After three more or less quiet rounds, with high accuracy scores and very solid play, the participants unleashed their inner power this afternoon at the Hilton Nicosia. None less than four games ended with a decisive result in the fourth round of the Cyprus Women’s Grand Prix.
Nana Dzagnidze, Harika Dronavalli, Aleksandra Goryachkina, and Anna Muzychuk all secured victories, while Zhu Jiner and Mariya Muzychuk settled for a draw, leaving Anna Muzychuk and Zhu Jiner co-leading the tournament with three points.
The ceremonial first move was performed by the President of the Cyprus Chess Federation, Mr. Criton Tornaritis, who opened for Alexandra Goryachkina in her game against Greece’s top female player, Stavroula Tsolakidou.
Let’s take a closer look at all five games.
Nana Dzagnidze 1 – Elisabeth Paehtz 0
Nana and Elisabeth have played dozens of games together, the first one going back to the U-10 Girls European Championship in 1995.
The opening was a fun one, as you rarely see a reversed Blumenfeld Gambit at this level nowadays. “Their fortunes changed slightly yesterday: Nana suffered her first loss, while Elisabeth stopped her losing streak. After the round, she said that she was feeling better and that hopefully her play will improve,” explained commentator GM Alik Gershon.
Black grabbed the extra pawn and decided to hold onto it. Of course, White did have a good pawn center and excellent attacking chances with the pair of bishops in exchange.
In her postgame interview, Dzagnidze explained that, playing with White, she wanted a fighting game, and that her choice of opening served this objective very well.
Paehtz’s key blunder occurred on move twenty-one when she chose 21…Ra-c8 which just loses material after 22.Rb1! and all the tactics favor White. From then on, Dzagnidze wrapped up the game in style.
Mariya Muzychuk 0.5 – Zhu Jiner 0.5
The most important game of the round was the only one to end in a draw. Playing with White, former Women’s World Champion Mariya Muzychuk wanted to pile up the pressure on the leader of the event.
The opponents tested a very long theoretical line of the Mikenas-Carls variation of the English Opening, which is regularly played at the highest level by the likes of Ian Nepomniachtchi and other elite GMs.
Both players were very clearly booked-up, blitzing out the opening at total ease. The middlegame turned out to be slightly better for Muzychuk enjoing a bit more space and active piece play.
By invading the b-file with her rook, she managed to pick up the weak a7-pawn, converting her positional advantage into something more tangible. But Zhu Jiner remained solid and maintained the balance with precise play. At some point, she was even enjoying some attacking chances against Mariya’s king.
All in all, it was a very correct game, with both players registering 98% on the accuracy score.
Aleksandra Goryachkina 1 – Stavroula Tsolakidou 0
Goryachkina alternates her opening choice based on her opponents. Having a +3 score against Stavroula, she definitely wanted to go for a win. This afternoon she went for 1.e4 and Tsolakidou immediately replied with 1….c5.
“The Sicilian Defence! It shows her fighting spirit today,” said WGM Anastasiya Karlovich in the commentary booth. “We always welcome the Sicilian here, the more fighting and interesting the games are, the better it is for the players, the spectators and the commentators of course,” added GM Alik Gershon.
The opponents went down one of the main paths of the Rossolimo Attack, which has appeared in Cyprus several times already, including one game by Tsolakidou.
Playing extremely fast, Goryachkina exchanged her two bishops for knights in order to reach a position with a strong knight on d5. Based on her speed, it became apparent that Aleksandra was playing according to her home preparation.
Feeling pressure both on the board and on the clock, Tsolakidou traded-off the d5-knight and soon after sacrificed an exchange to get just a pawn in return. According to the engine, she was still worse but holding. However, low on time she lost control over the position, allowing Goryachkina to convert her extra material and score her first win of the tournament.
Anna Muzychuk 1 – Divya Deshmukh 0
Anna Muzychuk chose the advance variation of the Caro-Kahn, and after including 4.h4 she exchanged bishops on d3 – a very trendy line nowadays. Divya, in her turn, exchanged quees and transisioned into an endgame which the engine assessed as quite reasonable for her.
Nevertheless, it was still quite tricky and Divya spent half of her remaining time on just one move, which turned out to be a mistake (24…Nb6? instead of the superior 24…Nd-b4).
Muzychuk sensed her opportunity and pushed forward, attacking her opponent’s weaknesses and putting a lot of pressure on the clock, ultimately scoring her second win in a row.
In her postgame interview, Anna mentioned that she was surprised by her opponent’s opening choice. She also added that maybe Divya didn’t figure out how to react to White’s activity in the endgame.
Harika Dronavalli 1 – Olga Badelka 0
No doubt willing to take her opponent out of her opening book, Harika opted for one of the most creative opening ideas I have seen in the past months.
In an English Opening with 1.c4 e5, she first played 2.a3!?, startling Badelka, who took four minutes to react, and then 4.h4!? with a completely new position emerging on the board according to my database.
“My opponent had only played 1…e5 against the English three or four times, so I decided to play something different,” Harika explained.
MOMENT OF THE DAY
Harika was kind enough to show us this moment on the board in her postgame interview. The key position occurred on move eight. Badelka blundered an exchange with the 8…Qd7? allowing 9.Bh6! Now the bishop can’t be captured because of 10.Nxf6+ winning the queen, and therefore the only move is to castle, after which White exchanges knights and wins the rook on f8.
“These things can happen,” explained Harika. “Even so, Black does have some compensation for the exchange, and the game still has to be won.”
“So far this is probably one of the biggest misses in the tournament, specially bearing in mind the stage of the game, essentially in the opening still,” a surprised Karlovich commentated in the booth. “What an unfortunate situation. It’s tough luck for Badelka because there is hardly any positional compensation,” added GM Alik Gershon.
Round five pairings and dates
The fifth round of the fourth leg in the 2024/25 Women’s Grand Prix series will be played on Wednesday, March 19th at 15:00 CET local time in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Round 5 pairings:
Divya Deshmukh – Nana Dzagnidze
Stavroula Tsolakidou – Anna Muzychuk
Zhu Jiner – Aleksandra Goryachkina
Olga Badelka – Mariya Muzychuk
Elisabeth Paehtz – Harika Dronavalli
More information about the event, including the regulations and details of the pairings, as well as live games can be found on the official website: womengrandprix.fide.com
You can follow the games live and watch the action with our wonderful commentators GM Alik Gershon and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich on YouTube.
Written by Michael Rahal
Photos: Mark Livshitz
