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GP SHARJAH 2014 

GRAND PRIX SHARJAH 2014 – FINAL RANKING

Final Ranking crosstable after 11 Rounds Rk. Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pts.…

GRAND PRIX SHARJAH 2014 – HOU YIFAN AND JU WENJUN ARE THE WINNERS OF GRAND PRIX IN SHARJAH

Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan became the winners of the 6th stage of the FIDE Women’s Grand…

GRAND PRIX SHARJAH 2014 – ROUND 10: LEADERS KEEP THEIR POSITIONS

After the tenth round of the Women’s Grand Prix in Sharjah Ju Wenjun keeps leading. She…

GRAND PRIX SHARJAH 2014 – ROUND 9: HOU YIFAN WINS GRAND PRIX SERIES, JU WENJUN TAKES LEAD

After the end of 9th rounds it it became official - Hou Yifan has won the FIDE Women…

GRAND PRIX SHARJAH 2014 – ROUND 8: SAME LEADERS AT THE TOP

The central game of the eighth round between Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan finished in a draw…

OLYMPIAD 2014 

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - FINAL RANKING

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds - Open Rk. SNo Team Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4 1 7…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - ROUND 11

Board Pairings - Open Round 11 on 2014/08/14 at 11:00 Bo. 15 Poland (POL) Rtg - 7 China…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - ROUND 10 INTERIM REPORT: LAWYERS & POLITICIANS

Tromsø had two not-quite chess events in focus today - the 9 a.m. hearing at the local…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - TROMSØ OLYMPIAD ORGANIZERS VS. RUSSIAN CHESS FEDERATION

The RCF sued the organizers for USD 200,000 for legal expenses connected to the dispute…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - TROMSØ’S AMAZING VOLUNTEER HOSTESS

Countless Norwegian and international volunteers are giving their all during the Chess…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - ROUND 10 PREVIEW: PENULTIMATE CHANCE

Sometimes the pairings system throws up oddities during big team events, but in the…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - ROUND 9: FRAYING NERVES?

Signs of accumulating fatigue or shaky nerves could be seen as Round 9 of the 2014 Chess…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - RD 9 INTERIM REPORT: ELECTION FOCUS

Today's play would have a hard time living up to the energy and excitement levels…

41ST OLYMPIAD TROMSO 2014 - BLITZ ON THE WAVES

The side tournaments in blitz during the 2014 Chess Olympiad move around the city of…

GP LOPOTA 

GRAND PRIX LOPOTA 2014 - FINAL RANKING

GRAND PRIX LOPOTA 2014 Lopota, Telavi, Georgia /June 18 - July 2 Final Ranking crosstable…

GRAND PRIX LOPOTA.- ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

Even though Hou Yifan's tournament win has been predicable for quite a while and…

GRAND PRIX LOPOTA.- D-DAY

The outside weather didn't improve for the tenth round and the players start displaying…

GRAND PRIX LOPOTA - LIGHTNING BOLT

You may recognize the nickname of the world's fastest sprinter - Usain Bolt. In this…

GRAND PRIX LOPOTA - WHERE MAMA MEANS FATHER

After it became clear that I couldn't attend all the activities planned for the second…

GRAND PRIX LOPOTA.- D-DAY

The outside weather didn't improve for the tenth round and the players start displaying symptoms of acute tiredness, understandable for such long and tense tournaments. The round ended earlier than usual and many of the participants do not hide that their reserves of energy are close to the bottom, despite the pleasant geographical location and exquisite Georgian cuisine.

Hou Yifan's relatively short, but nevertheless entertaining, draw with Kosteniuk ensured the World Champion's clear tournament win with one round to go. By winning against Muzychuk, Ju Wenjun steps a bit closer to the already unreachable leader and trails now by 1,5 points.

After the unfortunate result of her yesterday's hyper-ambitious approach, Dzagnidze played a safe and relatively eventless draw against Dronavalli. This allowed Danielian (who won with Black against Zhao Xue), to free herself of the tie with the Georgian and occupy the clear third position.

Koneru's win against Muminova is a good example of how strong the Indian is, to fully recover after yesterday's shock, while Stefanova's draw with Khotenashvili preserves the Bulgarian's overall good performance.

Standings after tenth round:

Hou Yifan - Alexandra Kosteniuk 1/2

We have a winner and her name is Hou Yifan!

