Two draws to start the Women's World Championship

Tied after two

In the first high-profile event of 2020, World Champion Ju Wenjun meets her challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina in a match over 12 games — six in Shanghai and six in Vladivostok (plus a tiebreak if necessary). 

After years of alternating knockouts and matches, the new FIDE leadership has adjusted the format of the Women's World Championship to align more closely with that of the open World Championship. Although, it should be noted that most open World Championships have been in the form of matches (including disputed FIDE World Championships), before the Second World War the Women's title was mostly determined in a tournament format. It was only after the war that the matchplay tradition started. In 1999, the format switched to a knockout, with matches returning to the mix only in 2011.

The contest between Ju Wenjun and Aleksandra Goryachkina is now the first world championship to be once again held in the post-war tradition. The young Russian grandmaster qualified thanks to her victory in the 2019 candidates tournament and, at an Elo of 2578, she represents a serious challenge for the defending champion, as evidenced by the first two games.

Game 1 - A knight makes 45 of White’s 97 moves

In the first game, Goryachkina with the white pieces, the two players fought on Catalan terrain. The players followed Giri vs Jakovenko Shenzhen 2019, through 13.♗xb6 axb6 but after 14.♘xc6, Ju was left pondering her next two moves for nearly 30 minutes. 

The Catalan: A complete repertoire for White!

The Catalan is one of the most solid openings for White. It forms part of the large and strong fianchetto family in which White builds his strategy mainly around the bishop on g2. Grandmaster Victor Bologan covers all of Black’s replies to the Catalan, some of which can even transpose to other openings such as the Tarrasch System and the Queen’s Indian. Suffice it to say that the Catalan rules!

The middlegame remained dead-even as the pieces dropped off the board until a slight inaccuracy on move 35 gave Goryachkina an opportunity to press for more.

35...♝e8?! 36.♖d8 gave White a small initiative and, after a rook trade, Goryachkina tested the Champion in the knight vs bishop ending until the 97^th move. The path of White's knight was a bit reminiscent of the classic "knight's tour". 

Power Play 24: A repertoire for black against the Catalan

On this DVD Grandmaster Daniel King offers you a repertoire for Black against the Catalan, based around maintaining the rock of a pawn on d5. Keeping central control ultimately gives Black good chances to launch an attack against the enemy king.

The scene of the action in Shanghai

Game 2 - A stable draw

In today's second game, Ju took the white pieces for the first time and uncharacteristically opened with 1.e4, which she has played in only a small fraction of games throughout her career. Goryachkina chose the Berlin defence and Ju responded with the current main line 5.♖e1: 

The Berlin Wall

On top level the Berlin Defense is a popular defensive weapon but it also offers Black good chances to win if White does not proceed precisely. On this DVD Victor Bologan shows what Black can and should do if White tries to avoid the main lines of the Berlin Defense.

The game followed Fedoseev vs Kramnik, Wijk aan Zee 2019, until the 12^th move, when Goryachkina thought for ten minutes on the novelty 12...c6.

On move 19 the queens were exchanged and a balanced endgame ensued:

The game continued until move 40 without much tension, until a draw was sealed by a threefold repetition of moves. 

Beating the Berlin Defence

Ever since the Kasparov-Kramnik WCh match (London 2000) players with the white pieces have been breaking their teeth biting on the Berlin Wall in the Ruy Lopez. The situation from White’s point of view has become precarious – ducking it is equivalent to capitulation, because in all alternative variations to the Berlin endgame White gives up from the start on the struggle for an opening advantage. White has to find ways to crack open Black’s defence. There is hardly any other grandmaster of his class who is as well known for his uncompromising and creative play as the Latvian Alexei Shirov.

Tuesday is a rest day in Shanghai, so play resumes Wednesday at 7:30 UTC (8:30 CET, 2:30 AM EST).

Ju Wenjun vs Aleksandra Goryachkina

Match standings

Click or tap any result to open the game via Live.ChessBase.com

All games

Commentary of Round 2

Commentary by GM Nigel Short & WGM Zhang Xiaowen

Translation from German and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson

Links

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