Fighting Chess!
The 1st of the 4 scheduled Women’s Grand Prix tournaments is underway in Skolkovo, Russia and will continue until the 23rd. The top two finishers in this series will qualify for the 2021 Candidates Tournament.
All of the information you might need for the Skolkova tournament can be found on the website above, INCLUDING downloadable PGN! Congratulations to the webmaster for doing a better job at this than the webmaster of the Men’s World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk.
LINK
Of course, it is too early to talk of any tournament favourite. In general, more so than in men’s tournaments, women players are more willing to take risks in their games and less interested in making solid draws, making the prediction of the eventual winner that much more difficult.
This is one of the big appeals of women’s chess, in my opinion, and is one that seems to be shared by much of the chess community.
Today I want to show a game played in round 1 (yesterday) that I found quite interesting from start to finish.
gm Gunina,V – wgm Kashlinskaya,A Grand Prix 11.9.2019
Photo by David Llada
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qa4+ Nc6{[#]} 6.a3$5{[#] <strong style="color:red;">Hardly the most popular continuation, but one that has achieved excellent results in recent times.</strong>} Bxc3+
({<strong style="color:black;">Of course there is nothing wrong with retreating </strong> } 6...Be7$5 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Bf4 O-O 9.e3 Bf5= {<strong style="color:black;">Kramnik V – Bareev E, Kazan 1997 EUCup final. Bareev even went on and won this game!</strong> }
)
7.bxc3 Ne4$5 {[#]}
( {<strong style="color:black;">The most principled continuation. Also popular, but not doing so well in praxis is </strong> } 7...O-O 8.Bg5! h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Ne4 11.e3$5
({<strong style="color:black;">There is nothing wrong with the ‘normal’ </strong> } 11.Qc2 b6 12.e3 Ba6 13.Bd3 Na5 14.Ne5 Kg7 15.cxd5 Bxd3 16.Qxd3
exd5 17.f3 Nxg3 18.hxg3 Qd6 19.Kf2 Nc6 20.f4$14 {<strong style="color:black;">Galego,L – Duda,J , Batumi GEO 26/ 9/2018 43rd Olympiad</strong> }
) Nxc3 12.Qc2 Ne4 13.Bd3 f5 14.O-O {<strong style="color:black;">White has compensation for the pawn </strong> } Rb8 15.Rab1 Bd7 16.Rfc1 Nxg3
17.hxg3 Qe7 18.cxd5 exd5 19.Qa2 Be6 20.Rc5 Nd8 21.Ne5 Kg7 22.g4!$16
{<strong style="color:black;">Girya,O – Ju Wenjun , Tehran IRI WCh Women 2017</strong> } )
({<strong style="color:black;">Finally, I would prefer the more robust </strong> } 7...Bd7 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Qc2 {<strong style="color:black;">with a tough fight ahead for both sides </strong> } )
8.e3 {[#] <strong style="color:red;">Typical Gunina. She often plays sharply in the opening. Here she sacrifices a pawn in exchange for positional compensation. Alekhine and Kasparov have specialized in this method of dynamic play in the opening.</strong>}
({<strong style="color:black;">Of course, style is subjective. There is nothing wrong with the normal </strong> } 8.Bb2 O-O 9.e3 Bd7 10.Qc2
Na5 11.Bd3 c5 12.O-O$14 {<strong style="color:black;">Carlsen M – Koneru H , Cap d’Agde 26/10/2008 (active)</strong> }
)
Nxc3 9.Qc2 Ne4 10.Bd3{[#] <strong style="color:red;">White has a lead in development and the Bishop pair as compensation. However, Black is quite solid.</strong>} Nf6$5
( {<strong style="color:black;">Anand has tried </strong> }10...Nd6$5 11.c5 Nf5 12.O-O h6 13.Rb1
O-O 14.Qc3 Nfe7 15.Bd2 b6 16.Rfc1 Na5 17.Qc2 Nc4 18.Bxc4 dxc4
