Elite

     The Dilijan FIDE Women Grand Prix is being fought these days. It gathered some of the strongest female chess players at the moment.
     Humpy Koneru is leading the tournament with 4,5p/6.

GM Humpy Koneru (2597)

     Anna Muzychuk and Nana Dzagnidze are following with 4p/6.

GM Anna Muzychuk (2593)

GM Nana Dzagnidze (2550)

     The Mongolian Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2316)- the lowest seed- surprises with being on the 4th place, with 3,5p/6.

WGM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2316)

     The Women's World Champion- Anna Ushenina is only on 50%- 3p/6, not being able to score any wins so far.

GM Anna Ushenina (2499)

     You can see the full ranking list after the 6th round here:

FIDE Women's Grand Prix Dilijan-2013
Rank after round 6
Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	W	n	We	W-We	K	Rtg+/-	Ra	Rp
1	10	GM	Koneru Humpy	2597	IND	4.5	6	3.64	0.86	10	9	2519	2712
2	8	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2593	SLO	4.0	6	3.50	0.50	10	5	2533	2658
3	11	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2550	GEO	4.0	6	3.60	0.40	10	4	2473	2598
4	2	WGM	Batchimeg Tuvshintugs	2316	MGL	3.5	6	1.62	1.88	15	28	2494	2551
5	5	GM	Ushenina Anna	2499	UKR	3.0	6	2.96	0.04	10	0	2504	2504
6	3	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2492	IND	3.0	6	3.08	-0.08	10	-1	2481	2481
7	1	WGM	Girya Olga	2436	RUS	3.0	6	2.72	0.28	10	3	2470	2470
8	6	GM	Kosintseva Tatiana	2526	RUS	2.5	6	2.88	-0.38	10	-4	2540	2483
9	9	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2531	BUL	2.5	6	3.07	-0.57	10	-6	2523	2466
10	12	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2511	LTU	2.5	6	3.21	-0.71	10	-7	2483	2426
11	7	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2531	GEO	2.0	6	2.83	-0.83	10	-8	2551	2426
12	4	GM	Danielian Elina	2475	ARM	1.5	6	2.89	-1.39	10	-14	2487	2294

     You can follow the live games on the official site of the event: http://dilijan2013.fide.com/en/component/content/article/40-static-content/133-live-games

     I wonder how many mistakes can be made even on a supposed very high level. 

     The central match of yesterday's round- Koneru-Muzychuk ended with a unexplainable blunder made by Anna in a drawn endgame:

Black to move

     Anna played 40...f6?? here and after 41. b5-a5 42. Ne2 a few more moves were made and Anna had to resign. 40...b5 instead would have been more than enough for a draw: 41.Kd3-Kd5.

     One of my main goals is to get the chance of playing in this kind of events. I think that I could show a decent result even now. It isn't easy at all to get to play there- one should either have a 2500+ rating, or be Women's World Champion, or have their country as an organizer of one of the tournaments from the series.

     I hope that one of these conditions will be full-filled one day- preferably one of the first 2 ones, or maybe both of them?! ;)

Round 6 in Astana

     The match has begun! I am sorry that I couldn't start the live chat earlier, as the internet went down in the whole hotel, due to the weather problems.
     Here are some photos I took at the beginning of the round:

Let's take a coffee!

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky, Gergely Szabo and Alina l'Ami

Sweets and beverages in the relaxation room

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

Alina l'Ami

Luminita Cosma

Romania vs China

The playing hall

Tan Zhangyi- Luminita Cosma- draw

Shen Yang- Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky-draw

Zhukova Natalia vs Benmesbah Natacha

The Women's World Chess Champion- Anna Ushenina

Bela Khotenashvili vs Alexandra Kosteniuk

Salome Melia vs Olga Girya

Russia vs Georgia

Luminita Cosma vs Tan Zhongyi

Natacha Benmesbah of France

Shen Yang vs Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

 Kaya Emel vs Davletbayeva Madina

Kubra Ozturk vs Dauletova Gulmira

Gulishkan Nakhbayeva- 1st board of  the Kazakhstan's team

Alina l'Ami vs Guo Qi ( the World Girls U20 Champion)

Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine

Katerina Lahno vs Nino Maisuradze

Alisa Galliamova vs Lela Javakishvili

Valentina Gunina vs Nana Dzagnidze

India vs USA

Russia vs Georgia

Our charming official photographer- Anastasiya Karlovich

Here's the hall where one can watch the live games

... on this screen

      I went to the "Hanshatyr" comercial center afterwards- it's about 20 minutes to walk from our hotel. I passed through the "Alley of restaurants":

"Tre Kronor"- a Swedish restaurant

A Korean restaurant

Not sure, but I think it's a Turkish restaurant

And there's my destination...

Want to have a seat? :))

 It's got a very interesting arhitecture! You can judge by yourself:

     I had to walk by myself through the snowstorm- it wasn't either pleasant  or very warming- but what one doesn't do in order to satisfy his curiosity! All the efforts were more than worth it- I have never seen such a mall in my life!

A special carrousel that takes one to the very top of the mall

It seemed a bit scary to go there by myself, so I preferred to be a simple spectator

There was some kind of a little car that was spinning around the mall- I had a really nice ride!

     Two games have already finished- Carmen and Luminita made draws. Alina and Cristina are still playing. Let's watch the games and hope for better!

xoxo from Astana