Holding a draw

     The first mini-matches of the Women's World Chess Championship are coming to an end. It is the tie break day today, with 11(!) matches to be disputed.
     I was following closely the games, enjoying the commentaries of GM Miroshnichenko and GM Rogozenco. I must say that the organization seems to be really nice, many interviews, video translation, live commentary in both Russian and English... Every day I can't wait for the morning to pass faster :D (no exception today).

WGM Marrero Lopez Yaniet vs GM Elina Danielian

     As I had expected, there were a lot of interesting games and also some surprises. My feeling is that the biggest upsets of the first mini-match were: GM Elina Danielian (2488) knocked out by the Cuban WGM Yaniet Marrero Lopez (2322) and GM and ex European Champion Hoang Than Trang (2475) knocked out by GM Arakhamia Grant Ketevan (2379). Women's chess can be particularly unpredictable and it is vital to be at your best from the very beginning, as the distance is very short and one wrong move can be crucial.
     There were a lot of games worth mentioning but I will stop on the one of IM Mariya Muzychuk (2526) vs WIM Yuan Yuanling (2257), where Mariya managed to win the second game in order to even the score and continue the fight in the tie-break. I think it is quite representative.

White to move

     As we can see, a typical Dutch Defense structure is on the board, though the 3...g6 might be already inaccurate, which Mariya has successfully proven in the game. 3...d6 or 3... e6 were the alternatives. Another interesting fact is that Mariya herself likes to play Dutch from time to time, so, maybe the opening choice wasn't so inspired from this point of view as well...
     4.h4- Bg7 5.h5- Nxh5 6.e4!
    

Black to move

     This is the most principled way to make use of 3...g6.  It seems to me that black is already in big trouble. The opening battle is clearly lost by black.
     6...fxe4 7. Rxh5- gxh5 8. Qxh5- Kf8 9. Bh6- e6 10. Nxe4- Qe7 11.Bxg7- Kxg7 12.000-d6 13.Rd3

Black to move

IM Mariya Muzychuk

     Black's position is already hopeless due to the lack of development and the too exposed king.
     The game ended a few moves later with white claiming a win.

     The game looks very convincing and one may wonder why I've chosen it to analyze. The answer
is simple. It is very difficult from the psychological point of view to stay calm and just play chess
after you've lost the first game in the match and you must win the 2nd one. On the other hand, this game proves that it is also a challenge to stay calm after a win in the 1st game. As a friend told me- this kind of KO championships are about the ability to make a draw.

     Follow the games and the commentaries on the official site of the event: http://sochi2015.fide.com
(photos taken from: http://sochi2015.fide.com/component/content/article/132-photo-gallery?lang=ru )

     May the best one win!


xoxo from Iasi ;)

1st Round

      The 1st round couldn't pass without some surprises.
      The nr.1 favourite- Dmitry Jakovenko couldn't win against the Polish IM- Duda Jan.

1

144

IM

DUDA Jan-Krzysztof

2506

0

½ - ½

0

GM

JAKOVENKO Dmitry

2731

1

      The nr. 6 seed- Akopian Vladimir made a draw against GM Trator Marko.

6

6

GM

AKOPIAN Vladimir

2705

0

½ - ½

0

GM

TRATAR Marko

2498

149

     The nr. 1 Romanian player- Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu suffered a defeat against IM Pacher Milan (2470) of Croatia.

20

21

GM

NISIPEANU Liviu-Dieter

2679

0

0 - 1

0

IM

PACHER Milan

2470

163

     Here are the results of all the Romanians in the 1st round: http://chess-results.com/tnr95789.aspx?art=25&fedb=ROU&lan=11&fed=ROU&flag=30&wi=821

     I lost unfortunately. I had very good chances- receiving a nice position after the opening, but I got too optimistic afterwards and sacrificied a pawn- which didn't lead to anything good. You can see my game here:

     Here are some photos I took today, during my morning walk through the rainy Legnica:

Grigoryan Avetik and Danielian Elina of Armenia also taking a walk 

"Welcome to the Hotel California/ Such a lovely place..." Well, it's actually "Kamieniczka"- but lovely anyways :P

     I play against a lower rated player today, again from Czech Republic- Pavlicek Miroslav (2014). I hope to have a good game and to win :)

Will keep you posted!

xoxo from Legnica!

Cristina Foisor in India

     A very interesting event is to start today, in Bhubaneswar- India.

     It is a 12 players, women's round robin- as you can see above a very strong one, with Elisabeth Paehtz, Elina Danielyan, Lilit Mkrtchian, Olga Girya, Qi Guo, Mary Ann Gomes, Eesha Karavade, Nisha Mohota, Rout Padmini, Swati Ghate, Kiran Manisha Mohanty. Our 1st board from the World Teams - Cristina Foisor is among the particiapants. Here's the official site of the event: http://odishachess.com/#

   

Cristina Foisor

       I wish Cristina the best of luck!