Women's World Championship: Goryachkina forces a playoff

by Macauley Peterson
1/23/2020 – With one regular match game to be played the momentum was very much on the side of current World Champion Ju Wenjun, who won back-to-back points in games 9 and 10 then easily made a draw in game 11. Her challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina came into game 12 in Vladivostock knowing that she had to win at all costs. And she delivered! With the match now tied at 6:6, the World Championship will be decided in a tiebreaking series of rapid (and even blitz) games on Friday starting at the same time: 5:30 UTC (6:30 CET, 12:30 AM EST) with commentary by GM Nigel Short & GM Hou Yifan. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili (FIDE / official site)

The London System with 2.Bf4 Reloaded The London System with 2.Bf4 Reloaded

Over the last couple of years nearly all the world's elite grandmasters have been employing the London System, and on this DVD Simon Williams shows what we can learn from their practice. The "Ginger GM" takes a look at all the latest developments whilst teaching you all the basics that you need to know in order to play this opening with success.

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A clutch Game 12 win for the challenger

It was do or die for Aleksandra Goryachkina with the white pieces on Thursday in Vladivostok. She needed a win in the final regulation game to force tie-breaks. How would she approach this test? A wild gambit? A solid long-term positional grind? Mainline theory?

In fact Goryachkina chose none of the above, whipping out 1.d4 d5 2.c3!? — a relatively rare move which Ju was obviously not expecting; she thought for nearly 20 minutes before replying with 2...f6. The challenger continued, not with 3.g5 — the Veresov Attack — but 3.f4 heading for a London System sideline. This doesn't promise white much of an opening advantage objectively, but Goryachkina's surprise gained her a time and psychological edge, plus a slight initiative.

Ju Wenjun

Ju Wenjun collecting her thoughts before the start of Game 12 | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

After 3...e6 4.b5 a6 5.e3, the position can be found in the games of a few of well-known players who often eschew mainline theory: Baadur Jobava, Richard Rapport and Nils Grandelius have all tried it in recent years, including against elite opposition. 

 
Goryachkina vs Ju, Game 12
Position after 5.e3

Ju spent another seven minutes on 5...b4+ 6.c3 e7 and after 7.a4, already the players were in a position with virtually no precedents.

The middlegame developed into a closed position which was equal but contained enough structural imbalances for Goryachkina to manoeuvre in search of an opening. Her moment finally came on move 26:

 
Position after 26.♘d2

Ju retreated the queen to h7, but this allowed White's planned e4 to come with greater impact, since an attempt to defend with 27...♝c6 would give White an edge thanks to 28.♕g3 with ♗e5 in the air and play on the dark squares. It would have been better to keep the queen on g6 or d3 to keep watch over the g3 square. After 26...h7 27.e4 Ju was obliged to take 27...dxe4 breaking her structure and leaving targets on e4 and c4 which Goryachkina would exploit, soon winning a pawn.

However, just after the time control, Goryachkina passed up what was, in retrospect, a chance to put the game away quickly:

 
Position after 40...♛f7

Here 41.d5! was very strong, with a clever motive to provoke exd5 and thereby give the white rook access to the f3-square in some key attacking lines. But Goryachkina obviously saw no need to sharpen the game drastically when she could play on the strengths of her position plus the material edge with 41.d3+ g6 42.g4 aiming to reach the f-file via f4 rather than f3.

The dramatic twists and turns are appreciated by spectators of all levels!

The minor pieces were exchanged and Goryachkina found herself in a winning queen and rook endgame in which she could bide her time and gradually work her pieces into better and better squares. 

Black's position reached a breaking point after 51.f4 g5:

 
Position after 51...Qg5

52.h4 e7 53.e5+ g8 54.f6 h7 55.h5 gxh5 (55...g5 56.g4! is practically Zugzwang!) and now multiple roads lead to a full point.


Match standings

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


After the game when the players were asked if they had any energy left for a tiebreak, Goryachkina replied, "no matter what the match will end tomorrow and I wasn't ready for it to end today."

Goryachkina

Goryachkina won when she needed to | Eteri Kublashvili

A visibly downtrodden Ju called the match "a very tough battle and up to now nothing has been decided yet". She will have just hours to recover from this disappointing loss — the tiebreak tomorrow will consist of four 25 minute (plus 10 seconds per move) rapid games, followed, if necessary, by up to five sets of blitz games (5+3) and, if these still fail to break the stand-off and Armageddon game.


