Emotional exhaustion

   The games in Khanty become more and more interesting. Favorites continue to nearly get knocked out. Antoaneta Stefanova, who had a very good tournament until now,scoring a 5,5 out of 6 score got crashed by the French Marie Sebag. I think that rating doesn't matter that much anymore. The most important thing is to keep an emotional balance.  Everyone is tired by now and there are made a lot of mistakes, the point is to be cold-blooded and to be 110 % into the game.

    Here's a photo of the encounter between Marie Sebag and Antoaneta Stefanova, from the official site of the event (  http://chess2012.ugrasport.com/?p=2210 ), followed by the game.

  

   Another interesting game was the one between Nadezhda Kosintseva and Anna Ushenina. Nadia had a very big advantage, but in the mutual time trouble she missed the win and prefered to settle for a draw.
   The game between Zhao Xue and Harika Dronavalli ened with a draw. Harika looked vey confident and though she had lower Elo than her opponent, I think she's the favorite in this match.
   The Chinese encounter ( Ju Wenjun- Huan Qian) is still continuing. Huang has a pawn up, but Ju keeps big chances for a draw.
   I remember talking to Marie in Agde. She seemed very relaxed before going to Khanty and I think that her very calm and apparently not carrying attitude is a big advantage for her. It also seems that it was a wise decision for her to play the rapid in Cap d'Agde, she shows a very impressive level of chess here and I wish her all the best!

   It will be interesting to see who will advance to the semifinals!

300+ Voltage in Khanty!

       What an amazing fighting spirit! I've been following the Zhukova Natalia- Ju Wenjun match. It's been such a great fight! Zhukova needed only to win in order to continue the fight in tie-breaks and after 6 very intense hours of playing she managed to crash the fortress-looking position of Ju.

Here's a photo of Natalia from the official site of the event : http://chess2012.ugrasport.com/?p=1929

GM Natalia Zhukova 

 Here's the game:

   The endgame was looking drawish until the very end... I'm astonished by Zhukova's super-calm attitude! They were playing on the last 30 seconds for the last 30 moves and she managed to keep a poker face all along, although one can only imagine the pressure and the emotions she was feeling...

Round 3. Results

Click on the score to view the game
Name	G1	G2	R1	R2	r3	r4	B1	B2	SD	Tot
Round 3 Match 01
Socko, Monika (POL)	0	0								0
Stefanova, Antoaneta (BUL)	1	1								2
Round 3 Match 02
Ju, Wenjun (CHN)	1	0								1.0
Zhukova, Natalia (UKR)	0	1								1.0
Round 3 Match 03
Ushenina, Anna (UKR)	1	½								1.5
Pogonina, Natalija (RUS)	0	½								0.5
Round 3 Match 04
Muzychuk, Mariya (UKR)	½	0								0.5
Zhao, Xue (CHN)	½	1								1.5
Round 3 Match 05
Javakhishvili, Lela (GEO)	½	0								0.5
Harika, Dronavalli (IND)	½	1								1.5
Round 3 Match 06
Kosintseva, Tatiana (RUS)	½	½								1
Kosintseva, Nadezhda (RUS)	½	½								1
Round 3 Match 07
Huang, Qian (CHN)	0	1								1
Krush, Irina (USA)	1	0								1
Round 3 Match 08
Galliamova, Alisa (RUS)	0	0								0
Sebag, Marie (FRA)	1	1								2

   This way, we'll see 3 matches being played tomorrow, on the tie-breaks: Huang Qian- Krush Irina, Ju Wenjun- Zhukova Natalia and the clash between the Kosintseva sisters. Another 5 players go directly in the quarter finals: Sebag Marie, Harika Dronavalli,Zhao Xue, Ushenina Anna ( who shows a very impressive chess level in this tournament) and Antoaneta Stefanova.

   I am very curious to see who will become the next World Woman Champion!