WGP New Delhi: Round 8 recap
Bibisara and Zhu draw as Goryachkina makes a lucky escape in a completely lost position against Lagno Two games ended in a draw and two with a victory for White in Round Eight of the Women’s Grand Prix in New Delhi. Here are the results of today’s games: Kateryna Lagno – Aleksandra Goryachkina, ½ – ½ Harika Dronavalli – Nino Batsiashvili, 1 – 0 Polina Shuvalova – Vaishali Ramehsbabu, 1 – 0 Zhu Jiner – Bibisara Assaubayeva, ½ – ½ Nana Dzagnidze and Humpy Koneru had a rest day. The game between two favourites of the Grand Prix series, Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina, ended in a surprising draw. In the Berlin of Ruy Lopez, Goryachkina badly misplayed in the middlegame allowing White to dominate. After nearly five hours of play, Lagno was completely winning. The position needed some calculating, but Lagno was desperately low on time, so she decided to repeat the moves. Bibisara Assaubayeva played the King’s Indian against Zhu Jiner and achieved an even position but was not fully comfortable with her perspective. Both tried to find a way to victory but were satisfied with a draw and were the first to finish. Polina Shuvalova defeated Vaishali Ramehsbabu in the Gruenfeld Defence. Shuvalova was the one who made fewer errors in the game, which saw both sides win and drop advantages. Due to time trouble, Vaishali overlooked a dangerous attack by Black and had no choice but to resign. Harika Dronavalli had a lucky break as she managed to turn a worse position into a victory against Nino Batsiashvili. After outplaying her opponent in the Ruy Lopez, Nino Batsiashvili could not find the right plan and first allowed her opponent to equalize and then blundered, ending in a lost position. With three more rounds to go, Bibisara Assaubayeva leads with five points, while Zhu is second with 4½. Goryachkina and Lagno share third place with four points. Here follows a closer look at the games of Round 8. Kateryna Lagno – Aleksandra Goraychkina This was a duel between two strong favourites in the Women’s Grand Prix as well as two closely matched players. Out of 18 games played between them, each has three victories, with other games ending in a draw. In the Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez, Lagno went for the closed line (with 4.d3) to avoid the endgame and emerged slightly better thanks to greater spacial control in the centre. Goryachkina played 18…c5 here, closing her bishop on a7 and allowing White to make a push through the centre with 19.e5! After 19…dxe5 Lagno should have put her d-knight on f5 to maintain the initiative. Instead, she retreated this piece with 20.Nf3 and now after 20…Qd6 the position roughly even again. In the subsequent play, Black sacrificed her a5-pawn. White eventually planted one of her knights on f5 and opened up the centre with 27.f4. Goryachkina’s reaction was suboptimal as Lagno regrouped her pieces and got the upper hand. White is dominant all over the board: she is a pawn up, has more space, more initiative, better coordination of pieces and is preparing a direct attack on Black. However, Lagno had one problem – the clock. She was desperately down on time, with just under two minutes, while Goryachkina had nearly half an hour. Goryachkina now made what a fatal error: 36…Qxc4. Now White could break the black king’s fortress and win the queen with 37. Nxf6+ gxf6 38. Qg3+ Kf8 39. Ng6+ Kg8 40. Ne5+ Kh8 41. Nxc4 and that would have been it. Lagno missed this and played 37.bxc5 and sacrificed the knight only after 37…Ba5 38.Nf6+ gxf6 White had a win that was not so difficult to find. Namely, 39.Qg3+ Kf8 (Kh8) 40.Kg6+ Kg8 41.Rxe8 Bxe8 42.Rxe8 Rxe8 43.Ne5+ capturing the queen. However, with just seconds on her clock, Lagno played 39.Rxe8 Bxe8 40.Re4 (White has an overwhelming position, but there is no immediate win anymore) Qd5 41.Rxd4 Qxc5 42.Qg3+ Kf8 43.Ng6+ Kf7 and here White forced a draw by perpetual 44.Nh8+ Kf8 It is hard to blame Kateryna for missing 45.Rd7!! winning. She may have seen that move, but could not have managed to find and check all the lines afterwards. The game ended in a draw after 45.Ng6+ Kf7 46.Nh8 Kf8. Goryachkina had a very lucky escape today, and Lagno was clearly displeased with the outcome. Goraychkina and Lagno are now both on four points. Harika Dronavalli – Nino Batsiashvili The two have played six times so far and Harika was in the lead with two to one in victories, and there were three draws. This was an important game for both sides as neither has scored a victory in this tournament until this round. Harika started with 1.e4 instead of her usual 1.d4 or 1.Nf3. Batsiashvili replied with 1…e5, and the two proceeded with the Archangel variation of the Ruy Lopez. The same line was played between Lagno and Batsiashvili in Round Six, ending in a draw. Harika closed the centre with d4-d5 but completely misplayed the opening and ended up a pawn down with no real compensation. However, Black did not find the right plan (a straightforward 18…Bxe3 19.fxe3 a5 followed by 20…a4 looks highly unpleasant for White) and let her advantage slip away. By move 25 White equalized after making a thematic push c4-c5. Both opponents made small inaccuracies in the final portion of the game, but it was Nino who buckled under pressure. 