Press release by FIDE
Both Zhu Jiner and Humpy Koneru won their games on Sunday and have extended their lead over the rest of the players. They will face off in Monday's seventh round, with Humpy playing white and in need of the win to overtake the Chinese GM.
After five days of intense battle and many decisive outcomes, the players, arbiters and organization staff of the Women's Grand Prix enjoyed the hospitality of Pune on their free day.
The organisers chartered a bus to visit the centre of the city to visit the Dagadusheth Halwai Ganapati Temple, dedicated to the God Ganesha and the Shaniwarwada Fort Pune, with its majestic portal. The afternoon continued with a trip to one of the largest malls in Pune for souvenir hunting and refreshments.
Round-six's ceremonial first moves were performed on the Harika Dronavalli v. Divya Deshmukh board by Justice Mrs. Neela Gokhale, member of the Mumbai High Court, and Pankaj Patil, Deputy Commissioner of the PCMC. Adv. Shivaraj Kadam also participated in the opening game ceremony.
Let's take a closer look at the games.
Round 6 results
Players and organisers during the rest day | Photo: Abhilash Shinde
Salome Melia and Batkhuyag Munguntuul looking for souvenirs | Photo: Abhilash Shinde
The first game to finish between Olympic team colleagues Harika and Divya ended in a relatively quick draw. In a Symmetrical Variation of the English Opening, they followed a 2020 game between top GMs Vladislav Artemiev and Mircea Parligras.
In both of the games, White had a very slight edge due to a backward d-pawn but in exchange Black had excellent piece coordination.
After lengthy manoeuvres, and some inaccuracies by his opponent, Artemiev scored the win, but this afternoon Harika preferred to repeat the position three times and secure the draw just before move thirty.
Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Abhilash Shinde
The number one Indian female player, Humpy Koneru, took a major step towards tournament victory by defeating Mongolia's top woman player Munguntuul Batkhuyag in a complicated variation of the Two Knights Defence.
"I noticed that she never plays 4.Ng5 against the Two Knights, so I decided to try out this line", explained Humpy in her post-game interview.
The tricky Ulvestad Variation caught Munguntuul by surprise, and she spent a lot of time in the opening. The Mongolian quickly ended up in a very bad position, with opposite-side castled kings and a massive attack for Humpy.
"I knew it was a very important game for me with the black pieces, and I just wanted to try whatever I could. The position just gave to a complex opening, and I was happy when I saw it over the board", Koneru shared.
Although it was a tough game, Humpy was kind enough to come to the media centre and explain her thoughts. A must-watch interview!
Only a few minutes after Humpy had secured the full point, Zhu Jiner scored her fourth win of the event, retaining the lead before tomorrow's decisive matc-up against the Indian.
Zhu opened with a Sicilian Rossolimo Attack, a line that she had already tried out against Salome Melia earlier in the tournament. Well-prepared with Black, Vaishali sacrificed some of her weak pawns in order to transfer all of her pieces towards her opponent's kingside. And it definitely seemed to be working!
Moment of the day
With fourteen moves to go to reach the time control, and Black under her last minute, Vaishali blundered here with 26…Nxc2??, allowing Zhu Jiner to take back control of the position with 27.Nxd5! and eventually win decisive material, as she explained to us in her post-game interview.
The correct move was 26…Rh6!, threatening mate on h2 and after 27.Nf1 Nxg2! 28.Rxg2 Bxf3 a position with a complex material imbalance arises, one which is not worse for Black.
The third decisive result of the round was Shuvalova's second win in the tournament, this time against tailender Salome Melia.
The Georgian IM opened with the Delayed Alapin Variation against Shuvalova's Sicilian Defence and got quite a decent position from the opening.
After installing a bishop on d6, her position seemed promising, but she soon lost the advantage by playing 19.Nd4? instead of 19.c4, opening up the position for her other bishop.
The rest of the game is a textbook example by Shuvalova of how to exploit a misplaced minor piece. If you want to enjoy her move-by-move explanations, join us in her post-game interview and improve your play!
Who said a draw was boring? Possibly one of the most exciting games of the tournament, it started out as a solid Petroff Defence, but immediately spiced up when Kashlinskaya opted for the 5.Nc3 variation, which generally leads to opposite-side castled king's positions.
After the opening phase, Kashlinskaya ventured upon with 12.Ng5 at one point and then had to drop back immediately. Not a good sign. A few moves later she launched an attack with 14.g4 but it was met with 14…g5! a not-at-all-obvious defence by Salimova.
Nonetheless, the key mistake was 21.Rg1? dropping a pawn, and leaving Kashlinskaya with a very bad ending.
But the game isn't over until it's over. Approaching time trouble, both players started to trade mistakes: at one point, Salimova's advantage according to the engines was +35.7!
But the position was a mess, kings and queens all over the place – and indeed even Kashlinskaya got a decisive advantage at one point.
In the end, the game was drawn by perpetual check on move sixty-seven, a result that probably doesn't leave any of the two players satisfied.
Alina Kashlinskaya facing Nurgyul Salimova | Photo: Abhilash Shinde
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