WWCC R04: Draw, Hou Yifan remains in the lead

The FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship Match between the current World Champion Hou Yifan of China and her challenger, Koneru Humpy of India, is being staged in the Triana International Hotel from November 14 to 30. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The winner of the ten-game match is the first player to reach 5.5 points or more. The prize fund is 200,000 Euro, with 60% going to the winner. The games start at 15:00h local time, which is also Central European Time = 17:00 Moscow, 19:30 New Delhi, 22:00h Beijing and 09:00 New York. You can find the starting time for other locations here.

Game four – Draw, Hou Yifan remains in the lead

In the fourth game of the Women's World Championship match the title holder Hou Yifan had the white pieces. As her opponent Humpy Koneru said at the post-game press conference: White got an edge and was pressing throughout the game – she had to defend the position that was not at all pleasant for her. In the difficult endgame White managed to win a pawn, but there were not many sources left for a fight – both players had a rook and a knight. The challenger defended this endgame well, despite being short on time, and the opponent agreed to a draw. The game finished only at 8 p.m. and was the longest encounter of the match so far.

The press conference after the game included a lot of chess questions. Hou Yifan and Humpy Koneru answered, showing variations from the game on the computer (running Fritz 13) that was connected to a large screen, so all the guests in the press center could see the analysis. Here we bring you the key moments of the game through the eyes of the players. Note that you can click on the evaluation chart below the board to jump to specific parts of the game.

The press conference, with the players explaining their moves on a flat screen

Hou Yifan and Anastasiya Karlovich analysing the game with a notebook computer...

... running the latest Fritz 13. The audience can follow everything on the flat screen.

The commentary system was set up by the Chief Executive Officer of FIDE and of Global Chess Geoffrey Borg (above right with arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos), who sacrificed his personal copy of Fritz 13 for the good of the event. Thanks, Geoffrey, and don't worry, we are sending you a new serial number for your program.

Score

After four games World champion Hou Yifan is leading with 2.5 to 1.5 points. Saturday, November 19th is a rest day, and the match will continue on Sunday. Hou Yifan will have the white pieces again. The measure of changing the colors after the fourth game has been adopted to prevent the same player having the white pieces after each of the rest days throughout the match, because this might give her an advantage in preparation.

Remaining schedule

Photos and news from Tirana by WGMs Anastasiya Karlovich
and Anna Burtasova, with kind permission of FIDE

Links Official tournament site All ChessBase reports All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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