Anna Muzychuk and Zhu Jiner co-leaders
By Milan Dinic, FIDE's Press Officer
A blunder by Nana Dzagnidze helped Zhu Jiner secure a fifth consecutive victory, joining Anna Muzychuk at the top, on five points. Another Chinese player, former World Champion Tan Zhongyi, is just half a point behind, in striking distance. Vaishali is in fourth place, on four points. After a great start in the first part of the tournament (with two wins and two draws), she stumbled, making just one point out of the last three games.
Zhu and Anna Muzychuk are the only two players in this tournament who have a chance to win the overall Grand Prix series, and there are just two more rounds to go!
Round 7 results
The King‘s Indian Attack is a universal opening: easy to learn, flexible, and rich in both tactical and positional opportunities.
The playing hall during round seven | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel
Zhu benefited from an oversight by Dzagnidze, who blundered in an inferior position.
Nana made a serious inaccuracy on her previous move and here she had to give up her pawn on the a-file – 35…Nb6 36.Qxa5 Nbd7 blocking White's passer. Instead she played 35…Rf4?, missing a refutation.
36.d7! A perfect illustration of deflection! 36…Nxd7 37.Qxd5 and White is a knight up.
Nana Dzagnidze | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel
In another Nimzo-Indian, Vaishali ended in time trouble as black against the great Alexandra Kosteniuk. The former women's world champion surprised her opponent with 1.d4 – which she usually doesn't play against Vaishali. "There are many first moves", Kosteniuk said, "but the most important thing is not what you play but how you play".
In this position, Black was in time trouble and under pressure.
23…c5?? Playing 23…b6 or …b5 with an exchange on the d-file was a much better option.
24.bxc5 Nc6 25.Rxe4!! Bxe4 Black cannot take with the knight because of mate on g7.
26.Nxe4 Ne5 27.Nd6!
And now Black has to give up a rook on d6. She cannot play 27…Re7 because of 28.Bf5 and the queen is trapped. And if 27…Rf8 then Black loses the knight on e5.
In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.A few moves later, Vaishali resigned.
This was a second consecutive victory for Kosteniuk, and she now has 3½ points. Though pleased with this victory, Kosteniuk expressed dissatisfaction with her overall performance. As she pointed out, "the quality of my games in this tournament is about 73-75 percent. And if my performance is below 90%, I think it's very bad".
Alexandra Kosteniuk | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel
The most dramatic or, rather, most chaotic game of the round was played between Olga Badelka and Mariya Muzychuk, where both traded grave errors in time trouble.
In the Slav Defence, former women's world champion Mariya Muzychuk took a pawn in the centre that gave White the upper hand in development and a strong attack. However, Badelka did not find the best continuation and after a series of mutual inaccuracies by move 31, the position was sharp for both.
31…Qb7, threatening mate on b2. Instead of 32.Qb3 Badelka played the seemingly natural but losing move 32.b3. However, it fails to 32…R5f3! and now White is completely lost.
In time trouble, both traded mistakes, with the position swinging from a total victory for Black to a draw: 33.Qg6 Qf7 34.Qxe6 Rxa2 Black is better, but White has chances.
35.Qc8?? Blunder. Black is winning. 35…Qf8?? Now it's equal.
36.Qe6+ Kh8 37.Qe5?? Black is now winning: 37…Rff2
Soon the two reached the first time control and it was completely lost for White.
The first victory for Muzychuk in the tournament, who is now on 3/7. Badelka's third consecutive loss leaves her on 2/7 points.
Mariya Muzychuk | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel
In the main line of the Giuoco Piano, China's Tan Zhongyi and Lela Javakhishvili from Georgia followed well-known theory. But on move 17, Black made her first serious inaccuracy. White seized the initiative and emerged notably better. Soon, Black overlooked a pawn, and it was all over for her. Tan confidently converted her material advantage into a full point.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.The only peaceful game of the day was between Anna Muzychuk and Nurgyul Salimova. In the Four Knights Game, the position was even throughout without much excitement. The two agreed to split a point after move 40. Anna Muzychuk has 5/7 points and is the only undefeated player in the tournament so far.
Tan Zhongyi | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel
Current standings
All games
| Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Links
.jpeg)
.jpeg)