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Final Report

Sunday, 11 October 2009

FINAL REPORT

The second leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix came to a close yesterday with a merited win for former Women's World Champion, GM Xu Yuhua from China.

The full cross-table is reported below :

Title	Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts	SB.	Prize	GP Pts
GM	Xu Yuhua	2485	CHN	*	0	½	½	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	8	38.25	€ 6,500	160
GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2535	GEO	1	*	½	0	½	1	0	½	1	1	1	1	7½	36.50	€ 4,750	130
GM	Zhao Xue	2542	CHN	½	½	*	1	0	0	1	½	½	1	1	1	7	33.00	€ 4,000	110
GM	Sebag Marie	2519	FRA	½	1	0	*	½	1	0	1	0	1	½	1	6½	33.25	€ 3,500	80
IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	2469	ARM	0	½	1	½	*	½	½	½	½	½	1	1	6½	30.75	€ 3,500	80
	Ju Wenjun	2443	CHN	0	0	1	0	½	*	1	1	½	½	1	1	6½	29.50	€ 3,500	80
WGM	Shen Yang	2453	CHN	0	1	0	1	½	0	*	½	½	1	½	1	6	29.00	€ 3,000	60
WGM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2418	MGL	1	½	½	0	½	0	½	*	½	0	1	1	5½	27.00	€ 2,750	50
WGM	Kovanova Baira	2408	RUS	0	0	½	1	½	½	½	½	*	0	½	1	5	24.25	€ 2,500	40
GM	Zhu Chen	2488	QTR	0	0	0	0	½	½	0	1	1	*	½	1	4½	19.00	€ 2,250	30
IM	Fierro Baquero Martha	2386	ECU	0	0	0	½	0	0	½	0	½	½	*	0	2	11.00	€ 2,000	20
WIM	Yildiz Betul Cemre	2224	TUR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	*	1	2.00	€ 1,750	10

In total, there were 44 wins and 22 draws giving a win percentage of 66.7%. This reflects not only the advantage of having a no-draw policy in Grand Prix tournaments but additionally each draw was hard fought and gives the spectators both online and in the tournament hall the best sporting experience. Compared to the first women's Grand Prix in Istanbul there were two more draws in Nanjing.

GM Dzagnindze led for the majority of the tournament as can be seen from the progressive scores table below. However, Xu Yuhua, Zhao Xue and Sebag were always closely behind and dropping any points or half points would cause a change in leadership.

Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Xu Yuhua	0.5	1.5	2.5	3.5	3.5	3.5	4.5	5.5	6.5	7.5	8
Dzagnidze Nana	1	2	3	4	4	5	5	5.5	6.5	7	7.5
Zhao Xue	0.5	0.5	1.5	2.5	2.5	3.5	4.5	5	5.5	6.5	7
Sebag Marie	0	0.5	1	2	3	4	5	6	6	6	6.5
Mkrtchian Lilit	0.5	1	1	1.5	2.5	3.5	4	4.5	5	6	6.5
Ju Wenjun	0	1	2	2.5	3	3	3	4	4.5	5.5	6.5
Shen Yang	1	1	1	1.5	2	2.5	3.5	3.5	4.5	5.5	6
Munguntuul Batkhuyag	1	1	1.5	1.5	2.5	3	3.5	4.5	5	5.5	5.5
Kovanova Baira	0.5	1	1.5	1.5	2	3	3	3.5	4.5	4.5	5
Zhu Chen	0.5	1.5	1.5	2	3	3	4	4	4	4	4.5
Fierro Baquero Martha	0.5	1	1.5	1.5	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Yildiz Betul Cemre	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

Coming to the games we could not have had a better pairing for the final round. The top four players were paired against each other and wins would affect not only the final placing but also the important GP ranking points and prize money.

GM Dzagnidze came out rather poorly from a Queen's Indian Defense, but after Zhao Xue did not take her chances with 16...Rxg3!?, white pressed on the f-file eventually winning a pawn on the queen side. In an advantageous minor piece endgame Dzagnidze had a chance to win the game and at least tie for first with 66.d6+!. In the diagram below she continued instead with 66.Nd2. After the further unforced error with 69.g3, black defended well and the game ended in a draw.

GM Sebag took on GM Xu Yuhua in a French Tarrash in a line where white maintains a very small positional advantage. Black started to drift however and in the position below white could have posed serious problems after 38.Bc7+ and then 39.Nf5. Instead she played Nf5 immediately and after 38...Ne4! the position was equal.

