Women's World Championship
25.05.2004 With the controversy around venue and security in the past, the games finally began in Elista, Kalmykia. The top seeds started strong, all moving into the second round. The second round concludes tomorrow. The savvy veterans are going to have their hands full with the teenagers soon enough.
Top seeds dominate in Elista
The women's world championship finally found a home and now the players can
concentrate on chess. Not that it's easy to concentrate under the new FIDE
time control or when you have to play rapid and blitz playoff games on the
same day as the main game. Stress management becomes easily as important as
good moves under these conditions, but the fact remains that almost all of
the top-rated players smoothly moved into the second round. (Well, we're not
sure smoothly is the right word in every case, especially since some of the
gamescores are clearly not correct, even for blitz.)
We couldn't count 64, can you?
The
top seed in Elista is India's Humpy Koneru. Still young at 17 she hasn't
made much of a move since coming out as the next big thing three years ago.
She's playing a lot, but many of her games are like those in the 2003 Indian
women's event, which she predictably dominated. This is her first world championship
and so far she's playing like the favorite, winning three games straight and
needing only a draw tomorrow to advance to the third round.
Humpy is also clearly the Asian flag-carrier now that the impressive Chinese
delegation was decimated in the first round. Former title holder Xie Jun and
current champion Zhu Chen aren't there, but China still arrived with seven
players. (As did Georgia. Russia had nine!) Only three of the Chinese players
made it to the second round. The western hemisphere was cruelly treated in
the first round. Only Irina Krush of the USA survived to carry the flag for
the Americas.
The
other favorites are a mix of well-known veterans like Galliamova and legend
Maia Chiburdanidze and other representatives of the youth movement like Kateryna
Lahno of Ukraine and Germany's Elisabeth Paehtz. Lahno appeared on the
scene so quickly that to participate she had to be specially nominated by FIDE
president Ilyumzhinov when Georgian star Ioseliani withdrew.
The time control is the new "FIDE control" despised by most players. It's
ninety minutes to start plus thirty seconds per move, with no additional controls.
("Two hours of thinking and two hours of time trouble" according to one wit.)
If the match is tied after the second game, they players take a short break
and then (on the same day) play two games of rapid chess (25' + 10"). If they
are still even it's two games of blitz (5' + 10" according to the rules, a
long increment for a blitz game).
If it's still tied up they play a sudden death game. Lots are drawn and the
winner chooses color. White gets six minutes, black five, no increment. The
loser is eliminated and if the game is drawn Black moves on. We saw four of
these "armageddon" games in the first round. Ah chess, RIP.
It's a long way to travel for the 32 players who head home after just two
days in Kalmykia. The first-round losers (call it an appearance fee) still
get three thousand dollars, more if they lose on tiebreaks. The winner, the
new women's world champion, will take home $48,000, double the prize of the
second-place finisher. Here are the results of today's games, the first of
the second round.
Round 2 - Player on the left has white
in game one |
Score |
|
|
|
Koneru, Humpy |
Peng, Zhaoqin |
1-0 |
Lomineishvili, Maia |
Galliamova, Alisa |
1-0 |
Chiburdanidze, Maia |
Sebag, Marie |
1-0 |
Bojkovic, Natasa |
Matveeva, Svetlana |
1/2 |
Lahno, Kateryna |
Polovnikova, Ekaterina |
1-0 |
Mkrtchian, Lilit |
Cramling, Pia |
1/2 |
Stefanova, Antoaneta |
Vasilevich, Tatjana |
1/2 |
Paehtz, Elisabeth |
Zhao Xue |
1/2 |
Xu Yuhua |
Danielian, Elina |
1-0 |
Kosintseva, Nadezhda |
Zhukova, Natalia |
0-1 |
Kosteniuk, Alexandra |
Cmilyte, Viktorija |
0-1 |
Alexandrova, Olga |
Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina |
1/2 |
Krush, Irina |
Kachiani, Ketino |
1/2 |
Peptan, Corina-Isabela |
Jackova, Jana |
0-1 |
Dzagnidze, Nana |
Radziewicz, Iweta |
1-0 |
Hoang, Thanh Trang |
Kosintseva, Tatiana |
1/2 |
Good chess is always hard to find with these time controls, but there are
always plenty of blunders and tactics. (We aren't chauvinist; the same goes
for the European Championship currently underway with the same control.)
Kovalevskaya
– Lujan, Round 1
White finished off nicely with 24.Rxe6 Rxe6 25.Rxf5!
winning the queen for two rooks after 25...c4 26.Rxf6 Rfxf6 27.h3
(Black was threatening mate on e1) 27...cxb3 28.axb3.
