WWch Rd3 G1: bloody battles

Tournament conditions

The Women's World Chess Championship takes place from March 17 – April 7 in Sochi, Russia. The knock-out tournament is attended by 64 players, including the former World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), the three-time Russian champion Valentina Gunina, the World Vice-Champion Humpy Koneru (India), as well as other leading grandmasters. Unfortunately, the reigning champion Hou Yifan was unable to come for personal reasons, but as the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix she will still be able to challenge the new champion to a match.

The first five rounds consist of mini-matches of two games played at 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move. The final match will consist of four games.

In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by a series of tiebreak games: two rapid games of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the score remains equal, the players then proceed to two more games played 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the score continues tied a final mini-match will be played of two blitz games of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move. Finally, an Armageddon game will be played to decided the winner in which White has five minutes and Black has four minutes, with a three-second increment per move after move 61. Black will be declared the winner if the game is drawn.

Round three - game one

The playing hall now down to sixteen players

Alisa Galliamova was black against top-seed Humpy Koneru. After the opening Galliamova played very aggressively – leaving her king in the center and launched a kingside pawn attack. Koneru countered with a pawn sacrifice, fighting for the initiative. Black did not dare accept it, but her attack soon evaporated, and she was unable to hide her king or connect the rooks. Instead Humpy Koneru invaded the seventh rank with her rooks in the endgame and prevailed. 

Harika Dronavalli played black against Alexandra Kosteniuk (above), and after a difficult opening, got into serious trouble. The tables began to turn when Kosteniuk allowed a passed pawn on a3. The pawn looked doomed, however, following a serious blunder of White, it transformed into a powerhouse. In order to neutralize the pawn, Kosteniuk gave up all her kingside pawns, and the rest was easy for Dronavalli.

Valentina Gunina handled her opening very poorly against Pia Cramling,
and as early as move fifteen was in a bad spot

The Russian attempted to complicate the game by sacrificing an exchange, but Pia Cramling
avoided the traps set out by Gunina and won easily

Marie Sebag quickly took control of her game against Natalia Pogonina until she reached...

Sebag - Pogonina

... this position, when she had a decisive blow. White to play and win.

Unfortunately, in time trouble with a little over one minute left for five moves, she missed it allowing the Russian back into the game. After five hours of play, exhaustion took its toll and Pogonina blundered horribly and lost.

Sergey Shipov (right), who has been providing live commentary in Russian, was quite impressed
by Zhao Xue's strong win over Bela Khotenashvili

"It feels like Bela Khotenashvili did not fully recover after the exhausting tiebreak. She looked clearly out of shape after the opening. White wasn't threatening Ng5, so there was no point in 12…h6. Just keep developing by 12…b6 or 12…Bd7, and you get an excellent version of the isolani. After the text Bela got a very unpleasant structure that could be pressured for a hundred moves – and for a tired player few things are worse than defending a passive position for a hundred moves. Zhao Xue showed good technique, conducted a brilliant kingside attack, and her victory was well-deserved."

Zhao Xue - Bela Khotenashvili

The Chinese player must now decide what to do after ...d4 attacking
her rook. What would you play as White here?

Zhao Xue showcased her technique and attacking skills

Zhao Xue vs Bela Khotenashvili:

During the day, a group of children came to visit the venue on a field trip. Here they are
shown the blitz-playing robot.

They were then shown the commentary area where spectators could follow the games

Will this seemingly innocent visit inspire one of them to great chess heights one day?

Solution to Sebag-Pogonina:

Report by Albert Silver and Eteri Kublashvili
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili, Anastasia Karlovich, and Vladimir Barsky

Round 3 pairings / results

Schedule

Links Official tournament site 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.