2010 Women's World Chess Championship R3, Game 1

Summary from the official website:

16 participants out of 64 continue to play in the World Championship. Three games Kosteniuk – Ruan Lufei, Skripchenko – Cmilyte and Harika - Muzychuk Maria were drawn. Two games were finished relatively quick but in the third one Harika Dronavaliy was trying to win rook ending with pawn up but after 90 moves players shared a point. Among the winners of the first game are Humpy Koneru, Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Katerina Lahno, Ju Wenjun. The game between Chinese Hou Yifan and her former compatriot Zhu Chen ended in favor of the young prodigy. After 20 moves the position was about equal. The player from Qatar underestimated her pawn weaknesses in the ending which fallowed after the queen trade that she proposed herself. Hou Yifan was accurate to prove the ending to be won.

Round 3

Name

FED

T

Rtg

G1

G2

Rp1

Rp2

Bz1

Bz2

SD

Total

Round 3 Match 01

Kosteniuk, Alexandra

RUS

GM

2507

½

½

Ruan, Lufei

CHN

WGM

2480

½

½

Round 3 Match 02

Koneru, Humpy

IND

GM

2600

1

1

Zatonskih, Anna

USA

IM

2478

0

0

Round 3 Match 03

Hou, Yifan

CHN

GM

2591

1

1

Zhu, Chen

QAT

GM

2477

0

0

Round 3 Match 04

Zhao, Xue

CHN

GM

2474

1

1

Dembo, Yelena

GRE

IM

2454

0

0

Round 3 Match 05

Cmilyte, Viktorija

LTU

GM

2514

½

½

Skripchenko, Almira

FRA

IM

2460

½

½

Round 3 Match 06

Lahno, Kateryna

UKR

GM

2522

1

1

Huang, Qian

CHN

WGM

2402

0

0

Round 3 Match 07

Muzychuk, Anna

SLO

IM

2530

0

0

Ju, Wenjun

CHN

WGM

2524

1

1

Round 3 Match 08

Harika, Dronavalli

IND

IM

2525

½

½

Muzychuk, Mariya

UKR

IM

2462

½

½

USA's IM Anna Zatonskih with white v. Indian GM Koneru Humpy

The second game of Round 3 takes place tomorrow.  The Muzychuk sisters (Anna playing for Slovenia and Mariya playing for Ukraine) have their work cut out for them.  Kateryana Lahno seems to be in a really good place right now, she's rolling along marking up victory after victory.  Is this her time?  The lone American player left in the championship, IM Anna Zatonskih, ran into the buzzsaw GM Koneru Humpy.  Anna needs a win tomorrow just to force a play-off.  Can she pull it off?  One thing is certain.  The remaining women are all really really tough competitors, several of them having come through grueling play-off action already.

Stay tuned. 

Interview with Yelena Dembo (Greece) at Susan Polgar's blog
Coverage at Susan Polgar's blog
Chessbase Report on Round 2 action - It Was Brutal...
Chessdom has R3 games, and is presenting games live each round
Chessvibes: Women’s World Ch: Kosintseva and Stefanova exit (Round 2)