The white passed pawns and queen were too much for the
rooks. |
|
Arribas
– Krush, Round 1
White picks an unfortunate retreat square
for her queen with 21.Qg4? instead of the superior 21.Qe3. Krush
exploited the slip immediately with 21...Rd4! and the white
queen is in trouble. 22.Qh5 Qa5 pins the bishop so White bailed
out, giving up the queen for rook and bishop with 23.Bxf6 Qxh5 24.Bxd4.
White held on until move 40 without any
real chances of holding the game.
|
|
Khaziyeva
– Galliamova, Round 1
One of the favorites got an easy point when her opponent
committed a beginner's mistake in the opening by playing 7.Bg5?
Galliamova quickly snapped up a pawn with 8...Bxf2+! It's hard
to say what's worse, but 9.Kxf2 Ng4+ 10.Ke1 Qxg5 isn't very tempting.
White played 8.Kf1 Bxg1 9.Kxg1 and as the old
saying goes, Black had the pawn AND the compensation. |
|
Paridar
– Zhao Xue, Round 1
Black takes advantage of her powerful bishop with the
surprising 18...Nxg2! 19.Kxg2 Nf5 and there is no way White can
prevent ..Nh4, regaining the piece. 20.Qf4 g5 21.Qc1 Nh4+ and
White resigned a few moves later. |
Round 1 Winner |
Eliminated |
Score |
|
|
|
Koneru, Humpy |
Van der Merwe, Cecile |
1-0, 1-0 |
Galliamova, Alisa |
Khaziyeva, Dinara |
1-0,
1-0 |
Chiburdanidze, Maia |
Arouche, Farida |
1-0, 1/2 |
Matveeva, Svetlana |
Houli, Asma |
1-0,
1-0 |
Lahno, Kateryna |
Morales, Mendoza Luciana |
1-0, 1/2 |
Cramling, Pia |
Hahn, Anna |
1-0,
1/2 |
Stefanova, Antoaneta |
Tan, Zhongyi |
1-0, 1-0 |
Zhao, Xue |
Paridar, Shadi |
1-0,
1-0 |
Xu, Yuhua |
Tkeshelashvili, Sopio |
1/2 1/2, 1-0 1-0 |
Zhukova, Natalia |
Petrenko, Svetlana |
1/2
1/2, 1/2 1-0 |
Kosteniuk, Alexandra |
Sergeeva, Maria |
1-0, 1-0 |
Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina |
Lujan, Carolina |
1-0,
1-0 |
Krush, Irina |
Arribas, Maritza |
1-0, 1/2 |
Jackova, Jana |
Skripchenko, Almira |
1/2,
1-0 |
Dzagnidze, Nana |
Shahade, Jennifer |
1-0, 1/2 |
Kosintseva, Tatiana |
Huang, Qian |
1-0
0-1, 1/2 1-0 |
Hoang Thanh, Trang |
Le, Kieu Thien Kim |
1/2, 1-0 |
Radziewicz, Iweta |
Meenakshi, Subbaraman |
1/2,
1-0 |
Peptan, Corina-Isabela |
Goletiani, Rusudan |
1-0, 1/2 |
Kachiani-G., Ketino |
Nguyen, Thi Thanh An |
1/2
1/2, 1-0 0-1, 0-1 1-0, 1/2 |
Alexandrova, Olga |
Matnadze, Ana |
1/2, 1-0 |
Cmilyte, Viktorija |
Harika, Dronavalli |
1-0,
1-0 |
Kosintseva, Nadezhda |
Javakhishvili, Lela |
1-0 0-1, 1-0 1-0 |
Danielian, Elina |
Sedina, Elena |
1/2
1/2, 1/2 1-0 |
Paehtz, Elisabeth |
Wang, Pin |
1-0, 1-0 |
Vasilevich, Tatjana |
Xu, Yuanyuan |
0-1
1-0, 0-1 1-0, 1-0 1-0 |
Mkrtchian, Lilit |
Socko, Monika |
0-1 1-0, 1-0 0-1, 1/2
1/2, 1-0 |
Polovnikova, Ekaterina |
Khurtsidze, Nino |
1-0-1/2 |
Bojkovic, Natasa |
Wang, Yu |
1/2, 1-0 |
Sebag, Marie |
Pogonina, Natalija |
1/2,
1-0 |
Lomineishvili, Maia |
Slavina, Irina |
1/2, 1-0 |
Peng, Zhaoqin |
Dworakowska, Joanna |
1-0
0-1, 0-1 1-0, 1/2 1/2, 1-0 |
|