WWCC R06: Hou Yifan wins, takes two-point lead

by ChessBase
11/21/2011 – The sixth game of the Women's World Championship ended in time trouble. The Challenger Humpy Koneru was pressing in a basically equal position, but with time running out for both players it was the 17-year-old champion Hou Yifan who, in spite of a violent stomach-ache the night before, had the better nerves. With four games left she now has a commanding 4-2 lead. Full illustrated report.

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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 six

The reigning Women's World Champion won the sixth game of the match and is now two points ahead of the challenger Humpy Koneru. Although White got an edge from the opening, the Chinese GM managed to equalize and break the position in the time trouble to come out a winner.

The outcome is even more surprising when one knows that Hou Yifan spent several hours in the hospital the previous night. The 17-year-old experienced severe pains in her stomach area and was immediately taken into the best hospital of Tirana by the organizers and FIDE officials. The doctors checked her medical condition, but the necessary tests revealed nothing and the conclusion was that the problem could be mainly psychological. Yifan declined to take any pain killers, but still managed to come to the game in perfect fighting condition. Such are the pressures of a World Championship match.

Note that you can click on the evaluation profile below the board to jump to the corresponding position. The evaluations were collected from the computers of spectators watching the game with the Fritz 13 feature "Let's Check" switched on.

[Event "WCh w"] [Site "Tirana ALB"] [Date "2011.11.21"] [Round "6"] [White "Koneru, H."] [Black "Hou Yifan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D38"] [WhiteElo "2600"] [BlackElo "2578"] [Annotator "Doe,John"] [PlyCount "76"] [EventDate "2011.11.14"] 1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+ Nc6 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd2 dxc4 8. Bxc4 Bd6 9. Qc2 ({This was recently played at top level:} 9. Nb5 Bd7 10. Qb3 Ne4 11. Nxd6 cxd6 12. Bd3 Nxd2 13. Nxd2 Qa5 14. a3 Rab8 15. Qb5 Qxb5 16. Bxb5 Rfc8 17. Ne4 d5 18. Nc5 Be8 19. Bxc6 Rxc6 {1/2-1/2 (19) Ponomariov,R (2744) -Kramnik,V (2784) Wijk aan Zee 2011}) 9... a6 {[%eval 14,0]} 10. a3 {[%eval 20, 0]} e5 {[%eval 9,0]} 11. dxe5 $146 {[%eval -5,0]} Nxe5 {[%eval 0,0]} 12. Nxe5 { [%eval 0,0]} Bxe5 {[%eval -1,0]} 13. f4 {[%eval 6,0]} Bxc3 {[%eval 19,0]} 14. Bxc3 {[%eval 10,0]} Qe7 {[%eval 18,0]} 15. O-O {[%eval 20,0]} Qxe3+ {[%eval 29, 0]} 16. Kh1 {[%eval 8,0]} Qb6 {[%eval 39,0]} 17. f5 {[%eval 40,0]} Bd7 {[%eval 34,0]} 18. Bb4 {[%eval 35,0]} Rfe8 {[%eval 28,0]} 19. Rad1 {[%eval 23,0]} Qc6 { [%eval 34,0]} 20. Qb3 {[%eval 40,0]} Kh8 {[%eval 38,0]} 21. Rc1 {[%eval 0,0]} Qb6 {[%eval 0,0]} 22. Bxf7 {[%eval 0,0]} Re5 {[%eval 47,0]} 23. Bc3 {[%eval 29, 0]} Qxb3 {[%eval 20,0]} 24. Bxb3 {[%eval 43,0]} Re3 {[%eval 44,0]} 25. Bc4 { [%eval 43,0]} Rae8 {[%eval 49,0]} 26. Bd4 {[%eval 51,0]} R3e7 {[%eval 50,0]} 27. Ba2 {[%eval 11,0]} Re2 {[%eval 25,0]} 28. Bf7 {[%eval 24,0]} R8e7 {[%eval 24,0]} 29. Bc4 {[%eval 23,0]} R2e4 {[%eval 52,0]} 30. Bc5 {[%eval 0,0]} Re8 { [%eval 0,0]} 31. Bf7 {[%eval 2,0]} R8e5 {[%eval 7,0] The challenger has relinquished the small advantage she had, and now in acute time trouble (of both players) she hands over to the opponent.} 32. Ba2 {[%eval -49,0]} Bc6 { [%eval -57,0]} 33. Rg1 $2 {[%eval -98,0]} Re2 {[%eval -145,0]} 34. Bd4 {[%eval -145,0] Protecting the b2 pawn but giving up the one on f5.} Rxf5 {[%eval -145, 0]} 35. Bc4 {[%eval -129,0]} Rd2 {[%eval -144,0]} 36. Bc3 $4 $19 {[%eval -562, 0] Time trouble blunder.} Ne4 {[%eval -319,0]} 37. Rge1 $2 {[%eval -4,0] Now it is mate in four.} Ng3+ 38. hxg3 Rh5+ (38... Rh5+ 39. Kg1 Rxg2+ 40. Kf1 Rh1#) 0-1


The press at the start of game six – note the time on the clock on the wall


The players shake...


... and arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos starts the clocks


Our 5D photographer Anastasiya Karlovich has five minutes to get close-up shots


Her colleague WGM Anna Burtosova works with a legendary Canon fixed focal length
F/1.8 EF lens that produces nice bokeh and smiles on the face of the photographer


Challenger Humpy Koneru in the press conference after the game


Her dejected father Ashok Koneru can hardly bear to watch


Even the winner Hou Yifan is subdued after the pressures of despearte time trouble

Score

Players
Rating
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Total
Perf.
+/–
Hou Yifan
2578
½
½
1
½
½
1
4.0
2720
+12
Koneru Humpy  
2600
½
½
0
½
½
0
2.0
2508
–12

Remaining schedule

Tuesday 22 November 2011 Rest day
Wednesday 23 November 2011 Game seven
Thursday 24 November 2011 Game eight
Friday 25 November 2011 Rest day
Saturday 26 November 2011 Game nine
Sunday 27 November 2011 Rest day
Monday 28 November 2011 Game ten
Tuesday 29 November 2011 Rest day
Wednesday 30 November 2011 Tie-break, closing   

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


Links

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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