The 6th Women’s FIDE Grand Prix in Doha – round 9

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Great day for the white pieces! Sebag, Mkrtchian, Danielian and Munguntuul won against Dzagnidze, Zhu Chen, Fierro and Cramling respectively.

Here are the standings after the 9th round:

1 GM Danielian Elina 2454 ARM 7½
2 GM Sebag Marie 2489 FRA 6½
3 GM Koneru Humpy 2607 IND 6
4 GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550 GEO 5
5 GM Cramling Pia 2516 SWE 4½
6 GM Chiburdanidze M 2502 GEO 4½
7 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2475 ARM 4
8 IM Fierro Baquero M 2363 ECU 4
9 IM Munguntuul Batkh 2410 MGL 3½
10 GM Xu Yuhua 2484 CHN 3
11 GM Stefanova Antoa 2546 BUL 3
12 11 GM Zhu Chen 2495 QAT 2½

Sebag-Dzagnidze. It was a Spanish with rare 3…g6 move, white got a very good center and development and started a nice attack with 14.Ng5! which concluded on move 30.

Mrtchian-Zhu Chen. A King’s Indian with 6.h3 in which Black got a good position out of the opening and should have continued 16.a4 to block any possibility for white to play on the queenside. The position was around equal until white got the chance to play 35.Ng4. 34…Kg7 was keeping the equal position.

Danielian-Fierro. 12…Be6 was strange as it gave white the B pair without much compensation. Instead 12…Rd8 looked normal. 15.f4 was a lot more active than Be3 as Black N would have been then pushed back. 15…d5 was a good idea as the white K sits on g2 instead of the B 🙂 17…Nc6 is a good idea, to transfer the N to d4 if it gets the chance. 25.Nc5 would have won the d6-pawn and ruin the pawn structure.

Munguntuul-Cramling. A Scheveningen which is a rare guest in Grandmaster games nowdays. White chose an agressive line with 13.g4, played by Alekseev, Kasimdzhanov, Tiviakov and in the past by Spassky, Anand, Balashov, Adorjan, etc. On move 14, instead of the usual 14.g4, white played 14.Bg2 which was played only once in 2010. 20.f5 was a very strong move after which white has a much better position and an attack. 22.gxh6 was stronger than the text move. 24…Nh7 was a mistake, 24…e5 would protect the N on g4 and block any ideas of white playing …e4-e5 herself.

Today’s pairings

GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550 – GM Zhu Chen 2495
GM Koneru Humpy 2607 – IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2475
IM Fierro Baquero Martha L 2363 – GM Xu Yuhua 2484
GM Cramling Pia 2516 – GM Danielian Elina 2454
GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2546 – IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2410
GM Sebag Marie 2489 – GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2502

The 6th Women’s FIDE Grand Prix in Doha – round 6

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Danielian is leading the event with 5.5 points while Cramling and Sebag share 2nd-3rd with 4.

Koneru-Chiburdanidze was a very interesting and complicated game until Black erred and played 19…e5 and gave white the strong passed d-pawn. Possibly Black thought that she gets a good counterplay by 20…e4 and then 21…Rbe8 but missed or evaluated wrongly the strong 22.dxc6.

Cramling-Stefanova. Black has a good position and should have continued 18…0-0. Instead, she went for the natural 18…c3 and white started to undermine the pawn with 20.a3. After that white kept a small advantage.

Dzagnidze-Xu Yuhua. For a long time white played with a King in the middle but Black didn’t have an opportunity to attack it. White exchanged some pieces and won the d-file, then spoiled the pawn structure on the kingside and threatened to create an attack on the King. Black had to exchange the Queens and let white on the 7th rank. Very good endgame play by White, playing on weaknesses.

Zhu Chen-Munguntuul. Very interesting King’s Indian. Black exchanged on d4, maneuvered the knights in a typical way and played 14…g5 which was a strong move. Black got control over the dark squares, later on playing 16…Be5 and 17…Qf6. 32.Bxf7 was a mistake as everything started hanging in white’s camp. Instead 32.Kg2 was better, keeping the position. After this error white was lost.

Mkrtchian-Danielian. Lots of exchanges in this game and although white tried to exploit the weakness on e6, eventually most pieces were exchanged and players agreed to a draw.

Fierro-Sebag. White sacrificed a pawn very early but didnt seem to have compensation as Black kept on exchanging whatever she could. After Black won the d-file it became very difficult for white to find what to play on.

Pairings of the 7th round

GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2546 – GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550
GM Sebag Marie 2489 – GM Cramling Pia 2516
GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2502 – IM Fierro Baquero Martha L 2363
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2410 – GM Koneru Humpy 2607
GM Danielian Elina 2454 – GM Zhu Chen 2495
GM Xu Yuhua 2484 – IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2475

Archaeological museum

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Had a great time at the Archaeological museum today and hope you will enjoy it too!:) Here are the photos:

The 6th Women’s FIDE Grand Prix in Doha – round 4

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The current leader of the event, Danielian won a very fighting game vs Dzagnidze. While White’s attack didn’t go anywhere, Black marched her pawns forward to open the position of the King. After King’s position got open, she invaded with both rooks and won the R. Here is the game:

Xu Yuhua played a nice Sicilian game where in the middlegame she used two main factors – the weak back rank and the B pair.

Zhu Chen started an interesting attack on the kingside but at the same time her King remained in the center. All was ok until Black managed to open the position up and win a pawn. Then Sebag started exchanging everything (usually the best strategy, unless there is a clear attack!) and went into a winning pawn endgame which she easily won.

Mkrtchian-Chiburdanidze. At first, white was a little bit better but 11.Nxe4 is what probably spoiled her position. 11.Be3 was much better in my opinion. Then Black won a pawn and although white had the B pair, it wasn’t working well. Black easily exchanged the lightsquare Bs and more pieces later and got into a winning endgame (again, the best way!).

Koneru-Stefanova. This game looked pretty equal all the time. Black equalized in the opening, white later created a passed pawn which was quite weak. Then Black exchanged her a6-pawn was the passed d-pawn, some more exchanges followed and it became difficult to play for a win.

Fierro-Cramling. Very unusual opening where Black didn’t have many problems due to fine development, open center and half open f-file. Lots of pieces were exchanged on moves 12 to 19 and it looked like an equal position where still some fight can be in sight due to white’s pawns on light squares. But white managed to exchange everything and get into a Q endgame where it finished in a perpetual.

Results of round 4

GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550 0 – 1 GM Danielian Elina 2454
GM Xu Yuhua 2484 1 – 0 IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2410
IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2475 0 – 1 GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2502
GM Zhu Chen 2495 0 – 1 GM Sebag Marie 2489
GM Koneru Humpy 2607 ½ – ½ GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2546
IM Fierro Baquero Martha L 2363 ½ – ½ GM Cramling Pia 2516

Pairings of round 5

GM Cramling Pia 2516 – GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550
GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2546 – IM Fierro Baquero Martha L 2363
GM Sebag Marie 2489 – GM Koneru Humpy 2607
GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2502 – GM Zhu Chen 2495
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2410 – IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2475
GM Danielian Elina 2454 – GM Xu Yuhua 2484

Recent analysis of my game vs T.Kosintseva from the WCC

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