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Round 3: Humpy Koneru moves further, no draws |
By WFM Maria Emelianova
In the third round all the games were resultative. Indian players  umpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli quite confidently won their games with white pieces against Russians Alexandra Kosteniuk and Olga Girya accordingly. Humpy became the sole leader with 3 points, Harika is half-point behind her. Bela Khotenashvili overplayed Zhao Xue to join her on 3rd place together with Kateryna Lagno, who managed to score a point against Elina Danielian.
Antoaneta Stefanova lost control on the game in a completely winning situation against Ju Wenjun, and the Chinese used this mistake to outplay and join Bulgarian with 50 percent of points.
Finally Nafisa Muminova cheered up the Uzbek supporters by beating her long-time opponent at the Asian tournaments Guliskhan Nakhbayeva from Kazakhstan.
Pictures from the third round and press conference.
Tournament standings
Lagno - Danielian 1 - 0
Kateryna sacreficed a pawn for the initiative in English Opening, and in the time trouble Elina didn't find defending moves.
Elina: "I think I should have taken twice on e2: 12...Rxe2 13.Qxe2 Be6 14.Nxf6+ (14.Bxf6 gxf6 15.Re1 Bxd5 (15...Ne5 16.Qh5) 16.Bxd5 Ne5 17.Bxb7. After 13.Nxf6+ it was very difficult to hold my position. 17…h6 18.f4 18...Ng6 19.f5 Nxh4 20.fxe6 Ng6 21.exf7 Rxe2 22.Rxe2 Ne5 was much better. Knight on e5 is very strong."
Katya: "Of course I still have the advantage after 17...h6, but it is much easier for Black to defend here"
Elina: "It is funny that I saw all this line but didn't believe in myself"
Koneru - Kosteniuk 1 - 0
The opening played in the game has already became fashionable in Tashkent Grand Prix. From tenth move Black started to act in not the most precise way, and almost without any obvious mistakes soon were under positional pressure.
Alexandra: "I couldn't equalise, and after 13…Bf8 already didn't like my position"
Humpy: "Maybe there was no need to capture 12…cxd4, the position is normal"
Evgeny Miroshnichenko: "10…Re8 was a strange decision, I can't find the idea of this move. Probably 10…Rc8 should have been played instead"
Muminova - Nakhbayeva 1 - 0
In the tense battle of two Grand Prix Series newcomers Sicilian Defence has been played. Nafisa didn't use an opportunity to continue actively by 16.f5 with good chances and later was overplayed by her opponent. But under the time pressure Guliskhan didn't use the chance to win her first game, and after few blunders had to resign.
Nafisa: "It was strange to have such two results: yesterday I lost winning position and today made the opposite thing...
Actually I was calculating the line with 11.Bxd6 Rd8 12.Na4 Qa7 13.e5 Nxe5 14.Bxe7 Rxd1 15.Raxd1 Bd7 16.Bc5, but didn't like something. In the opening I forgot all variations, and my opponent also was playing this line for the first time. 14.Bf4 is a new move. Maybe 12.Rad1 is not necessary - just Qg3 instead.
Guliskhan: I was afraid of 16.f5, I thought it was a dangerous move. After 16…Kh8 and 17…Rac8 my position was already consolidated. If my opponent play 18.e5 dxe5 19.fxe5 Nd7 20.Qh3 g6 I was going to sacrifice on g6."
Nafisa: "Of course I had to play 25.Bxe4 instead of Nxc4, but already I think position was not pleasant"
Guliskhan: "After my last blunder 35…Bxe3 I got a very difficult position: knight goes to f6 and my king is in trouble"
Stefanova - Ju Wenjun 0 - 1
 Pirc Defence is not a usual opening for both of players, but after the tricky moves order it appeared on the board. After inaccurate Ne4 Antoaneta got a slight advantage, and closer to the time control Bulgarian was playing more precisely. In a winning but rather complicated position she missed decisive 45.Kxe2, and was the last to make a mistake.
Ju Wenjun: "10.Qd2 surprised me, and after that I was thinking too much and got into a time trouble. I totally forgot to play 19…a5, and after 21…a5 White had a pleasant position. She was playing very accurate, position was very bad for Black, and after the time control she was winning with 45.Kxe2, but I was very lucky that she had time pressure. Position still should be holdable for White, but 50.Nxa5 was a decisive mistake."
Zhao Xue - Khotenashvili 0 - 1
 In the Queens Gambit Declined Black got compensation for the pawn h5, and the game was developing with a slight advantage for the Georgian, until the Chinese missed a chance to equalise by proceeding 26.Rf1. Closer to the first time control both were playing not accurate, but in the critical moment Bela managed to find the only moves to finish the game in her favour.
Bela: "From 7.Nge2 I didn't remember what is played in this line"
Zhao Xue: "Maybe 13.Bg5 Nc4 14.Ra2 was better"
Bela: "After 20…c5 Black have good compensation for the pawn. After 26.Rf1 I was planning to exchange queens and rooks, and it was equal position. There was a repetition after 38.Qd2, but my opponent didn't see that."
Dronavalli - Girya 1 - 0
Coincidentally Harika and Olga once again after the Dilijan Grand Prix met at the same round and with same colours, but this time Indian decided to surprise her opponent with Slav Exchange variation. Olga allowed her opponent to enter a comfortable position by playing 16…Qa5 instead of following the idea with 16…a6 and 17…f5. And after the Russian blundered tactical 18.Nxd5, Harika has chosen long but still effective way to reach her second victory.
Harika: "10.Qd1 was in the game Aronian against Nakamura, I am not sure that after 13.Rc1 and 14.Be5 it is OK, but I thought that 13.h3 is too slow. 16…Qa5 is a very strange move, the main idea for Black was to play a6, and now suddenly I have all moves with a pleasant position.
I was thinking about 17.e4, but I didn't see any advantage after 17...dxe4 18.d5 exf3 19.dxc6 fxg2 20.Re1 Bxc6 21.Bxc6 bxc6 22.Qd7, and 17.Qb3 looked normal. When she played 17…Rfd8 I was thinking for five minutes trying to understand what is going on, if it is a blunder or not!
It was an easily winning position, but I managed to make all the worst moves possible to make it hard! I had a plan with 26.Rfd1, but then suddenly saw a trap 26.Bf5, and when she replied 26…Qb6, I immediately played 27.Qf7. Then after I had to go back on b3, I decided to stop trying to give a mate and to play normal, so I changed queens. Later I saw that it was not good decision, but still it was clear for me that at the end I am winning so I was just developing pieces. I could play 47.f4 but decided to keep it as a threat and wait one more move.
I worried about 60…h4, but had only four minutes left, maybe after 61.gxh4 gxf4 62.e6 Black could play 62…Bd6".
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