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The Chinese perfomance in Nalchik |
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Friday, 21 October 2011 |
 WGM Anna Sharevich comments on the 10th round games
Zhao Xue – Kosintseva Tatiana
You’ll laugh, but the Chinese won again! Well, either the stars have developed in the right way or Zhao is so fantastically strong. Probably both variations. After all Xue really put problems for her opponents in every game. And Tatiana also couldn’t resist a pressure. The Queen’s Indian happened in the game. Xue chose the variation with the pawn sacrifice on d5. And here the leader of the tournament showed enormous understanding of the position. She outplayed Tatiana, for whom the tournament wasn’t the best one. The apogee of the game was the brilliant sacrifice – 23. Ng7!
“In the opening I played the variation which happened in my practice before, by the way against the Russian girls. That’s why I knew the ideas”, - Xue said.
“This isn’t “my tournament”, Tatiana shared. “ I managed to win only one game. I got quite good positions with white, but couldn’t convert them into a victory”.
 Zhu Chen – Ju Wenjun
The game happened to be really fascinating. White couldn’t get the
initiative in the variation of the King’s Indian. Maybe because of Ju’s
plan 13... Ne8. In the middle game Zhu decided to sacrifice the
exchange, which wasn’t correct enough and lost not only the initiative,
but was outplayed by the Chinese grandmaster.
“To be honest I was lucky in this game because in the opening I didn’t
get any advantage”, said Wenjun. “But my opponent made a mistake and I
managed to use this”.
Well, we cannot but admit the fact that Ju Wenjun is fighting for the
second place. But! Tomorrow she’ll face the leader and nobody knows what
will happen – either we’ll see a short draw or the great Chinese
battle.
 Munguntuul Batkhuyag – Kosteniuk Alexandra
Unfortunately the end of the tournament wasn’t lucky enough for
Alexandra. Even she had all the chances to finish it good. The former
world champion outplayed the opponent and got a huge advantage. But
something happened to Sasha and after the first control she almost
crashed her position by herself.
“In the opening I didn’t get anything and was making everything to lose
the game”, agreed Tuul. “But in some moment my opponent “helped” me” a
lot”.
“I think that I made a fatal mistake on the move 69… Rb4”, said Sasha with bitterness. “And I almost lost the game by myself”.
 Kovalevskaya Ekaterina – Galliamova Alisa
Katya and Alisa have been playing against each other since their
childhood and it’s really hard to remind the score. “In the last years
we didn’t play a lot between each other”, Alisa said. “First I left
chess, then Katya. Now we both are back”. We should admit that during
the long period Kovalevskaya and Galliamova played together in one team
– the Russian national team. But sport is sport, and friendship should
stay out of the chess board. And the game is the best proof for that.
Kovalevskaya played the Sicilian defence with 3.с4 and didn’t get any
advantage there. Alisa found an interesting idea 4...g5!? with the
opportunity for the counter play on the King’s side. By the way black
made a blunder 19… g4 because she didn’t see the reply 20.g3. After
that the position became very pleasant for white. But Katya also
blundered and lost her advantage because of 28.Kg2. Finally the game
ended in a draw what seems to be quite logical for such “an action
movie”.
 Kosintseva Nadezhda – Stefanova Antoaneta
After three losses in a row we could hardly call Antoaneta’s mood
positive. But nevertheless the former world champion managed to show her
great sportive spirit and showed a worthy game. Of course Nadya also
“helped” her. She didn’t manage to get any advantage in the opening and
her position couldn’t be called perspective. After 25…Nс4 black
intercepted the initiative.
“I thought that after 25… Nс4 I was better”, Antoaneta told the
journalists. “But I didn’t see how to improve my position. Anyway in the
situation that happened after a time trouble the pieces activity was
enough for at least a draw. To be honest after three losses draw is a
good result”.
“What concerns me it’s time to make the conclusions before the European
Team Championship”, Nadezhda shared her thoughts. “It’s clear that this
tournament wasn’t the one that I’ll recollect with pleasure. And now
I’ll be trying to find the explanation because very soon I’ll have a
double responsibility – for myself and for the team”.
 Lahno Kateryna – Cmilyte Viktorija
The European champion chose Yanish variation in Ruy Lopez system and
managed to show the solid and interesting fight. Unexpectedly after move
18… Bd5 (that didn’t look the most attractive one) Katya started to
make mistakes move by move. White afforded black’s pieces to come to the
King side even without organizing any counter play. And after move 26…
Bc5 Kateryna had to give up the exchange. Sure that the Ukrainian
grandmaster was fighting till the last chance. But to be objective this
kind of positions is almost undefended against such an experienced
player as Viktorija. In the ending the Lithuanian realized an extra rook
and won the game.
It’s hard to believe but so many top chess players will recollect this
tournament with bitterness! But for Viktorija there is still a chance
for the second place.
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