19.Qxc4 Bb7 20.Ne1 Be4 21.Rb2 Ng6 22.f3 Bd5 23.Qc3 f5 24.Nd3
Rf7 25.Be1 Qg5 26.Kf1 Re8 27.Re2 Bb7 28.Qc4 Qd8 29.Bg3 Qc8 30.Kf2
Ba6 31.Qc3 f4 32.exf4 Bxd3 33.Qxd3 {<strong style="color:black;">1/2-1/2, Topalov,V – Anand,V , Saint Louis USA 14/11/2016 Blitz</strong> }
)
({<strong style="color:black;">In my opinion, Black’s most logical move is </strong> } 10...f5 {<strong style="color:black;">with a Dutch-type of game. Something like this actually happens later in this game. </strong> } )
11.O-O O-O 12.Rb1 Ne7{[#]}
( 12...dxc4$6 13.Qxc4$14 )
( 12...b6$6 13.cxd5 Qxd5 14.e4!$16 )
13.c5{[#]}
( {<strong style="color:black;"> White can do this at any time and I would suggest for the next game to first include the flexible </strong> }13.a4$5 )
c6 14.Ne5 Ng6
15.f4 Nd7 16.Bd2 f5 {[#] <strong style="color:red;">Now we have a typical Dutch formation with Black having an extra pawn. Of course, White has compensation for the pawn, but no more than that. I don’t see what White can do differently than what she plays for in the game (to play for g4), and Black’s plan to recycle a Knight to e4 keeps the game dead equal.</strong>} 17.Nxd7
( {<strong style="color:black;"> The alternative is the immediate exchange on g6</strong> }17.Nxg6 hxg6 18.Rf3 Nf6{<strong style="color:black;">but this changes nothing much </strong> } )
Qxd7
18.a4 Kh8 19.a5 a6 20.Kh1{[#] <strong style="color:red;"></strong>}
( {<strong style="color:black;">The engines prefer White doubling on the b-file, but there is nothing to be gained there: </strong> }20.Rb6 Ne7 21.Rfb1 Ng8 22.Be1 Nf6
23.Be2 Ne4 24.Bh4 Qf7 {<strong style="color:black;">and Black is as solid as a rock. </strong> } )
Qf7 21.Rg1 Ne7 22.Be1 Ng8! 23.g4 Nf6= 24.g5
Ne4{[#] <strong style="color:red;"> The balance is maintained. I am not sure of the time situation on the clocks of both players, but his might have influenced Gunina’s decision to further complicate the game.</strong> }
25.g6$5 hxg6 26.Bh4{[#]}
( {<strong style="color:black;">White also comes to a dead end after </strong> }26.Bxe4 fxe4 27.Rg5$5 e5! 28.Rxe5 Bf5= )
e5$5{[#]}
( {<strong style="color:black;">A strong alternative is </strong> }26...Kh7 {<strong style="color:black;">followed by Rh8 at a later point, looking for opportunities along the h-file. Whie has to be careful not to lose her objectivity: the two pawns she has sacrificed has not given her any advantage, and all she has is rough compensation. </strong> })
27.dxe5 ( 27.fxe5 Be6 ) Be6 28.Rg2 Rac8 29.Rbg1{[#]}
d4$4{[#] <strong style="color:red;">No doubt panic due to shortness of time is the reason behind this losing move.</strong>}
({<strong style="color:black;">I don’t see anything for Black to fear after </strong> } 29...Kh7 30.Bxe4 fxe4 {<strong style="color:black;">and if </strong> } 31.Rxg6 Qxg6 32.Rxg6 Kxg6 33.Qb2 Rc7{<strong style="color:black;">Black is quite solid. </strong> } )
30.Bxe4!
( {<strong style="color:black;">Avoiding </strong> }30.exd4$6 Bd5! {<strong style="color:black;"> when Black has good counterplay</strong> } )
fxe4 31.Rxg6{[#] <strong style="color:red;">Black’s game soon collapses along the g-file. Gunina plays very precisely the next moves</strong>} Bf5 ( 31...d3 32.Qd1! ) 32.R6g5{[#] <strong style="color:red;">Good enough, but there was better</strong>}
( 32.Rxg7! Qxg7 33.Rxg7 Kxg7 34.Bf6+! )
dxe3$6 33.Qb2 Rg8 34.e6 Bxe6
35.Qe5! Rge8 36.Rxg7{[#] <strong style="color:red;">Black threw in the towel. Fortune favours the brave!</strong>} 1-0
You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.
Download the PGN of this game
