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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.
Photos by Vitaliy Hrabar for the official site
It was about as dramatic a game as could be, and tragic… for Ukrainians and Mariya Muzychuk’s fans. It was generally agreed that the time for solid play and wait-and-see chess was past, and if the title holder wished to defend her crown, she would need to take far more energetic measures than she had until now. She was behind the score by a point, and the Chinese challenger did not seem as if she were about to ease up.
The opening choice was a repeat of game one, the Giuoco Piano AKA Italian game, but this time the Ukrainian quickly eschewed the cautious 7.h3 for the sharper 7.Bg5. The choice soon paid off as she built a significant advantage just begging to unleash hell on her opponent. The opportunity arose when she reached this position:
White has built an excellent position, and the time has come to take
advantage of it. White to play and increase her advantage.
Unfortunately she missed the window of opportunity, and as so often happens in such cases, she began to waffle on how to proceed. Five moves later, at a loss on how to progress, she began to go seriously astray, first by removing her strongest piece, the bishop on c4, from its attacking outpost, and then with a king move that just wasted a tempo. Her knight that had seemed a piece to cause trouble, was now a castaway on the island square of h5, with no hope of rescue.
When the tide had turned decisively, Hou Yifan did not waste time as she found and executed the winning blow.
Things have gone all wrong for White, and now Black has the means to
end White's resistance. White to play and win. Solutions in the game notes.
Game six annotated by GM Adrian Mikhalchishin
Player | Fed | Rtg | G1 | G2 | G3 | G4 | G5 | G6 | G7 | G8 | G9 | G10 | Pts |
Mariya Muzychuk |
UKR
|
2563
|
½
|
0
|
½
|
½
|
½
|
0
|
|
|
|
|
2.0
|
Hou Yifan |
CHN
|
2667
|
½
|
1
|
½
|
½
|
½
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
4.0
|
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.
When the games are running, clicking on the above link will take you to our live broadcast. It is free and open to all – as a Premium Account member you have access to the Live Book, Chat, chess engine analysis – all in your browser, on a notebook, tablet or even your smartphone. And the Let's Check function will show you what the most powerful computers in the world think of the current position, as each move is being played.
In the live broadcast below, on the side of each board is an evaluation meter, showing you which side is better. The small "x" button on the top right of each board will remove it from the broadcast. If you remove two games you will have four larger boards. Removing four will give you two even larger boards, and removing five will give you just one very large board. Refresh the page (Ctrl-R) to return to the six most popular boards.
You can also click the "+" and "–" icons at the bottom right of the broadcast window to increase and decrease the number of boards. There are other functions: you can download PGNs of the running games and even start an engine by clicking the robot button (third from left). Note that you can view moves and statistics in the opening (with the Live Book switched on) and even analyse on the boards while the games are being broadcast, by moving pieces and using the engine – best in multiple line mode. Is there a better way to follow the games? |
It may interest you to know that you can use the same broadcast service above on your blog or web site.
It is simply a matter of copying and pasting a line or two of code. Try it out: instructions are here.
LinksThe 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. |