Elina Danielian won her first four games at the final tournament in the FIDE Women Grand Prix Series, held in Doha, Qatar. The Grandmaster from Armenia has a 1.5 point lead, ahead of IM Martha Fierro (Ecuador) and Marie Sebag (France).

General info

The 6th and final tournament of the 2009-2011 FIDE Women Grand Prix Series takes place February 22nd-March 5th in Doha, Qatar. As always, it's a 12-player round-robin with one rest day, on February 27th. Games start at 15:00 local time (13:00 CET), round 11 three hours earlier.

We cannot find the time control on the tournament website, which lacks other information as well - including something basic like tournament regulations. If we may believe the menu on the left, there are no organizers!

It's also interesting to see that the menu still reflects the ambitious plans Global Chess had at the start of the men's GP series. (All these websites use the same template once created by the Turkish Chess Federation.) There are still items for 'Games commentary' (but there's no GM analysis), 'Videos' (nothing there) and 'Bulletins' (even more surprisingly, nothing there). Instead, a special Facebook page has been created. Apparently FIDE prefers creating some 'modern image' over doing what they promised, and what is mostly appreciated by the fans.

Scrolling down to the end of the page, we find some small lines in red that lead to more information. The first news item, "Women's Grand Prix in Qatar", tells us more about the series: The Women Grand Prix series consists of six tournaments. The winner of each tournament wins 6,500 euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 euros and the overall winner of the series will win a further 15,000 euros at the end of the series.

Women GP history

A brief recap. The first Women GP was held in March 2009 in Istanbul and was won by Humpy Koneru. The second, in September-October 2009 in Nanjing, was won by Xu Yuhua. Tatiana Kosintseva won the third, in March this year in Nalchik and Nana Dzagnidze the fourth, in June-July in Jermuk. Hou Yifan won the fifth tournament last summer in Ulaanbaatar.

Current standings

Hou Yifan from China currently leads the Women Grand Prix with 410 GP points. However, she has already played four tournaments and can be caught by two players: Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) and Humpy Koneru (India). (There's one more player with only three GPs played and in less than 120 points distance from Hou Yifan: Tatiana Kosintseva from Russia. But she's not playing in Qatar.)

Doha, rounds 1-4

From above we can conclude that Nana Dzagnidze has excellent chances to win this first GP Series. Practically speaking, the only way for Humpy Koneru to win is to finish clear first in Doha.

Coincidentally, the drawing of lots in Doha, last Monday resulted in first round pairings that included the game Koneru-Dzagnidze. The world's number two got a promising position, but then erred in timetrouble.

32. Rxf5 is still very good for White. After 32. hxg5? Bxe4! White was suddenly dead lost: 33. gxh6 (33. Bxe4 fxe4 34. Rf1 Rd3 35. Qc1 and now the simplest is 35... h5-+) 33... Bxc2 34. Qg5+ Ng6 35. h7+ Kh8 and Black won.

Elina Danielian had a splendid start and won all four games. In the fourth round she beat Nana Dzagnidze. As was pointed out in Chess Today #3762, Dzagnidze might have helped herself by losing to Danielian, as long as the Armenian stays ahead of Koneru. But there are seven more rounds to go.

Let's have a look at Danielian's round 3 game, which was good fun. She won with Black against Mongolia's first player Batkhuyag Munguntuul, but not without some luck.

17... Ne4? There was nothing wrong with 17... Nxd5 18. Rxg7+ (18. Qxd5 Be6; 18. Qh6 Ne6) 18... Kxg7 19. Qg5+ Kh8 20. Rxd5 Rg8 21. Qf6+ Rg7 22. h5 Kg8 23. Qe7 Be6 24. Qxc5 Qxc5 25. Rxc5 Rd8 and Black is just an exchange up. 18. Qh6 Ng6 19. Rxg6 fxg6 20. Ne7+ Kf7

21. Rxd7? Winning was 21. Bc4+! Be6 (21... Kxe7 22. Qxg7+; 21... Ke8 22. Qxg7) 22. Bxe6+ Kxe6 23. Nd4+ Kxe7 (23... Kf7 24. e6+; 23... Kd7 24. Qxg7) 24. Nc6+ Ke6 25. Qxh7. 21... Rad8! 22. e6+ (22. Nxg6+ Rxd7 23. e6+ Kg8; 22. Bc4+ Ke8 23. Rxd8+ Qxd8) 22... Kxe6 23. Bc4+ Kxd7 24. Qxg7

24... Ke8! and after the king returned to his initial square, there was nothing left of White's attack.

Games rounds 1-4

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Doha Women GP 2011 | Round 4 Standings

Photos © Maria Bolshakova & Anastasiya Karlovich, more here

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC