Tbilisi: Anna Muzychuk leads with 4.5/5 and a 2861 performance

by ChessBase
2/20/2012 – There were three rounds on the second day of the ACP Womens Cup Rapid taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia. Top seed Anna Muzychuk, who had won both her games in the first two rounds, continued with two more wins and a draw. She is being chased by Kateryna Lahno and Pia Cramling. We bring you an illustrated report which features four women's world champions.

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The ACP Womens Cup Rapid is taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia, from February 17th to 21st February, 2012. Top seeds are Anna Muzychuk (2580), Kateryna Lahno (2557) and Nadezhda (2537) and Tatiana Kosintseva (2513), Nana Dzagnidze (2535) and former women's world champion Maia Chiburdanidze (2500). The event is a twelve player all-play-all. The official website and Playchess are providing live broadcast of the games, the former has in addition streaming video, interviews and live commentary by Mark Dvoretsky.

The event carries a prize fund of US $40,000, of which $10,000 goes to the winner. It is sponsored by SOCAR Energy Georgia, and organised by the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) and the Georgian Chess Federation.

After two days and five rounds of play GM Anna Muzychuk is in the lead, with just one draw and a 2861 performance. Anna, who celebrates her 22nd birthday in a week (Feb. 28th) is originally from Ukraine but has played for Slovenia since 2004.


We got to know Anna as a talented 13-year-old playing at the Chess Olympiad in
Calvia, 2004. We did a story about her and her sister Mariya in the same year.

Results

Round three
GM
Muzychuk Anna
1-0
GM
Dzagnidze Nana
WGM
Mamedjarova Zeinab
0-1
GM
Kosintseva Nadezhda
GM
Cmilyte Viktorija
1-0
IM
Zatonskih Anna
GM
Lahno Kateryna
½-½
GM
Chiburdanidze Maia
GM
Kosintseva Tatiana
1-0
GM
Stefanova Antoaneta
GM
Cramling Pia
½-½
GM
Kosteniuk Alexandra
Round four
GM
Dzagnidze Nana
1-0
GM
Kosteniuk Alexandra
GM
Stefanova Antoaneta
0-1
GM
Cramling Pia
GM
Chiburdanidze Maia
½-½
GM
Kosintseva Tatiana
IM
Zatonskih Anna
0-1
GM
Lahno Kateryna
GM
Kosintseva Nadezhda
1-0
GM
Cmilyte Viktorija
GM
Muzychuk Anna
1-0
WGM
Mamedjarova Zeinab
Round five
WGM
Mamedjarova Zeinab
0-1
GM
Dzagnidze Nana
GM
Cmilyte Viktorija
½-½
GM
Muzychuk Anna
GM
Lahno Kateryna
½-½
GM
Kosintseva Nadezhda
GM
Kosintseva Tatiana
0-1
IM
Zatonskih Anna
GM
Cramling Pia
½-½
GM
Chiburdanidze Maia
GM
Kosteniuk Alexandra
½-½
GM
Stefanova Antoaneta


Viktorija Cmilyte pondering her 13th move against IM Anna Zatonskih in round three

[Event "Rapid"] [Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"] [Date "2012.02.19"] [Round "3.3"] [White "Cmilyte, Viktorija"] [Black "Zatonskih, Anna"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2503"] [BlackElo "2506"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [WhiteClock "0:09:12"] [BlackClock "0:06:04"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bxf6 Bxf6 7. e3 O-O 8. Rc1 c6 9. h4 g6 10. h5 g5 11. Bd3 Bg7 12. Bb1 Nd7 13. Qc2 Re8 14. Ne5 Qf6 15. Qh7+ Kf8 16. f4 gxf4 17. exf4 Nxe5 18. fxe5 Qf4 19. Ne2 Qg5 20. Rc3 Bxe5 21. dxe5 Qxe5 22. Rf1 Re7 23. Rg3 Ke8 24. Rg8+ Kd7 25. Rxf7 1-0


