Tashkent: Rest day and Round 05

by ChessBase
9/23/2013 – The players had a rest day which they used to explore Old Town Tashkent. They visited places including a local bazaar, a traditional mosque and an antique hand-craft museum. The games resumed with a bloodbath as only one game was drawn. Harika, Lagno and Zhao Xue all won and they are now in a close race in the leaderboard. Beautiful pictorial report.

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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.

Rest Day

The players had a rest day on September 22nd. A few of the players decided to stay in and rest, but many of them went exploring. This time they went to what is known as Old Town.

Not a bad way of starting the rest day: Stefanova and Nakhbayeva shopping for local products

The players got a private tour of the Museum of Applied Arts, famous for its beautiful hand-crafted exhibits

A traditional Central Asian cap: a Tubeteika. It is considered an applied art form and an important part of the traditional folk costume.

Kateryna Lagno posing behind locally crafted glassware

Things that are intrinsically tied to each other: chess sets in a museum and chess players with smartphones

A close-up of the beautifully hand-crafted set made of wood and paper-mache.

Off to the next destination...

but not without stopping for some necessary middle-of-the-day coffee

This will not be necessarily be accepted by FIDE in their new dress code rules

Tashkent was part of the Great Silk Road. Here the players stop at an old bazar: Chor-Su. It is famous for its enormous blue-colored dome. Chor-su means "crossroads" or "four streams" in Persian.

Olga Girya expertly picking out local nuts

Elina Danielian trying out a kaftan

The last stop: Alexandra Kosteniuk and Olga Girya posing in front of the Telyashakyakh Mosque (also known as the Khast Imam Mosque). It contains the Uthman Qur'an, considered to be the oldest extant Qur'an in the world, dating from 655 and stained with the blood of the murdered caliph, Uthman.

Round 5

After a rest day the girls came back with an incredible fighting spirit. Only Humpy was able to defend her black pieces as all the other games were won by the white side.

Round 05 – September 23 2013, 14:00h
Lagno, Kateryna 2532
1-0
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
½-½
Koneru, Humpy 2607
Dronavalli, Harika 2475
1-0
Danielian, Elina 2470
Muminova, Nafisa 2293
1-0
Ju Wenjun 2535
Zhao Xue 2579
1-0
Girya, Olga 2439
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
1-0
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307

Khotenashvili, Bela 1-0 Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan
Khotenashvili employed a typical Catalan sacrifice, and as a result she obtained some kingside pressure coupled with the pair of bishops. Nakhbayeva cleverly responded by sacrificing the pawn back to get rid of her main weakness as well as accelerating her development. Things seemed about even until Khotenashvili's 'bluff' worked. Her pawn push 27.d5 was probably the best move anyways, but it is no doubt a sacrifice as black can simply take the pawn thanks to basic tactics. Nakhbayeva must have been to cautious, but this allowed White a free initiative that she converted into extra material soon afterwards.

This game had the potential to be excellent. Both players showed great prowess strategically and tactically up until around the last moves of time control, where time pressure keeps being a burden for Nakhbayeva.

Stefanova, Antoaneta ½-½ Koneru, Humpy
Stefanova's opening yielded nothing and Humpy was able to equalize rather comfortably. After that a symmetrical structure arose and there was little for either player to do. They both fought on but eventually the game was drawn.

Muminova, Nafisa 1-0 Ju Wenjun
Ju Wenjun (above) was certainly shocked about this result. Playing against the lowest rated player she chose a sharp variation of the Rauzer Sicilian. However she might not have been entirely familiar with the variation. When the time came to sacrifice a pawn on d5 (as it is common to remove White's pressure on the d-file) she chose not to do it, instead she awkwardly moved the bishop back and forth from d7 and c6. This gave Muminova enough time to launch a kingside attack that crashed through violently.

Muminova has no draws, and this is her second win

Dronavalli, Harika 1-0 Danielian, Elina
Harika chose an interesting version of the English that completely confused her opponent. Out of the opening the Indian player enjoyed an extra pawn and any compensation for it was shaky at best. White's tripled pawns were of course a weakness, but they also covered very important squares. Black's king proved to be much weaker than White's and a swift attack finished Danielian off.

Harika has caught up with Humpy with this important win

Lagno, Kateryna 1-0 Kosteniuk, Alexandra
Lagno's handling of the reversed Dragon was definitely better than Kosteniuk's. She was able to obtain strong pressure against her opponent's queenside. Eventually a long tactical series ensued and the Ukrainian outcalculated the Russian girl as she emerged up an exchange and with a winning advantage. With simple technique Lagno moves to +2.

