Reports | March 05, 2011 7:25

Women GP exciting till the very end

Danielian leads by a point in Doha, two rounds to goWith one more round to go in the final event of the FIDE Women Grand Prix series, anything can happen. Friday's results were excellent for Humpy Koneru: she won her game against Lilit Mkrtchian while tournament leader Elina Danielian lost to Pia Cramling. Nana Dzagnidze lost yet again, and so Koneru still has some chances to finish ahead of her in the overall standings.

Humpy Koneru still has a chance to finish ahead of Dzagnidze in the Grand Prix

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. It's a 12-player round-robin. Games start at 15:00 local time (13:00 CET), round 11 three hours earlier. More info here.

Round 10

The final FIDE Women Grand Prix tournament in Doha is up for a nerve-racking finish on Saturday. After five events and ten rounds into the sixth, it's still not clear yet who will qualify for a title match against Hou Yifan later this year.

In today's round, Koneru vs Mkrtchian was quite an interesting game with a nice, temporary pawn sac by the Indian. The Armenian lady responded well and gave back the pawn. But, getting closer to the first time control, she blundered a piece:

Diagram 1

31... d4?! Black should play 31... Nxh2+ 32. Kg2 Bxf4 33. gxf4 Ng4 or even 33... Rxb4. 32. Bxd6 Nxh2+?! Also after 32... Rxd6 33. Qe4! Nxh2+ 34. Kg1! Nf3+ 35. Kg2 Ne5 36. Qxa8 Rxa8 37. a5 Black seems in trouble. 33. Ke2 Rxd6 34. Rh1

Diagram 2

The knight can't move because of Qxh7 mate. 34... e5 34... Qg2 doesn't help: 35. Rcg1 Qh3 36. g4! 35. Rxh2 and White won.

Koneru

Humpy Koneru: still not defeated yet

Danielian chose the Cambridge-Springs against Cramling, and the two quickly entered a queenless middlegame. Cramling had the bishop pair, but Danielian's pawn structure was healthy. The Armenian, who lives in The Netherlands, even managed to isolate one of Cramling's pawns, but the Swedish grandmaster demonstrated that piece activity was more important. With subtle manoeuvres she forced her opponent to resign at move 59.

Cramling-Danielian

A handshake at the start of the game Cramling-Danielian

Nana Dzagnidze lost her fifth game already, against tail-ender Zhu Chen. In an ending Dzagnidze suddenly just dropped loads of pawns, perhaps distracted by the developments on the other boards. Sebag split the point with Chiburdanidze and is in shared second place with Koneru.

Dzagnidze-Zhu Chen

Zhu Chen looking into the camera; Nana Dzagnidze with more than just the game on her mind

Humpy Koneru is half a point behind Elina Danielian and still has chances: she needs a win with Black against Zhu Chen in the final round, Danielian needs to draw or lose against Stefanova and Sebag shouldn't beat Munguntuul.

Games round 10

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Round 10 results

SNo. Name Rtg Res. Name Rtg SNo.
12 GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550 0 - 1 GM Zhu Chen 2495 11
1 GM Koneru Humpy 2607 1 - 0 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2475 10
2 IM Fierro Baquero Martha L 2363 0 - 1 GM Xu Yuhua 2484 9
3 GM Cramling Pia 2516 1 - 0 GM Danielian Elina 2454 8
4 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2546 ½ - ½ IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2410 7
5 GM Sebag Marie 2489 ½ - ½ GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2502 6


Doha Women GP 2011 | Round 10 Standings

Round 11 pairings

SNo. Name Rtg Res. Name Rtg SNo.
6 GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2502 - GM Dzagnidze Nana 2550 12
7 IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2410 - GM Sebag Marie 2489 5
8 GM Danielian Elina 2454 - GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2546 4
9 GM Xu Yuhua 2484 - GM Cramling Pia 2516 3
10 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2475 - IM Fierro Baquero Martha L 2363 2
11 GM Zhu Chen 2495 - GM Koneru Humpy 2607 1


