Saturday, December 11, 2010

2010 Women's World Chess Championship - Round 3 Game 2

Summary from the official website:

The results of four matches were decided today. Thus, Humpy Koneru, Katerina Lahno, Ju Wenjun and Zhao Hue were promoted to the next stage. The fate of the other four matches Cmilyte - Skripchenko, Muzychuk M. - Harika, Kosteniuk - Ruan Lufei and Zhu Chen - Hou Yifan will be determined in the tie-breaks tomorrow. Playing with white pieces Zhu Chen equalized the match score after her loss in the previous game.  The game Koneru – Zatonskih lasted  only 14 moves. In the final position Indian player could win a pawn and fight for a win in the game but preferred to fix her victory in the match and accepted a draw.

Indian GM Koneru Humpy v. USA Im Anna Zatonskih
 One of the most exciting games of today was Cmilyte - Skripchenko. Playing white, Lithuanian player sacrificed a piece for an attack.  Almira Skripchenko could take this knight with a pawn and force her opponent to give a perpetual check but decided to test her fortune. [It didn't work.]
Round 3
NameFEDTRtgG1G2Rp1Rp2Bz1Bz2SDTotal
Round 3 Match 01
Kosteniuk, AlexandraRUSGM2507½½1
Ruan, LufeiCHNWGM2480½½1
Round 3 Match 02
Koneru, HumpyINDGM26001½
Zatonskih, AnnaUSAIM24780½½
Round 3 Match 03
Hou, YifanCHNGM2591101
Zhu, ChenQATGM2477011
Round 3 Match 04
Zhao, XueCHNGM24741½
Dembo, YelenaGREIM24540½½
Round 3 Match 05
Cmilyte, ViktorijaLTUGM2514½½1
Skripchenko, AlmiraFRAIM2460½½1
Round 3 Match 06
Lahno, KaterynaUKRGM25221½
Huang, QianCHNWGM24020½½
Round 3 Match 07
Muzychuk, AnnaSLOIM25300½½
Ju, WenjunCHNWGM25241½
Round 3 Match 08
Harika, DronavalliINDIM2525½½1
Muzychuk, MariyaUKRIM2462½½1

Moving to Round 4:
Koneru
Zhao
Lahno
Ju Wenjun

Going to play-off:
Kosteniuk - Ruan Lufei - Defending Champion Kosteniuk's third play-off.  Will exhaustion begin to show?
Hou Yifan - Zhu Chen - A surprise. Most people probably expected Hou Yifan to win easily.
Cmilyte - Skripchenko - this will be a great play-off!  After her miscalculation today, what will be Skripchenko's strategy tomorrow? 
Harika - Mariya Muzychuk - another great play-off in store!  I don't under-estimate either of these chess femmes.   I wish both of them would aim for GM titles by competing in more mixed events.  They've got what it takes.

I am so sad to see USA's Anna Zatonskih go and Greece's IM Yelena Dembo go, two personal favorites.  I didn't check, but I do believe that each of them bettered their performance from the 2008 WWCC.

Play-offs tomorrow.  Four more women will be eliminated after the play-offs tomorrow, leaving eight for Round 4.  Who will go, and who will stay?  Round 4 starts on Monday, December 13.

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