38…Re8? and after 39.Ra2! Ra5?? 40.Qh6 White is crushing, combining the threats to Black’s king with the pressure along the c-file. Harika finished the game with an effective tactical blow. 46.Ne6! Fxe6 47.Rf3+ and Black will lose her queen, 1-0. Polina Shuvalova – Vaishali Rameshbabu Out of 14 games played between the two, the score is 7:6 for Shuvalova, with only one draw. In all the previous games where she was White against Vaishali, Polina opted for 1.e4, but this time she played her first move with the queen’s pawn. The game saw the line with 6.Bb5+ in the Gruenfeld Defence with the opponents following the encounter Graf – Kovchan (Warsaw, 2005) up to move
WCF Game 4: Lei Tingjie strikes hard and fast
Fully recharged after their well-deserved rest day, Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi returned to the playing venue in Chongqing this afternoon for the second half of their six-game match. Tied 1.5-1.5 on the scoreboard, the three final games will decide which of the two Chinese Grand Masters advances to the next stage of the cycle: challenging the current Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun, for the title in July. Playing with Black, Tan Zhongyi deviated from the second game of the match with 3…Nf6 instead of 3…dxc4, a solid choice for this game. Lei Tingjie brought the trendy Catalan Opening to the table, a decision that caught her opponent off-guard, as she explained in her postgame interview. Following seventeen moves of well-known theory, the first key moment of the game came on move eighteen when Tan Zhongyi created some weaknesses in her position by advancing 18…f5. According to the engines, Black is seriously worse after this move, as it weakens her kingside considerably. Tan Zhongyi explained that the structure was slightly unfamiliar to her and that she wanted to consolidate her central knight on d5. A few moves later, 21.f4 might have been a slightly better move than 21.Na5, preventing Black’s counterplay in the center, but even so, White still kept the upper hand. However, Tan Zhongyi gradually fought back into the game, generating enough initiative on the kingside to compensate for her opponent’s queenside domination. The second key moment could have turned the tables completely. Lei Tingjie blundered with 28.b3? but Tan Zhongyi’s reply 28…Nc8 was no good. Instead, she could have played 28…fxe4 29.fxe4 Rxf1 30.Bxf1 and now the masterstroke 30…Nxd5! sacrificing a piece that can’t be accepted. The knight can’t be captured with the rook due to 31…Qe3+ winning, while 31.exd5 runs into 31…e4! and Black is winning wherever the rook moves to. It’s hard to say what Tan Zhongyi missed in this line – she had more than 50 minutes on the clock and only spent 4 minutes on her decision. In any case, in her postgame interview, she regretted not having played this move. Lei Tingjie didn’t give her a second chance. She started piling up the pressure, and when Tan Zhongyi ventured her rook into Lei’s position to win a pawn, she struck hard and fast at her opponent’s king, building up a decisive attack that eventually forced her opponent to resign. In her postgame interview, Lei Tingjie said that today’s game was very complicated. She mentioned that she saw Tan’s missed tactical opportunity and was very nervous. Finally, she explained that she was very lucky to win in the end. After answering the questions, Lei dashed off to dinner: she was so nervous during the game that she forgot to drink water for four and a half hours, and now she was very hungry! Both players will return tomorrow for the fifth game. Tan Zhongyi will be playing with White for the final time, in a must-win situation. You can follow all the games with with top-notch commentary by GM Alik Gershon and WIM QiuMengjie on the FIDE YouTube Channel. Text: IM Michael Rahal Photo: Liu Yi Official website: womenscandidates.fide.com/ The match The 2023 FIDE Women’s Candidates Final is being disputed in Chongqing (China) from March 27th to April 6th. Chinese Grandmasters Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi face each other in a six-game classical chess match. The winner will receive 60.000 euros and the right to challenge the current Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun for the title in July. The venue Strategically positioned as a gateway to China’s west, Chongqing is China’s major modernized manufacturing base, a financial center, and an international transport hub in Western China. Home to more than 32 million people, it was an obvious choice for hosting the event as both players were born in the city. In addition, it’s an important center of chess activity in the country, abode to many important chess clubs and academies. A fun fact – both Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi are teammates at the Chongqing Sports Lottery Chess Club.