Twoother games to end in draws were Shen Yang vs Kovanova and both sides exchanged off queens early in the game in a French Defense and then repeated moves in the middlegame.

Zhu Chen vs Mkrtchian was a longer affair where black had some chances. Lilit was playing her seventh Nimzo Indian in the tournament, this time with the black pieces against her own preferred 4.Qc2. Just after the first time control black emerged with an extra pawn. Zhu Chen defended accurately and a draw was agreed on move 85.

In a Benoni with 5...Bd6, Ju Wenjun as White controlled the middlegame and never let Mungutuul playing black, get any activity. After the exchange of the white squared bishops on move 25,white dominated the position and black had to wait without any real play. White sacrificed an exchange on move 34 to eliminate black's only active piece and after this the result was never in doubt.

Finally, Betul Yildiz won against Martha Fierro. Both players have been off form in this tournament but the game was nevertheless quite interesting with Yildiz squeezing out a win and recovering slightly on her rating performance.

Overall there were three IM norms made by Shen Yang, Jun Wenjun and Mungutuul Batkhuyag. Rating results and performances were as follows :

No.		Name	FED	IRtg	W	We	W-We	K	Rtg+/-	Ra	Rp
1	GM	Xu, Yuhua	CHN	2485	8.0	6.08	1.92	10	19	2444	2619
2	WGM	Shen, Yang	CHN	2453	6.0	5.57	0.43	10	4	2447	2483
3	IM	Mkrtchian, Lilit	ARM	2469	6.5	5.81	0.69	10	7	2446	2511
4	IM	Fierro Baquero, Martha	ECU	2386	2.0	4.49	-2.49	10	-25	2453	2191
5	WGM	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	MGL	2418	5.5	4.99	0.51	10	5	2450	2450
6	GM	Dzagnidze, Nana	GEO	2535	7.5	6.87	0.63	10	6	2440	2573
7		Ju, Wenjun	CHN	2443	6.5	5.40	1.10	10	11	2448	2513
8	WIM	Yildiz, Betul Cemre	TUR	2224	1.0	2.21	-1.21	15	-18	2468	2085
9	GM	Zhu, Chen	QTR	2488	4.5	6.12	-1.62	10	-16	2444	2379
10	WGM	Kovanova, Baira	RUS	2408	5.0	4.85	0.15	10	2	2451	2415
11	GM	Sebag, Marie	FRA	2519	6.5	6.62	-0.12	10	-1	2441	2506
12	GM	Zhao, Xue	CHN	2542	7.0	6.99	0.01	10	0	2439	2541

The games with some light analysis can be found here .

Round 10 Report

Saturday, 10 October 2009

Penultimate round and one of the most important as the two leaders have critical games against other players in the middle of the table. Their results in these two games were therefore highly critical.

GM XU YUHUA - SOLE LEADER AFTER ROUND 10

GM Dzagnidze who had been leading for the majority of the tournament repeated her Sicilian Taimanov against Mungutuul. The game was played with each player having an arbiter facing them and a third arbiter relaying the moves. Additionally, Dzagnidze was given an additional time increment as the live clock was kept on her table. This was a result of the chickenpox outbreak and Dzagnidze had never been exposed to it before and it was therefore agreed for the two board setup in different rooms.

After a number of exchanges in the early middlegame black had a little pressure against a weak a-pawn but not enough to really win it and White defended accurately to keep the balance throughout.

In the other game, Xu Yuhua repeated a line normally plaeyd by WGM Kovanova and IM Pogonina. In a Spanish Zaitsev variation she came out with the new idea 16.Bh6 and 17.e5 and black went immediately wrong. White had a winning position very shortly aftewards and Xu Yuhua wrapped up the point.

Another critical game was Zhao Xue - Sebag. Two of the top seeds were jostling for the final position and a win fo Sebag would have left her in contention. As it turned out, the game transposed from a Semi Slav to a Closed Catalan position and the ultra solid Zhao Xue built up her positional advantage until finally black cracked and resigned just after the time control.

