Tbilisi: Muzychuk falters, Cramling and Lahno take the lead

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2/21/2012 – Why do we keep doing it? Every time we celebrate a player for extraordinary results, in the middle of an event, that player will immediately come crashing down to earth. This time the victim of our jinxed reporting was Anna Muzychuk. Meanwhile Pia Cramling and Kateryna Lahno forged ahead with 2.0/3 points. Decision time is Tuesday – you can watch the final games on Playchess.

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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.

Tbilisi: A view of the city and the Mtkvari River

A bronze monument to Vakhtang Gorgasali, a Georgian king, founder of Tbilisi.
He is proudly sitting on his horse and saluting the capital of Georgia.

The Presidential Palace at night. The cost of building this palace was 13 million Georgian Lari
(= US $8 million), which according to President Saakashvili is about 0.18% of the entire state expenditures.

Report after day three

This time the victim of our jinxed reporting is Anna Muzychuk, who was sailing along nicely at the top of the table, with 4.5/5 points and a 2861 performance, as we duly reported after round five. In the next three rounds on Monday the Slovenian GM scored just one draw and moved to place four on the table, a full point behind the leaders. Can you forgive us, Anna? Was it the baby photo that caused the crash?

You are right to be upset with us, Anna! Abject apologies.

The two new leaders, who each scored 2.0/3 on day three of the Women's Rapid, were GM Pia Cramling of Sweden and Ukrainian GM Kateryna Lahno.

Pia Cramling in action: the Swedish GM is now leading in Tbilisi

Pia is something of a chess legend, having been one of the strongest female players in the world since the early 1980s and regularly plays on the Swedish (Men's) team at Olympiads. She is married to the Spanish grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez, and has lived in Spain for a number of years.

Kateryna Lahno is married to GM Robert Fontaine and now lives in mainly in Paris

Results

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

Tatiana Kosintseva playing Anna Muzychuk in round seven

[Event "ACP Women Cup 2012"] [Site "Tbilisi GEO"] [Date "2012.02.20"] [Round "7.3"] [White "Kosintseva, Tatiana"] [Black "Muzychuk, Anna"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2513"] [BlackElo "2580"] [PlyCount "133"] [EventDate "2012.02.18"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 d6 5. O-O g6 6. d4 Bd7 7. Re1 Bg7 8. d5 Nb8 9. Bxd7+ Nbxd7 10. c4 a5 11. Nc3 Nc5 12. b3 O-O 13. Rb1 c6 14. dxc6 bxc6 15. Ba3 Qe7 16. Qd2 Rfd8 17. Rbd1 Ne8 18. Qc2 Nc7 19. Bxc5 dxc5 20. Rxd8+ Rxd8 21. Rd1 Ne6 22. Rxd8+ Qxd8 23. Na4 Nd4 24. Qd3 Nxf3+ 25. Qxf3 Qd2 26. g3 Qxa2 27. Nxc5 Bf8 28. Nd7 a4 29. bxa4 Qxa4 30. Qd3 Be7 31. Kg2 Qa5 32. Qb3 Qc7 33. Qb8+ Bd8 34. Nf6+ Kh8 35. Qxc7 Bxc7 36. Kf3 Bd8 37. Nd7 Bc7 38. Ke3 Kg7 39. Kd3 f6 40. Nc5 Kf7 41. Nb3 Bb6 42. c5 Bd8 43. Kc4 Ke6 44. f3 f5 45. Nc1 Bg5 46. Nd3 Be3 47. Nb4 Kd7 48. Nd3 Ke6 49. h3 h5 50. g4 fxg4 51. fxg4 hxg4 52. hxg4 Bd4 53. Nb4 Kd7 54. Nc2 Bf2 55. Nb4 Bd4 56. Nd3 Ke6 57. Kb4 {The position is a comfortable draw.} Kf6 $2 ({Black must simply play} 57... Kd7 58. Ka5 Kc7 {to defend.}) 58. Ka5 Bxc5 $2 {Desperation.} (58... Ke7 59. Kb6 Kd7 60. Nb4 {wins for White.}) 59. Nxc5 Kg5 60. Kb6 Kxg4 61. Kxc6 g5 62. Kd5 Kh4 63. Nd3 g4 64. Kxe5 g3 65. Ne1 Kg4 66. Kd4 Kf4 67. Kd3 1-0