Autism Awareness Day: FIDE Infinite Chess project outlook
United Nations recognize April 2 as an Autism Awareness Day. At FIDE, we’re determined to help children with ASD learn chess. Chess improves social skills, reduces anxiety, and facilitates overall development. Our INFINITE CHESS Project started in 2019 as a small pilot project. In three years, it has gained momentum and expanded to 10 countries: Albania, France, Gibraltar, Latvia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, and Turkey. You can watch a special video dedicated the the Project’s outlook on our YouTube. “Chess is an excellent tool to make societies better. With social chess initiatives, FIDE educates youth, empowers women, integrates less privileged and finds new ways to satisfy all special needs. Building on practical experiences of teachers who work with childern with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), FIDE has devised the Infinite Chess project, where chess is used for improving the socio-emotional welfare of such special kids,” says the project leader, WIM Anastasia Sorokina. The Project runs in cooperation with FIDE Social Commission. It aims to increase knowledge and awareness of chess for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and study the benefits of introducing them to chess. We develop various teaching methods and give practical advice to teachers and parents. INFINITE CHESS timeline: In January 2021, a pilot project was launched in 6 countries: Spain, Turkey, France, Gibraltar, South Africa and Norway. In Spring 2021, an introductory FIDE seminar took place, attracting 130 participants from more than 50 countries. On October 2-3, 2021, FIDE organized the 2nd FIDE Educational Seminar, “Chess for children with an autism spectrum disorder. Learn and teach”. In 2022, the Project onboarded Asian and African countries: Malaysia and Mongolia, South Africa and Morocco. In December 2022, the Conference “Chess for Social benefits and Women Inclusion & INFINITE CHESS Evolution” took place in Paris, France. On March 29, 2023, dedicated to the World Autism Day, the workshop for educators was held in South Africa under the guidance of Erick Takawira, Councillor of the FIDE Social Commission. With the support of the International Olympic Committee, the first educational program was launched: “Methodological guide for teachers to conduct chess classes when working with children with autism spectrum disorder”. In the meantime, an Erasmus funding application was submitted in order to carry out extensive research. The program is available in four languages, English, French, Spanish, and Russian. You can download it here: Program – FIDE Infinite Chess Project Our dedicated YouTube playlist collects the conference and seminars that have been conducted so far, and we welcome everyone to check these materials: INFINITE CHESS PLAYLIST Join us at infinitechess.fide.com!
FIDE April 2023 rating list published
The main chess competitions in April had little impact on the top 10 Open and Women. The only exception was the American Cup 2023, won by Hikaru Nakamura. The American picked up 7 rating points and returned into The top 5 Open. Ironically, the runner-up, Wesley So, dropped one rating point in this event. Photo: St-Louis Chess Club | Crystal Fuller On the other hand we see some significant shifts in the lower echelons of top 100. Biggest gains in top 100 Open and Women Vantika, Agrawal WGM 2407 (+40) Lee, Alice FM 2391 (+29) Kiolbasa, Oliwia IM 2429 (+23) Maltsevskaya, Aleksandra IM 2410 (+22) Sarana, Alexey GM 2685 (+17) Mkrtchyan, Mariam WIM 2360 (+17) Shevchenko, Kirill GM 2684 (+16) Tsolakidou, Stavroula IM 2373 (+15) Garifullina, Leya IM 2384 (+12) Yakubbaeva, Nilufar WGM 2362 (+13) Photo: Madelene Belinki The winner in this nomination Vantika Agrawal of India (pictured above), scored impressive 40 rating points following her successful tour in Hungary, where she performed strongly at GM tournaments in Vezerkepzo and Budapest. Alice Lee made a strong showing in the 2023 American Cup, making all the way to the final, where he lost to the eventual champion Irina Krush. This result translates into 29 rating points accumulated by the talented teenager in March. Photo: St-Louis Chess Club | Lennart Ootes The top finishers of the European Championship (Open), Alexey Sarana and Kirill Shevchenko, earned 17 and 16 points, respectively, and both moved 20 positions up in the rating list. It is encouraging to see that this event became a springboard for several talented youngsters outside of the top 100 open who substantially increased their rating: Daniel Dardha (+15, pictured below), Volodar Murzin (+23), Nikolozi Kacharava (+19), Frederik Svane (+17) and Ediz Gurel (+35). Photo: eicc2023.com/ As for the Europeans Women’s Championship, the primary rating beneficiaries of this competition are the runner-up Oliwia Kiolvasa (+23), the bronze-winner Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (+22) and Stavroula Tsolakidou (+15). Just like in the Open section, several female youngsters – Mariam Mkrtchyan, who returned into the top 100 Women (+17), Yelyzaveta Hrebenshchykova (+14) and Nadya Toncheva (+85)! – picked up quite a few rating points following the European Women’s Championship.