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Wednesday, 19 October 2011 |
WGM Anna Sharevich comments on the 9th round games
 Kosintseva Nadezhda – Kovalevskaya Ekaterina
The duel between the
Russian chess players is always fascinating and uncompromising struggle
till the end. In Rauzer variation about 20 moves have been played with
incredible speed and only before move 21.Bd2 Nadezhda started thinking
for the first time. «I remembered that it was necessary to transfer the
king to g8, and the bishop to f8, but what to do after that I really
didn't know», - Ekaterina told jokingly at the press conference. Also
Nadya admitted that had overestimated the position.
«It is obvious
that 30.Qe3 would be better, than the mistake that happened in the game -
30.Re3», - said Nadezhda sadly. – «Actually tomorrow is my last
fighting game in this tournament, because in the 11th round I’ll play
against the sister. Anyway I hope that I can keep myself together and
show the worthy game».
 Stefanova Antoaneta – Zhao Xue
The former world champion
couldn't stop the leader of the tournament. The Chinese is too strong
and successful on this Grand Prix stage. With black she outplayed such a
brilliant chessplayer as Stefanova. By the way Antoanetа didn’t make
big mistakes: simply step by step her position became worse and worse.
An elegant 36 … e3 – the apogee of the precise play of Xue. However at
that moment the Chinese player could feel weakened: her nearest
persecutor (if we can only call so the player who is 3 points behind
before the last 3 rounds) Ju Wenjun. Congratulations to the Chinese
player!
 Kosintseva Tatiana – Zhu Chen
For the first time in
this tournament we could see the French defence that, for example, was
one of the three most popular openings on the World Chess Cup in
Khanty-Mansiysk. But in the French defence the girls also managed to
show the fighting spirit, having castled in different sides. However the
struggle didn’t turn out to be so sharp. After move 17... f6 Tatiana
had small chances to intercept the initiative. However Zhu changed the
bishop 23 … Ba6 for the more active opponent, and has received an equal
endgame.
«Chen, we have an impression that your favourite piece is
the knight», - the journalists noticed. (In the last 3 games the Qatar
chess player had the knight and the rook against the rook in the
endgames). «Just on this tournament», - the former world champion
smiled.
 Kosteniuk Alexandra – Galliamova Alisa
The second duel
between the Russian chess players ended in Alexandra’s victory.
Apparently the second breath opened for the former world champion. The
game was bright, fascinating and, obviously, not without mistakes. A
rare variation led to the sharpest play and it seemed that Sasha
understood the position better. Alisa’s move 15 … Na5 was a bit not to
the right side, but the fatal mistake was move 17... Bf6, in spite the
fact it looked quite natural. But the "fighting" actions didn’t end.
Alexandra changed the queens 23.Qb6 and Alisa got some chances to rescue
the game. And if not a fatal blunder in a time trouble 36 … Kh7 the
game could end at least in a draw.
Unfortunately this is not Alisa’s
tournament. What about Alexandra’s fans – pity that she gained the good
shape so late …
 Cmilyte Viktorija – Munguntuul Batkhuyag
The
European champion uncompromisingly tried to punch the defence of the
Mongolian chess player, but "went a bit too far" transferring the rook
to h3. Tuul equalized the position qiute easily and deprived white of
the hope for a victory. Maybe Viktorija missed a good possibility to get
an advantage in the opening after move 4 … Qb6 if she reacted 5.c5
forcing the black queen to lose important tempos. After quiet 5.е3 Tuul
exchanged the bishops and one pair of knights, having received only a
bit worse position.
“The oppponent has surprised me with a rare move 4 …
Qb6 in the opening», - Victoria told. – «It seemed to me that my
position was better, but actually it turned out to be easy defended for
black».
 Ju Wenjun – Lahno Kateryna
One of the classical
variations in Grunfeld defence arose in the game (for example, it
appeared quite often in many games of Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov),
in which according to Katya «it’s not so easy for white to get the
advantage». Objectively the evaluation of the game had been equal since
the opening, and the game turned out to be very dense without any
"feats" from the both sides. After 22.Qхb6 it became clear that as a
result of many changes the chess players will agree on a draw.
«What
concerns my opponent’s play I was a little surprised with 13.а4», -
Kateryna told. – Actually I’m not certain that I reacted the best way.
However I couldn’t find something else during the game».
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