The Chinese players have obviously been doing their homework as another game to finish quickly after some home preparation was Shen Yang - Zhu Chen. The former world champion was surprised with a novelty by white on move 24 of the Rauzer Variation in a QGD. Zhu Chen should have played 23..Rg8 which gives a playable game for black but instead followed a game dreev - Gustafsson whcih went 23...Bc5. After white's 24.Bxf6 Rg8 25. Bxc4 white finished the game splendidly with 28.Nd6! giving mate in all variations.

Martha Fierro had a reasonable opening against Ju Wenjun's Sicilian Scheveningen but then started drifting and black took the point. The final game was between Mkrtchian and Yildiz where white played very agressively and took the point quite well.

The tournament had once again a very important visitor these last days. Robert A Mundell had also been a guest of the Nanjing organisers last year and this year he combined his visit to the tournament with a lecture at Nanjing University. For those who may not know who Robert A Mundell is, he is a Nobel economics prize laureate (1999) and is also known as the "Father of Euro".

He is a professor of economics at Columbia University and the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1999. Mundell laid the groundwork for the introduction of the euro through his pioneering work in monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas, for which he won the Nobel. Mundell helped to start the movement known as supply-side economics, and is known for the Mundell-Fleming model and Mundell-Tobin effect.

He is also a keen chess player and was the originator of the Pearl Spring tournament. More about this can be read in last year's excellent interview located here .

The games with opening references can be found here .

Round 9 Report

Thursday, 08 October 2009

A very eventful round! The standings after this round show some norms which have been achieved by some players so far, namely IM norms for WGM Mungutuul and WGM candidate Ju Wenjun.

Rank		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	Ra	Rp	Rtg+/-
1	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2535	GEO	6½	2431	2597	7.8
2	GM	Xu Yuhua	2485	CHN	6½	2440	2606	14.8
3	GM	Sebag Marie	2519	FRA	6	2425	2550	4.0
4	GM	Zhao Xue	2542	CHN	5½	2419	2499	-4.5
5	IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	2469	ARM	5	2465	2508	4.6
6	WGM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2418	MGL	5	2442	2485	8.2
7	WGM	Shen Yang	2453	CHN	4½	2447	2447	-0.6
8	WGM	Kovanova Baira	2408	RUS	4½	2447	2447	4.8
9		Ju Wenjun	2443	CHN	4½	2458	2458	2.1
10	GM	Zhu Chen	2488	QTR	4	2440	2397	-10.4
11	IM	Fierro Baquero Martha	2386	ECU	2	2480	2260	-14.0
12	WIM	Yildiz Betul Cemre	2224	TUR	0	2477	1677	-23.8

Round 9 proved to be an eventful and surprising one with leader GM Marie Sebag from France, surprisingly being outplayed by WGM Kovanova from Russia. White played a position variation in the Sicilian Najdorf (6.g3) which gave black little chance and GM Sebag faced a difficult position throughout and the game was converted nicely into a win by white. Kovanova is short by 4 performance rating points off the mark to make an IM norm.

As the pack at the top are so close to each other, it let the other top players immediately in. Two former World Champions battled it out and GM Xu Yuhua had the better of it over GM Zhu Chen. In a Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2 variation, black innovated early and a complex game resulted. Black sacrificed a pawn early on to gain complete piece activity and black then uncorked the beautiful 18...Nxg4! followed by some other great moves e.g. 22...Bf1!

The other critical game to decide one of the leaders was GM Dzagnidze against IM Fierro. White had much the worse of it throughout the game and it was only with resilience that Dazgnidze survived. Eventually the fourth hour approached and as Martha pointed out she has been suffering at this time. Once agin, she let the position slip and unfortunately turned a winning position into a losing one.

Today, we also had another novelty, albeit not in a chess game. Unfortunately, at 2.00am in the morning WGM Mungutuul from Mongolia was not feeling very well and asked for the hotel doctor. She was diagnosed with chickenpox and immediately Chief Arbiter Ignatius Leong was informed. After a long discussion and consultation with organisers, players and arbiters, it was agreed that WGM Munguttul would be isolated in a special room which was set up by the Nanjing organisers at record speed. All remaining players also sportingly agreed that they had no objection with playing her under these conditions.

So at 3.05pm the game between Mungutuul and Zaho Xue got underway with great media attention. For once it seemed the journalists had forgotten everything else! Anyway, back to the game. The players followed a main line of the Spanish and once again Zhao Xue showed that her opening preperation is of the highest standards. Unfortunately she could not gain much more than equality and despite having the two bishops "advantage", black could not squeeze out more than a draw.

