All photos by David Llada
The fourth round of saw pretty exciting games with one dramatic and interesting strategic battle.
Tan Zhongyi pressed Ju Wenjun the entire game but it is hard to see a clear cut win for her.
Ju Wenjun proved resourceful and got the draw out of a pawn down bishop endgame.
Kosteniuk played well against...
...Ni Shiqun and earned a rather easy draw with the black pieces.
For years, Harika's grandmother has stood firmly behind her as a rock of support in her quest for glory. She had an onerous task ahead in the quarters, trying to make something of her white pieces against Nana Dzagnidze.
Dzagnidze managed to equalize out of the opening but a strategic mistake handed Harika a pair of bishops and in that, a powerful light-squared bishop. Harika Dronavalli kept pressing and she had great winning chances until close to the move forty, when she missed 37…Nf5 which was an equalizer. However, that was not the end of the story.
One move before the time control, Nana forgot (or missed) the intermediate Bxb2 which would have yielded a probably drawn endgame. Harika proved opportunistic enough to find 40. Qe8! After which white’s attack against the black king was overwhelming. Nana gave up her queen for the rook, bishop, and a pawn but her pieces were not coordinated which Harika exploited in few moves after time control.
The “Queen of Tiebreaks” scored her first victory in this tournament! ChessBase India was quick to support their hero.
But we all know this is not the end for Nana. She has proven to be resourceful when needed!
Stefanova played a good game until she forgot about her position's limitations. And this is what I referred to in my headline.
Stefanova and Muzychuk played an off-beat line of the very popular Breyer defense in Spanish. It seemed that Muzychuk had the upper hand but a couple of inaccuracies and over-optimistic moves gave Stefanova a comfortable position and more time on the clock. She only needed to parry a couple of threat to leave Muzychuk with difficult decisions to make. However, Stefanova forgot her limits and ended up going for an unsound tactical adventure with 32. …. Nxh3?!, after spending most of her remaining time. Muzychuk kept her cool and found the difficult 33.Kf1! and gradually out-calculated Stefanova to win an important game. She now sits on 6.5/7—a fantastic run!
Results for Round 4.1:
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