in one of many ways, as Khotenashvili demonstrated it is possible to go after the bishop on c4 quickly and equalize in that way. Neither side truly had anything to work with throughout the game and although they fought on as they both needed to win to keep their hopes of winning the tournament alive, it just wouldn't happen and they repeated in a position that was slowly running out of life.

Kateryna: "I was thinking to play c5 couple of moves before, but here probably played too quickly and didn't consider it"

In the endgame Black had a comfortable position with come chances to play actively by 41. ... Nf4+ 42. Bxf4 Bxf4 43. Kf3 Bh2 44. Rg2 Be5. "But I already was too tired to continue", - said Bela at the press conference.

Maria Emelianova: "What was your plan for this game as you were both in the group of followers and had a chance to pretend on the first place if you won today?"

Bela: "I always fight for a win, no matter of the situation, but I feel very tired at the end of the tournament."

Katya: "I never calculate my points until the tournament is finished. I just want to play good games."

Maria: "So does Boris Gelfand! Is he your favorite player?"

Katya: "Yes, actually he is, but in Paris I support my compatriot Vassily Ivanchuk and wish him a very good luck!"

Stefanova simply underestimated her opponent's activity

Stefanova, Antaoneta 0-1 Zhao Xue
Zhao Xue was able to deflect her opening difficulties by finishing her development and forcing Stefanova to simplify her isolated queen's pawn without any effect, which created a symmetrical and equal position. The game continued with near equality until the dreadful 30.Nd5?, retreating the bishop was sufficient for a level game. However with the move played Zhao Xue obtained a very fast initiative and White's pieces started to look silly on the queenside. Her position didn't last long under the combined pressure of Black's pieces and Zhao Xue bounces back to win her second game in a row.

Antoaneta: "Maybe 28.b4 was not correct. The game was complicated, and I tried to play for an advantage, but didn't expect that 22…g5 can be so dangerous. I thought I could always make a draw, but had to play more precisely." 

Zhao Xue is at +1 but losing nearly ten rating points

Harika, Dronavalli 1-0 Muminova, Nafisa
Harika kept outplaying Muminova through the middlegame, but an important slip allowed the local player to organize a dangerous initiative with only a queen and a rook that forced Harika's pieces back into a defensive posture. In a position that had relatively low risk for Black, she managed to blunder first an important pawn and then a checkmating attack. Truly a recap of Muminova's tournament so far.

The saying so close, yet so far away really applies to Muminova's tournament, but she seems cheerful despite all of it

"But I misplayed something after that, I shouldn't allow 36…Ba3. Then all Black's problems were over. Maybe 35.Na4 was not good"

Evgenij Miroshnichenko: "Maybe 33.Nd7 is interesting with some tricky ideas after 34.Nb6"

Harika: "And after 50…Kh8 I am already fine"

On the question about her feelings before this game, Harika replied: "After yesterday's blow I was so upset, that I couldn't even sleep, and today I didn't plan to play for any result, even a draw was fine."

A nice little glare to let Muminova know who is in charge

Two of the arbiters: Irina Geovorgyan and Tahmina Turdalieva

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