Current GP standings

Rank Name Istanbul Nanjing Nalchik Jermuk Ulaan
baatar		 Total Worst result GP points Tourn. played
1 Hou Yifan 120 130 70 160 480 70 410 4
2 Dzagnidze 130 100 160 390 - 390 3
3 Kosintseva,T 160 130 93.3 383.3 - 383.3 3
4 Koneru 160 70 93.3 323.3 - 323.3 3
5 Zhao Xue 90 110 40 93.3 333.3 40 293.3 4
6 Stefanova 45 93.3 130 268.3 - 268.3 3
7 Xu Yuhua 160 30 60 250 - 250 3
8 Danielian 120 10 93.3 223.3 - 223.3 3
9 Cramling 65 100 55 220 - 220 3
10 Mkrtchian 80 40 93.3 213 - 213 3
11 Sebag 80 80 30 190 - 190 3
12 Shen Yang 25 60 55 45 185 25 160 4
13 Chiburdanidze 45 40 70 155 - 155 3
14 Zhu Chen 30 70 45 145 - 145 3
15 Monguntuul 50 70 20 140 - 140 3
16 Kovanova 40 40 20 100 - 100 3
17 Fierro 65 20 10 95 - 95 3
18 Ju Wenjun 80 80 - 80 1
19 Yildiz 10 10 20 10 50 10 40 4
20 Mamedjarova 25 25 - 25 1


Photos © Maria Bolshakova & Anastasiya Karlovich, more here

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Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers

Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.

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Comments

chess_lover's picture

chess_lover

2 years 2 months ago

Hi all,

Thanks to all for supporting Humpy. Specially, to Daaim Shabazz who I have seen always supporting Anand and Humpy.

Humpy is a top notch player and with a little bit of support from her chess federation, she can win the world championship.

All the best to Humpy, show the world that you can be a world champion. With both men's and women's world champions from India, the kids can get motivated even more in India to play chess.

Thanks,

A Chess lover

Daaim Shabazz's picture

Daaim Shabazz

2 years 2 months ago

Oh... she smiles more often than you think. She is actually very photogenic when she poses for the camera. If you look at pictures from the Women's Championship, you'll see some nice ones. She is a bit stoic, but in her interviews she appears pleasant.

Saji Soman's picture

Saji Soman

2 years 2 months ago

At last I saw Humpy's smile. It shows in her result too. I think a positive change completly to her chess career

ussr's picture

ussr

2 years 2 months ago

its really interesting that in both men and women the number 1 are from India. (Not counting Judit as she does not play women anymore.)
Another interesting thing thing is that in men's India doesnot have asingle player in even 2700.
This shows that success of Anand is fluke.

Jarvis's picture

Jarvis

2 years 2 months ago

Since both the men's and women's rating lists have Indian players among the very best (Judit counted or not), do you think that supports or contradicts your idea of Anands success as a "fluke"? Moreover, since Carlsen is the only player from Norway above 2700, what does that "show" about his success?

[Note to self: why even bother?]

Saji Soman's picture

Saji Soman

2 years 2 months ago

Do you know what is the meaning of "fluke".

Septimus's picture

Septimus

2 years 2 months ago

Only this I see is that you are an idiot.

harami's picture

harami

2 years 2 months ago

yes but in India they have a single player in 2800 + :)

harami's picture

harami

2 years 2 months ago

yes but in India they have a single player in 2800 + :).

GM Sasikiran was rated above 2700 for some time, but is now close to 2700.

Anastasia's picture

Anastasia

2 years 2 months ago

Humpy is the best. I wish she wins now placed comfortably against Chen. It would be interesting to see how her home federation that has been creating problems for her would react once she is world champion. go go go humpy. all the best.

QvD's picture

QvD

2 years 2 months ago

"Humpy Koneru is half a point behind Elina Danielian and still has chances: she needs a win with Black against Zhu Chen in the final round, Danielian needs to draw or lose against Stefanova and Sebag shouldn’t beat Munguntuul."
I disagree with this line of reporting. It appears you are partial to the success of one particular player.

Siva's picture

Siva

2 years 2 months ago

(written after final round) Humpy showed grit and managed to create problems to solve over the board for her opponents! I hope Anand et al will help Humpy win the championship back from Yifan.

LuxusOhr's picture

LuxusOhr

1 year 9 months ago

New video of Fide Women Chess Grand Prix 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODsomk6VXyY

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