2011 Women's World Chess Championship Match

It seemed it would never come about, but then, a date was set.  And then, the date is here.  NOW. 

Holy Cow!  No offense, Goddess.

The first game of the WWCC match took place today between GM Koneru Humpy of India, the challenger, and GM Hou Yifan of China, the reigning Women's title holder.

It was a draw.

You know what - I see this as - a good thing, actually.  Maybe I'm just not thinking straight right at the moment, I've got a booming pounding headache. I think I really do need to buy a good bottle of whiskey and one of brandy, too. So I can down a shot - neat - when necessary, for purely medicinal purposes.  Like, to knock me out fast when my eyeballs feel like they're going to pop out of my skull at any second.  Hmmm, maybe I should turn the web cam on and capture some photos.  Maybe I can star in my own horror picture show...  Back to why I think this could be a good sign for Koneru -- it's because she's had the damn yips the last year plus when playing Hou that, under normal circumstances, I believe she would have managed to lose this game. Yep, you read that right.  This is a good thing, because I think this is signalling that Koneru has got over her Hou yips.  We shall see.  Yeah, she was pissed off that she couldn't convert to a win.  But hey, give Hou credit.  She's not easy

I'm sure there's coverage of the opening, etc. all over everywhere, and I'm way late with this besides.  Oh well.  My two cents worth:

From The Week in Chess
From Susan Polgar's Chess Blog
Of course, The Times of India will be following this particular match extremely closely! 
Official website is overloaded right now, will try later
Chessdom coverage of Game 1
Chessvibes coverage - oh, I like those photos!
Game in PGN - also, you can play through it move by move at The Week in Chess - I'm not even gonna try that tonight. GREEN BAY SCORES AGAIN!  Woooo wooooo!  We're playing the Vikings.  I HATE the Vikings!  I HATE the Vikings almost as much as I HATE THAT TRAITOR BRETT FARVE.  Packers lead by 24 about half-way through the 3rd quarter.  As in 24 Packers, ZERO Vikings.

Okay - back to chess:

GM Koneru, Humpy (2600) - GM Hou, Yifan (2578)
WCh w Tirana ALB (1), 2011.11.14

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.O-O dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Bd2 Be4 11.Qc1 Bb7 12.a4 b4 13.Bf4 Nd5 14.Bg5 Nd7 15.Bxe7 Qxe7 16.Ne5 Nxe5 17.dxe5 a5 18.Nd2 Ba6 19.Nc4 Qc5 20.Ne3 Qe7 21.Rd1 Rad8 22.Nxd5 exd5 23.Qc6 Bxe2 24.Rxd5 Rxd5 25.Qxd5 c5 26.Re1 Bg4 27.Rc1 Rc8 28.Qc4 h5 29.Bd5 Qd7 30.Re1 Rd8 31.e6 fxe6 32.Bxe6+ Bxe6 33.Rxe6 Qf7 34.h4 Rf8 35.Qe2 Qf3 36.Qxf3 Rxf3 37.Re5 c4 38.Rxa5 Rb3 39.Rc5 Rxb2 40.Rxc4 Kf7 41.Kg2 b3 42.Rb4 g6 43.Kf3 Ra2 44.Rxb3 Rxa4 45.Re3 Kf6 46.Re4 Ra3+ 47.Kf4 Ra2 48.f3 Ra5 49.Rc4 Rf5+ 50.Ke3 Re5+ 51.Re4 Ra5 52.Rf4+ Kg7 53.Rc4 Ra6 54.Rc5 Kf6 55.Rd5 Ra3+ 56.Ke4 Ra6 57.Rd4 Re6+ 58.Kf4 Ra6 59.Rb4 Rc6 60.g4 hxg4 61.Kxg4 Rc5 62.Rb6+ Kg7 63.Re6 Kf7 64.Re4 Ra5 65.f4 Ra1 66.Re3 Kf6 67.Rb3 Rg1+ 68.Rg3 Ra1 69.Rg2 Rb1 70.Rh2 Rg1+ 71.Kf3 Kf5 72.h5 gxh5 73.Rxh5+ Kf6 74.Ra5 Rf1+ 75.Ke3 Re1+ 76.Kf2 Rb1 77.Kg3 Rg1+ 78.Kf3 Rf1+ 79.Kg4 Rg1+ 80.Kf3 ½-½