Ju Wenjun and Lilit Mkrtchian squared off in a great fight and although black could have had chances to win the game in a Queen's Indian defense, she did not find them in the game, and
a draw was the final result.

Yildiz - Shen Yang was just another bad day for the player from Turkey. Black took the initiative early on in a Scotch game and a tactical miscalculation ended up with black getting a winning rook endgame.

During the day there was also a match between four universities Najing, Peking, Tsinghua and South East University ... 200 hundred players in total!

Games with opening references can be found here . Full analysis will be posted in the next few days.

Round 8 Report

Wednesday, 07 October 2009

We have a new leader! Slowly but surely, GM Marie Sebag from France has overtaken Gm Dzagnidze in first place.

The facilities where the FIDE Women Grand Prix is being held are excellent.

The standings and performance are reproduced in the table below :

Rank		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	SB.	Rtg+/-	Ra	Rp
1	GM	Sebag Marie	2519	FRA	6	21.25	10.5	2441	2620
2-3	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2535	GEO	5½	19.25	4.8	2440	2577
2-3	GM	Xu Yuhua	2485	CHN	5½	16.50	9.8	2444	2575
4	GM	Zhao Xue	2542	CHN	5	14.00	-2.8	2439	2515
5-6	IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	2469	ARM	4½	18.50	5.0	2446	2511
5-6	WGM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2418	MGL	4½	13.25	6.5	2450	2472
7-8		Ju Wenjun	2443	CHN	4	12.25	1.7	2448	2457
7-8	GM	Zhu Chen	2488	QTR	4	11.00	-5.4	2444	2434
9-10	WGM	Shen Yang	2453	CHN	3½	17.00	-2.7	2447	2432
9-10	WGM	Kovanova Baira	2408	RUS	3½	10.00	-1.7	2451	2395
11	IM	Fierro Baquero Martha	2386	ECU	2	8.50	-10.9	2453	2280
12	WIM	Yildiz Betul Cemre	2224	TUR	0	0.00	-20.9	2468	1680

The last three rounds will prove to be decisive now and none of the top 4 players can afford to drop half a point so some slugfests are promised.

Coming back to the games, the first game to finish reasonably quickly was Mkrtchian - Dzagnidze. They followed a Nimzo Indian line played in a game between Babula and Judit Polgar in 1992 and their game also ended in a draw by perpetual. So nothing new there and Dzagnidze may rue this half point if she does not recover it in the last three rounds.

Marie Sebag took the opportunity to take over the "yellow jersey" squeezing out a win over former world champions Zhu Chen. Following a transposition to a Philidor's Black had a good opening and middlegame but let the initiative slip and Sebag used the king's side to obtain a winning position.

Joining the pack was former World Champion Xu Yuhua. She extracted the fullpoint from the luckless Turkish player. White got nothing special against the Archangel variation of the Ruy Lopez and black actually had a slight pull. Nevertheless, Xu Yuhua's determination paid dividends when Yildiz did not take the opportunity presented to her on the 37th move in the diagram below.

WIM BETUL CEMRE YILDIZ (TURKEY)

Zhao Xue was unfortunate not to join Xu Yuhua on 5.5 points as she had been pushing Kovanova
throughout the game and had reached a winning position. Against a Queen's Indian Defense she pressured black to eventually win a critical pawn on e6. A critical mistake on move 65 however turned the win into a theoretical drawn rook endgame.

Shen Wang must have been disappointed since she was in control for much of the game. Ju Wenjun has an interesting style giving the impression of a coil ready to spring out. She plays a tight game and when her opponent makes a mistake she immediately seizes it. Shen will have to win a few games if she wishes to make an IM norm. I also understand that Ju Wnejun has qualified and applied for the WGM title.

In the position above Shen Yang went for 27.Nb5 when 27.Ne4 would have given a winning advantage after 27..Qxe2 28.Rxe2 Nxe4 29.Rxe4.

Fierro had a good opening with White in another Spanish but then started to drift and allowed Mungutuul to get a pawn on b2. White still preferred not to go for perpetual despite having several opportunities to do so. After missing a final opportunity to equalize with 38.Rc7! (see Diagram below) white could not save it any longer.

Martha explained to me that she still has not recovered the time difference as prior to Nanjing she had been playing in Colombia and she is feeling very tired towards the fourth hour.

Full games and analysis can be found here.

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