The Chinese drew her game against Alexandra Kosteniuk, which started out as a rather unorthodox English/Catalan hybride. It was was not the most spectecular game of the tournament and, if Hou Yifan had wanted to play for more, then perhaps:

19.Nc5 was a better try, although 19...Bxc5 20.bxc5 Bd5 surely doesn't look that scary for Black. In the game
19.Rfe1 b6 20.Nc3 Nc2 21.Rec1 Nd4 22.Re1 was a repetition both players could live with. After all her fighting games, Yifan truly deserves the first place and this draw shouldn't deceive her fans. In a long and tiring event, half a point is certainly a step forward and not backwards. Besides, humans are not robots and Alexandra can play chess, too!

Alexandra doesn't have the reputation of "chess ambassador" for nothing.
She is a worthy promoter of women chess!

Ju Wenjun - Anna Muzychuk 1-0

Ju Wenjun used the, in this tournament ever so popular, English opening to combat Anna Muzychuk. But, using an idea played earlier by her second Emil Sutovsky, Anna was the first to surprise her opponent. She did so as early as move 7!

Here virtually everybody plays 7...Be7 but Anna chose the more dynamic 7...Bb6 8.c5 Bc7 with the idea of challenging the c-pawn with b7-b6 later on, while ending up with a central pawn majority.

An inaccuracy on Anna's part unabled her to achieve that and even allowed Ju Wenjun to take the pair of bishops without any concession:

Wenjun then continued building up the pressure in exemplary fashion: 23.Bf1! Na4 24.Rb1 Rbc8 25.Be3 Rc2 and now 26.b3! Nc3 27.Rbc1 Rxc1 28.Rxc1 Nxe4 29.Rc7 gave White a decisive advantage. She converted it without any major hiccups.

Wenjun's admirable concentration powers propelled her on 2nd position.
She has now +18 rating points and a new GM norm in the pockets!
But she cares less about diplomas and titles, all she wants is to play good chess.

Nana Dzagnidze - Harika Dronavalli 1/2

This game saw an opening that has been causing headaches for some time now on the highest level: the Lasker Defence. Its solidity has been tested over and over and today saw no change in the general trend: Black is holding. In short: Harika was very solid today and gave Nana hardly any chances to get a fight. Draw.

Because tomorrow won't look like today

Humpy Koneru - Nafisa Muminova 1-0

The tournament of Humpy Konery saw many ups and downs but her game against Nafisa Muminova was another up-moment.

On move fourteen, Humpy grabbed a big advantage with 14.c5! the point being that 14...bxc5 15.dxc5 Bxc5 exploits the stranded knight on a5 with 16.b4. That's why Nafisa chose 15...Nc6 but after 16.b4 it is clear that White's queen-side majority outways Black's central pawns. The position after move 30 tells the story of the remainder of the game:

White pushed the pawns forward and they proved an unstoppable force. Nafisa had to resign a few moves later, when White's b-pawn was about to make a second queen.

Zhao Xue - Elina Danielian 0-1

Similar strong pawn-play was seen in the game between Zhao Xue and Elina Danielian.

Here it was Elina that played the strong pawn push 14...c4! making use of the fact that the knight on f3 is temporarily undefended. After
15.Nf4 b5! Black's queenside pawns already looked menacing. Xue's position kept deteriorating when a few pieces were exchanged and Elina also managed to get domination over the light squares.

19...Bc8! 20.bxc4 bxc4 21.Bc3 Ne7! followed by Nf5 gave Black an overwhelming positional advantage. Xue did manage to reach an ending with opposite-coloured bishops but, given the two pawns deficit, that proved an easy win for Elina, who climbs to the 3rd position after this win. And tmorrow she will face the leader!

Antoaneta Stefanova - Bella Khotenashvili 1/2

Antoaneta Stefanova used the Veresov (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bf4) against Bella Khotenashvili.

The opening that received a new boost as of late with Baadur Jobava
using it in many games, turned out fine for Bella.

On move 20, when the Georgian was ready to create counterplay either through the centre, by means of e6-e5, or on the queenside, with the minority-attack b5-b4, Antoaneta deemed wisely to initiate peace-talks with 20.Bg5 after which the players repeated 20...Bg7 21.Bh6 Bf6 22.Bg5. Draw.

After today's draw, Antoaneta is on +1, plus 10 rating points and shared 5-7

An unusual chess guest, ready to listen the GMs confessions

The last round scheduled tomorrow will start two hours earlier than usual, forcing the players to shift their usual program. At individual level, this may prove not easy, of course, but conditions are fair since they all face the same problem. Besides, all the participants are true professionals, ready to be up to the task.

Even though the fight for the first place has been closed, the encounter Elina Danielian - Hou Yifan deserves being followed with interest, as it could strongly influence the final configuration of the podium.

FUENTE

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