Ju Wenjun a half point from world title
Game 9
Challenger Ju Wenjun began as the favourite in the Women's World Championship match. She is currently number two on the women's ranking list, while Tan Zhongyi is number ten. And Ju was indeed superior in the match. She was better prepared and all in all had more chances than Tan Zhongyi.
But Ju has not won just yet. In game eight, she missed a very good opportunity, and in the ninth game, she was tantalisingly close to a win that would have put her over the top.
World Champion Ju Wenjun? | Photo: Gu Xiaobing
Tan Zhongyi had white, but once again could not take advantage of the first move. In a Nimzo-Indian, the players reached a perfectly balanced position after the opening but then Tan was gradually outplayed in the middlegame and endgame, eventually reaching a rook ending in which she was two pawns down, and could hold only with a bit of luck and some help from her opponent.
With this second volume of his endgame training series, grandmaster and endgame expert Dr Karsten Mueller continues to lay the solid foundations for the last phase of the game.
Part II is dedicated exclusively to rook endgames: rook versus pawn, rook and pawn versus rook, rook and rook pawn versus rook, rook and two connected pawns versus rook.The star move that put her on track to save the game was 45.e4!
The obvious 45...f4? would be an immediate draw after 46.Re6+ when the rook is taboo on account of stalemate and the black king cannot escape from the checks. The resulting endgame after 45...Rh4 was a theoretical draw which Tan held confidently.
This was surely a happy draw for the Champion, who, after a rest day tomorrow, May 17th, can hope to find a way to win the tenth and final game of the match which will be played on Friday. If — and with the black pieces it's a big 'if' — Tan wins this game and reach a 5:5 tie, then on Saturday, May 18, we would witness a rapid (and even blitz) tie-break.
She has done it before, in Game 6. Can she do it again?
Tan Zhongyi ½-½ Ju Wenjun
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Rustam Kasimdzhanov, the FIDE World Champion in 2004, has been extremely successful with the Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2 with White and with Black. In over 4 hours of video, Rustam Kasimdzhanov explains all the important ideas, strategies and tricks helped by sample games in which the white side is represented, e.g., by Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Ivanchuk as well as the author himself.
Match score after nine games
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.
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
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