GM Anna Muzychuk vs GM Nana Dzagnidze in round three

[Event "Rapid"] [Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"] [Date "2012.02.19"] [Round "3.1"] [White "Muzychuk, Anna"] [Black "Dzagnidze, Nana"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2580"] [BlackElo "2535"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [WhiteClock "0:04:22"] [BlackClock "0:00:09"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nf3 Qc7 8. a4 Be7 9. a5 O-O 10. Be2 Nc6 11. Bb6 Qd7 12. Nd2 d5 13. Nxd5 Nxd5 14. exd5 Qxd5 15. O-O e4 16. Re1 Bf5 17. Nc4 Qe6 18. Ne3 Bg6 19. Qd5 Qf6 20. Qd7 Qxb2 21. Qxb7 Nd4 22. Bxa6 Bf6 23. Reb1 Qc3 24. Nd5 Qd2 25. Nxf6+ gxf6 26. Rd1 Nf3+ 27. gxf3 Qg5+ 28. Kh1 exf3 29. Rg1 Qf4 30. Bd3 Rae8 31. Bc7 Qd4 32. Qxf3 Rc8 33. Bb6 1-0


Former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova against GM Pia Cramling

[Event "Rapid"] [Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"] [Date "2012.02.19"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Stefanova, Antoaneta"] [Black "Cramling, Pia"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "2523"] [BlackElo "2491"] [PlyCount "114"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [WhiteClock "0:00:43"] [BlackClock "0:00:46"] 1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Nbd2 Bb7 6. Bg2 c5 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. O-O O-O 9. a3 Be7 10. b4 d6 11. Bb2 Qc7 12. Re1 Nbd7 13. e4 a6 14. Nd4 Rac8 15. Qb3 Rfe8 16. h3 Qb8 17. f4 Bf8 18. N4f3 e5 19. f5 b5 20. Bf1 Bc6 21. Rac1 Qb7 22. cxb5 axb5 23. Qd3 Qb8 24. Kh2 Nb6 25. Qb3 Qb7 26. Bd3 h6 27. g4 d5 28. g5 Nxe4 29. gxh6 Nxd2 30. Nxd2 e4 31. Be2 Qb8+ 32. Kg2 Nc4 33. Nxc4 dxc4 34. Qe3 Qd6 35. Rcd1 Qxh6 36. Qxh6 gxh6 37. Bd4 Rcd8 38. Kf2 Kh7 39. Rg1 e3+ 40. Bxe3 Bg7 41. Bh5 Rxd1 42. Rxd1 Re5 43. f6 Bxf6 44. Bxf7 Bh4+ 45. Ke2 Bg5 46. Rd6 Rxe3+ 47. Kf2 Rf3+ 48. Ke2 Rxf7 49. Rxc6 Ra7 50. Rc5 Rxa3 51. Rxb5 Rxh3 52. Rc5 c3 53. b5 Bf6 54. b6 Rh2+ 55. Kd3 Rb2 56. Rc6 Kg6 57. Ke4 h5 0-1

Standings after five rounds


Former world champion Maia Chiburdanidze (1978 to 1991) in equal second


Viktorija Čmilytė, Lithuanian GM with 1.5/5 (+1, =1, –3) and a 2383 performance


Former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk with 2.0/5 and a 2453 performance


GM Pia Cramling of Sweden at 4.0/5 with a 2744 performance


We are going to assume that is not high proof vodka, Katya!
Kateryna Lahno is in second place with a 2743 performance


IM Anna Zatonskih of the US in eighth place with 2.0/5


Russian GM Tatiana Kosintseva stands to lose eleven rating points


Down in the dumps: Zeinab Mamedjarova has lost all games so
far. Incidentally that is a full fox skin the Azeri WGM is wearing.

26 years later: Maia Chiburdanidze playing on the same table she defended her women's world championship title against Elena Akhmilovskaya in Sofia in 1986, winning the match by 8½–5½. Chiburdanidze was world champion from 1978 to 1991 and defended her title four times (in 1981 she drew a tough match 8–8 against Nana Alexandria but kept the title as champion). In the above game she drew Kateryna Lahno in 32 moves.

The great Nana Alexandria of Georgia, twice women's world championship challenger (in 1975 and 1981, when she drew Maia Chiburdanidze +4 =8 –4) and one of the contributing players of the USSR team that dominated the women's Olympiads of the 1980s. Alexandria has been called a Pillar of Women's Chess and has done more for women's chess than anyone we could name offhand. She is conducting video interviews in Tbilisi, as you can see below.


Reflections: official tournament commentator Mark Dvoretsky

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich for the official web site


The opening ceremony – with beautiful music and dance presentation by children


Interview with Alexandra Kosteniuk, conducted by Nana Alexandria

Remaining schedule

February 20  6th Round   15:00
February 20 7th Round   16:30
February 20 8th Round   18:00
February 21  9th Round   14:00
February 21 10th Round   15:30
February 21 11th Round   17:00
February 21 Tie-break   18:00
February 21 Closing Ceremony    20:00
February 22 Departure  

Links

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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