Game 12 and commentary

 
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StWhiteEloWBlackEloBResRndid
Rohith Krishna S2490Arjun Kalyan25092.11100198
Harikrishnan.A.Ra2467Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki19502.21100199
Harshad S2388Pranesh M25722.31100200
Srihari L R2481Balasubramaniam H22212.41100202
Abrahamyan,T2310Lee,A23863.21279479
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Commentary by GM Nigel Short & GM Hou Yifan


All games

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.g3 0-0 6.Bg2 dxc4 7.Ne5 c5 8.dxc5 Qxd1+ 9.Nxd1 Bxc5 10.0-0 Nc6 E06: Closed Catalan: Early deviations 11.Bxc6 bxc6 12.Be3 Bb6 13.Bxb6 axb6
14.Nxc6N Predecessor: 14.Nc3 Bd7 15.Rfd1 Ra7 16.Rd6 Rc8 17.Nxc4 Be8 18.Nxb6 ½-½ (31) Ponomariov,R (2648)-Dominguez Perez,L (2762) Budva 2019 14...Bb7 15.Nb4 Nd5 16.Nxd5 Bxd5 17.Nc3 Bc6 18.Rfd1 Rfd8 19.f3 Kf8 20.Kf2 Ke7 21.Rxd8 Rxd8=       Endgame KRB-KRN 22.Ke3 e5 23.Rd1 Ra8 24.a3 Ke6 25.Na2 Ba4 26.Rd2 f6 27.Kf2 Bc6 28.e4 g6 29.Ke3 f5 30.exf5+ gxf5 31.f4 h5 32.fxe5 Kxe5 33.Rd4 b5 34.Nc3 Ra7 35.Ne2 Be8 36.Rd8 Re7 37.Nf4 Kf6+ 38.Kd2 Re5 39.Nd5+ Kf7 40.Rd6 Bc6 41.Nf4 Much weaker is 41.Rxc6?! Rxd5+ 42.Ke1 Re5+ 43.Kf1 Re3= 41...Bf3 42.h4 42.Rh6± 42...Bg4 42...Ke7= 43.Ra6 Kd7 43.Rd5 Better is 43.Ra6± 43...Kf6 43...Rxd5+= keeps the balance. 44.Nxd5 Ke6 44.Rxe5 44.Rd7± 44...Kxe5± KB-KN 45.Ke3 Bd1 46.Ng6+ Kf6 47.Nf8 Ke5 48.Nd7+ Ke6 49.Nb8 Kd5 50.Na6 Ke5 51.Nb4 Black should prevent Na2. Bg4 52.Nc2 Bd1?       52...Kd5= and Black stays safe. 53.Nd4+- Ba4 54.Ne2! Bd1 55.Nd4? Only move: 55.Nc3!+- Ba4 56.Kf3 55...Ba4= 56.Nc6+ Kd6 57.Nd8 Ke5 58.Nf7+ Ke6 59.Ng5+ Ke5 60.Nh3 Bd1 61.Nf4 Bg4 62.Ng2 Bd1 63.Ne1 Bg4 64.Nc2 aiming for Nd4. Bd1 65.Nb4 Ba4 66.Na2 Nc3 is the strong threat. Bb3?       66...Bd1!= and Black is okay. 67.Nc3+- Ba4 68.Kf3 Kd4
And now ...Kd3 would win. 69.Ke2! Kc5 70.Ke3? 70.Nxa4++- bxa4 71.Ke3 70...Bc2= 71.Ne2 Bd1! Strongly threatening ...Bxe2. 72.Nd4 Bg4 73.Nc2 Bd1 74.Nb4 Bg4 75.Na2 Bd1 76.Kd2 Bf3 77.Nc3 Bc6 78.Ke3 Bd7
78...Bg2= remains equal. 79.Ne2!± b4 80.axb4+ Kxb4 81.Kd2 81.Nd4± 81...Bc6 The position is equal. 82.Nf4 Bf3 83.Ne6 Bg4 84.Kc2 Bf3 85.Nd4 Bg4 86.Kd2 Kc5 87.Ke3 Kd5 88.Nb5 Kc5 89.Nc3 Kb4 90.Kd4 Kb3 91.Nd5 Be2 92.Ne3 Bd3 93.Kc5 Be2 94.Kd5 Bd3 95.Kd4 Be2 96.Kc5 Bd3 97.Kd4 Accuracy: White = 70%, Black = 62%.
½–½
  • Start an analysis engine:
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  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
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  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Goryachkina,A2578Ju,W2584½–½2020E06FIDE WWCC 20201.1
Ju,W2584Goryachkina,A2578½–½2020C67FIDE WWCC 20202.1
Goryachkina,A2578Ju,W2584½–½2020D41FIDE WWCC 20203.1
Ju,W2584Goryachkina,A25781–02020D16FIDE WWCC 20204.1
Goryachkina,A2578Ju,W25841–02020A18FIDE WWCC 20205.1
Ju,W2584Goryachkina,A2578½–½2020C67FIDE WWCC 20206.1

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Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

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