Here's a nice win by IM Anna Zatonskih with black over a former world champion

[Event "ACP Women Cup 2012"] [Site "Tbilisi GEO"] [Date "2012.02.20"] [Round "7.5"] [White "Kosteniuk, Alexandra"] [Black "Zatonskih, Anna"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C11"] [WhiteElo "2448"] [BlackElo "2506"] [PlyCount "122"] [EventDate "2012.02.18"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 Qb6 8. Na4 Qa5+ 9. c3 cxd4 10. b4 Qc7 11. Nxd4 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 Nb8 13. Bd3 Nc6 14. Bc5 Bxc5 15. Nxc5 O-O 16. O-O f6 17. exf6 Rxf6 18. Qh5 g6 19. Qg5 Kg7 20. Rf3 a5 21. Rc1 b6 22. Nb3 a4 23. Nd2 Nxb4 24. Bb1 Nc6 25. Rcf1 Ba6 26. R1f2 Raf8 27. Rh3 Kg8 28. Qh6 Qg7 29. Qh4 e5 30. Rhf3 e4 31. Rh3 Ne7 32. Qg5 Nf5 33. Nf1 Bxf1 34. Rxf1 Rc6 35. Rc1 Rfc8 36. Kh1 b5 37. a3 Qe7 38. Qg4 Qxa3 39. Qd1 Qc5 40. Ba2 Rd6 41. g4 Ne3 42. Qe2 Nc4 43. f5 Rf8 44. Rf1 Rdf6 45. Qe1 gxf5 46. Qh4 Qc7 47. gxf5 Kh8 48. Qg5 Qg7 49. Qh5 Qf7 50. Qd1 Rxf5 51. Rg1 Qf6 52. Rhg3 Rf1 53. Qxd5 Rxg1+ 54. Rxg1 e3 55. Bb1 Qf3+ 56. Qxf3 Rxf3 57. Be4 Rf6 58. Kg2 a3 59. Rd1 Ra6 60. Kf3 a2 61. Ra1 Nd2+ 0-1

Nana Dzagnidze vs Maia Chiburdanidze played on the historic world championship table

[Event "ACP Women Cup 2012"] [Site "Tbilisi GEO"] [Date "2012.02.20"] [Round "8.1"] [White "Dzagnidze, Nana"] [Black "Chiburdanidze, Maia"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A04"] [WhiteElo "2535"] [BlackElo "2500"] [PlyCount "63"] [EventDate "2012.02.18"] 1. Nf3 e6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. O-O Bd6 5. d3 O-O 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. e4 dxe4 8. dxe4 e5 9. Nc4 Nxe4 10. Re1 f5 11. Nfxe5 Bc5 12. Nd3 Nc6 13. Be3 Bxe3 14. Nxe3 Qf7 15. c3 Be6 16. Qa4 Rae8 17. Nf4 Bc8 18. Rad1 Kh8 19. h4 Ne5 20. Qxa7 c6 21. Qa4 Nc5 22. Qd4 Ncd7 23. b3 Ng6 24. Nc4 Rxe1+ 25. Rxe1 Nxf4 26. Qxf4 Qf6 27. Qd4 Qxd4 28. cxd4 Nf6 29. Nd6 Kg8 30. Re7 f4 31. Nxc8 Rxc8 32. Rxb7 1-0

Standings after eight rounds

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich for the official web site

Nana Alexendria interviews Pia Cramling after round eight

Remaining schedule

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

Official tournament site (with live video stream and video reports)
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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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