The Women’s World Chess Cup 2012 is being staged by the Ugorian
Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk from 11 November to 2 December. The best
64 chess
players in the world are taking part in the competition, which consist
of six knock-out rounds of two games, which reduce the participants from
64 to 32, 16, 8, 4, and 2. The final consists of four games, the winner
will play a match against the winner of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix
2011-2012 (Hou Yifan), which will determine the World Champion among women.
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Round five

Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria took the lead against the Indian Harika
Dronavalli, winning the first game of the match with the white pieces. The former
World Champion got a promising position after the opening. After lengthy maneuvering
White made a break on the kingside and won a pawn. Black still had drawing chances
and could equalize with accurate defence, but Harika impatiently went for a
sharp counterattack. She sacrificed another pawn and then a piece, miscalculated
and did not get sufficient compensation for her losses. Stefanova combined defensive
moves with threats to the black king and finished the game with a nice tactical
blow that inevitably led to a checkmate.

Anna Ushenina (above right, Ukraine) trapped her opponent Ju Wenjun from China
in the opening to obtain an overwhelming advantage. The Chinese did not defend
perfectly, and her position soon became critical. However, the Ukrainian wrongly
rejected the opponent’s exchange sacrifice, and Black managed to come
back. A draw was agreed on the 28th move.

Harika Dronavalli (India) needed to win. In a slow maneuvering game the Indian
advanced her pawns on the queenside, and Stefanova pushed on the kingside. As
the game got more open, Black sacrificed a piece for White’s three central
pawns and obtained a big advantage. However, Stefanova did not try to win the
game outright and just forced a draw by repetition, securing the match victory.
Now the former World Champion will have a chance to win her second title.

Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) and Ju Wenjun (China) agreed to an early draw. The
Chinese was unable to get an opening advantage with White and offered a draw
on the 18th move.
Tiebreak

In the first tie-break game Anna Ushenina, playing white, got an overwhelming
position after the opening. Ju Wenjun had to sacrifice a piece in order to save
her king from White’s attack. Black had some counterplay, but White calmly
parried all threats, and soon the Chinese resigned. In the second game Ju Wenjun
got a better position, and Black sacrificed a pawn to avoid bigger trouble.
White responded by sacrificing an exchange for two pawns, and had decent winning
chances in the resulting position. However, she missed a number of winning continuations
due to a time trouble, and Ushenina avoided all traps and saved the game with
accurate defending.
Results of round five
Name |
G1 |
G2 |
R1 |
R2 |
Tot |
Stefanova, Antoaneta (BUL) |
1 |
½ |
|
|
1.5 |
Harika, Dronavalli (IND) |
0 |
½ |
|
|
0.5 |
|
Ushenina, Anna (UKR) |
½ |
½ |
1 |
½ |
2.5 |
Ju, Wenjun (CHN) |
½ |
½ |
0 |
½ |
1.5 |
Replay all games from round five

In the finals: IM Anna Ushenina of Ukraine, 27...

... and former women's world champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova, Bulgaria, 33
November 26 is a rest day, the final match begins on Tuesday, November 27.
It is a best-of-four match. If the score after four games is 2-2, the players
continue to the tiebreak, which begins with two rapid games: 25 minutes plus
10 second per move for each player. If the score is still tied they continue
with two quicker games: 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the winner is
still not determined, the players will proceed to blitz games: 5 minutes plus
3 seconds per move. Finally, if the score remains equal, an Armageddon game
is played: White has 5 minutes, Black has 4 minutes, 3 seconds per move are
added starting with the move 61, and a draw counts as a victory for Black.
Goodbye to Khanty Mansiysk
Here are portraits of the players who were eliminated in round five of the
Women's World Championship and who we will not be seeing in subsequent reports.

Going far: GM Harika Dronavalli, one of India's top female players

IM Ju Wenjun, the last of the many Chinese players to be eliminated

Ju Wenjun and Harika receive their consolation prizes for the semifinal
success
Credit: The above report was based on article published
by the official web site, which has some extraordinary pictures, were made by
Anna Burtasova, Etery Kublashvili, Vladimir Barsky and local photographers.
Many more images are to be found here.
The live video coverage is provided by Mark Gluhovsky from ChessTV.
There will be English language commentary by GM Alexander Khalifman. For the
first time Mark is going to try to supply commentary in Chinese: GM Peng Zhaoqing
speaking from her home in Holland. The Russian commentary will come from GM
Sergei Shipov, working out of Moscow.
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