Lagno is now only half a point away from the Indian leaders

Zhao Xue 1-0 Girya Olga
The Schlecter systems in the Slav are extremely solid but somewhat passive. Girya was close to equality in this game but she was too aggressive with her queen sortie to the queenside, specifically the maneuver 16...Qb4?! and 17...Qb3? After this White had many positional advantages and she converted her position without any hiccups.

Pictures by Maria Emelianova

Standings

Replay round five games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Schedule

Round 01 – September 18 2013, 14:00h
Danielian, Elina 2470
½-½
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
Koneru, Humpy 2607
1-0
Ju Wenjun 2535
Lagno, Kateryna 2532
½-½
Girya, Olga 2439
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
1-0
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
Dronavalli, Harika 2475
1-0
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
Muminova, Nafisa 2293
0-1
Zhao Xue 2579
Round 02 – September 19 2013, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
0-1
Zhao Xue 2579
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
1-0
Muminova, Nafisa 2293
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
½-½
Dronavalli, Harika 2475
Girya, Olga 2439
½-½
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
Ju Wenjun 2535
½-½
Lagno, Kateryna 2532
Danielian, Elina 2470
0-1
Koneru, Humpy 2607
Round 03 – September 20 2013, 14:00h
Koneru, Humpy 2607
1-0
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
Lagno, Kateryna 2532
1-0
Danielian, Elina 2470
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
0-1
Ju Wenjun 2535
Dronavalli, Harika 2475
1-0
Girya, Olga 2439
Muminova, Nafisa 2293
1-0
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
Zhao Xue 2579
0-1
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
Round 04 – September 21 2013, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
1-0
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
½-½
Zhao Xue 2579
Girya, Olga 2439
1-0
Muminova, Nafisa 2293
Ju Wenjun 2535
½-½
Dronavalli, Harika 2475
Danielian, Elina 2470
½-½
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
Koneru, Humpy 2607
½-½
Lagno, Kateryna 2532
Round 05 – September 23 2013, 14:00h
Lagno, Kateryna 2532
1-0
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
½-½
Koneru, Humpy 2607
Dronavalli, Harika 2475
1-0
Danielian, Elina 2470
Muminova, Nafisa 2293
1-0
Ju Wenjun 2535
Zhao Xue 2579
1-0
Girya, Olga 2439
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
1-0
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
Round 06 – September 24 2013, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495   Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
Girya, Olga 2439   Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
Ju Wenjun 2535   Zhao Xue 2579
Danielian, Elina 2470   Muminova, Nafisa 2293
Koneru, Humpy 2607   Dronavalli, Harika 2475
Lagno, Kateryna 2532   Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
Round 07 – September 25 2013, 14:00h
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496   Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
Dronavalli, Harika 2475   Lagno, Kateryna 2532
Muminova, Nafisa 2293   Koneru, Humpy 2607
Zhao Xue 2579   Danielian, Elina 2470
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514   Ju Wenjun 2535
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307   Girya, Olga 2439
Round 08 – September 26 2013, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495   Girya, Olga 2439
Ju Wenjun 2535   Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
Danielian, Elina 2470   Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
Koneru, Humpy 2607   Zhao Xue 2579
Lagno, Kateryna 2532   Muminova, Nafisa 2293
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496   Dronavalli, Harika 2475
Round 09 – September 28 2013, 14:00h
Dronavalli, Harika 2475   Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
Muminova, Nafisa 2293   Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
Zhao Xue 2579   Lagno, Kateryna 2532
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514   Koneru, Humpy 2607
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307   Danielian, Elina 2470
Girya, Olga 2439   Ju Wenjun 2535
Round 10 – September 29, 14:00h
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495   Ju Wenjun 2535
Danielian, Elina 2470   Girya, Olga 2439
Koneru, Humpy 2607   Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307
Lagno, Kateryna 2532   Khotenashvili, Bela 2514
Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496   Zhao Xue 2579
Dronavalli, Harika 2475   Muminova, Nafisa 2293
Round 11 – September 30, 11:00h
Muminova, Nafisa 2293   Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2495
Zhao Xue 2579   Dronavalli, Harika 2475
Khotenashvili, Bela 2514   Stefanova, Antoaneta 2496
Nakhbayeva, Gulishkan 2307   Lagno, Kateryna 2532
Girya, Olga 2439   Koneru, Humpy 2607
Ju Wenjun 2535   Danielian, Elina 2470

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

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


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