Women's WCh. G5: Another quick draw

by Klaus Besenthal
3/8/2016 – On Monday Mariya Muzychuk and Hou Yifan had a rest day which they probably mostly spent preparing for the remainder of the match. But in game five on Tuesday neither Hou Yifan who was playing with White nor Mariya Muyzchuk who defended with Black came up with anything exciting and the game quickly petered out to a draw. After five of ten games Hou Yifan now leads by 3-2.
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2016 Women's World Chess Championship

The Women’s World Chess Championship Match 2016 between the current World Champion Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine and Challenger Hou Yifan of China (former World Champion 2010-2012, 2013-2015) takes place in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 1-18, 2016. The first game is scheduled to start at 3 pm local time on 2nd of March 2016. You can watch the games live in our broadcast window at the bottom of this page.

The rest day

Photos by Vitaliy Hrabar for the official site

Follow the games live on playchess.com

Hou Yifan and Mariya Muzychuk had a rest day on Monday but they still had some duties to fulfill and were invited to pose for pictures in elegant surroundings.

This chess set might not be entirely suitable for modern tournament chess...

... but Mariya Muzychuk...

... and Hou Yifan...

... seemed to enjoy themselves.

Game five

Before the game the players were greeted with flowers...

... but then things got more serious.

However, game five was a rather listless affair and not much of a real battle. After Muzychuk had no trouble at all to equalize with Black, Hou Yifan decided to play it safe and quickly steered the game into a completely equal ending which the players continued for a couple of moves before agreeing to a draw.

 
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1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Qa4 dxc4 6.Qxc4 e5 7.d3 Ne7 8.0-0 Diagram
8...Na6 A new move. 9.Bd2 0-0 10.Qc1 Nf5 Diagram
Black is well advised not to play c6-c5 because the resulting Maroczy structure would be good for the white but bad for the black pieces. 11.Na3 Nd4 12.Re1 Bg4 It might seem as if Black had a slight initiative but White quickly simplifies the position. 13.Nxd4 exd4 14.Bh6 Re8 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.Qd2 Qd7 17.Nc4 f6 18.h4 Re7 19.e4 dxe3 20.Nxe3 Be6 21.d4 Diagram
Black cannot exploit the isolated d-pawn. 21...Rae8 22.b3 Nc7 23.Qb4 Nd5 24.Nxd5 Bxd5 25.Rxe7+ Qxe7 26.Qxe7+ Rxe7 27.Bxd5 cxd5 28.Rc1 Kf7 29.Kf1 Ke6 30.Ke2 Kd6+ 31.Kd3 Rc7 32.Re1 Re7 33.Rc1 Rc7 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Hou Yifan2673Muzychuk,M2554½–½2016A11WCh Women 20165

 

Current standings

Player Fed Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10 Pts
Mariya Muzychuk
UKR
2563
½
0
½
½
½
 
 
 
 
 
2.0
Hou Yifan
CHN
2667
½
1
½
½
½
 
 
 
 
 
3.0

Schedule

March 6 Sunday 15:00 Game 4
March 7 Monday Day Off  
March 8 Tuesday 15:00 Game 5
March 9 Wednesday 15:00 Game 6
March 10 Thursday Day Off  
March 11 Friday 15:00 Game 7
March 12 Saturday 15:00 Game 8
March 13 Sunday Day Off  
March 14 Monday 15:00 Game 9
March 15 Tuesday Day Off  
March 16 Wednesday 15:00 Game 10
March 17 Thursday Day Off  
March 18 Friday 15:00 Tie-break games
March 18 Friday 18:00 Closing Ceremony

All games start at 3 p.m. local time, which is an hour ahead of European time, two ahead of Britain, and seven ahead of New York. You can find the starting time at your location here.

Links

The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the 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 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
 
Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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