Two In The Lead In Kazan

13 June 2012, Kuala Lumpur – In Kazan, Hou Yifan recovers to achieve a win in the third round over Tatiana Kosintseva. The official tournament website reported that four decisive games were played on the third day of Women Grand Prix tournament in Kazan.

Alexandra Kosteniuk and Alisa Galliamova lost their games against Nadezhda Kosintseva and Viktorija Cmilyte accordingly.  Viktorija Cmilyte could have played quiet variation but preferred to go into an extremely sharp middle-game and outplayed her opponent in complications.

Alexandra Kosteniuk got quite comfortable position with Black but didn’t play precisely and got into troubles in the rook ending.  Former world champion desperately tried to find a draw but after 78 moves the longest game of the third round was over. Elina Danielian used inaccurate play of Betul Yildiz in the middle game and found an interesting plan which destroyed the position of her opponent. Hou Yifan recovered after the previous round and outplayed Tatiana Kosintseva with black. World champion found few exact moves in the opening and got sensible advantage.

  One more decisive game could have happened in the match Stefanova-Lahno.  Repeating the scenario of the previous round Bulgarian player grabbed a pawn but had problems with the coordination of her pieces. This time she managed to escape as Katerina Lahno didn’t find the precise way to fight for more than a draw. In the game Koneru – Muzychuk playing black Slovenian player succeeded to equalize the position after the opening and after 72 moves players agreed for a draw. After the third round two players Anna Muzychuk and Elina Danielian lead with two points.

Standings after round 3:

Official website: http://kazan2012.fide.com

(Photos from tournament website)