Saturday, March 5, 2011

Thrilling Round As Koneru Back In The Hunt!

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5 March 2011, Kuala Lumpur – At the Qatar FIDE Women Grand Prix 2011, Danielian Elina lost to Pia Crampling in last night’s game and sets the scene for a thrilling final 11th round game today, 5th March 2011, 5pm Malaysian local time.

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Humpy Koneru back in the hunt after an odd day of chess in Doha.

Photo © | http://qatar2011.fide.com

Mark Crowthers of TWIC reports that the fate of the 6th Doha Grand Prix and qualification for the Women's World Chess Championship was blown wide open today after a series of results that couldn't have gone better for Humpy Koneru. For a start Koneru didn't play especially well, she threw away an opening advantage and it was her opponent Lilit Mkrtchian who miscalculated in not taking a small edge but instead going for everything and blundering a piece.

Then leader Elina Danielian was outplayed nicely by Pia Cramling. Marie Sebag took a quick draw against Maia Chiburdinadze. Now in the final round if Danielian takes a quick draw with white against Antoaneta Stefanova (not out of the question as it guarantees a share of first), Sebag can't win with black against Batkhuyag Munguntuul then Koneru needs a win with black against Zhu Chen (but who won today) to qualify. More tension is guaranteed in the final round.

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Here is the tenth round game between Koneru Humpy of India and Lilit Mkrtchian of Armenia which gave Koneru an important win and point. After white plays 44.Rxd3, white has a possible mate with Qe8#, if black takes the rook at d3, 44…Rxd3 ??.

[Event "FIDE Women Grand Prix 2011"] [Site "Doha, Qatar"] [Date "2011.03.04"] [Round "?"] [White "Koneru, Humpy (IND)"] [Black "Mkrtchian, Lilit (ARM)"] [Result "1-0"] [PlyCount "87"] [EventDate "2011.03.04"] [TimeControl "5400"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 b5 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. O-O d5 6. a4 b4 7. c4 bxc3 8. Nxc3 a5 9. Qb3 Ba6 10. Bf4 c6 11. Rfd1 Be7 12. Ne5 O-O 13. e4 Ra7 14. exd5 Rb7 15. Qc2 cxd5 16. Bf1 Bxf1 17. Kxf1 Ne8 18. Rac1 Qb6 19. Nd3 Qxd4 20. Nb5 Qb6 21. Be3 Qd8 22. Nc5 Rb6 23. Qd2 Nd6 24. Qxa5 Nf5 25. Bf4 Nc6 26. Qd2 Nd6 27. Nxd6 Bxd6 28. Be3 Ne5 29. b4 Qa8 30. Bf4 Nf3 31. Qd3 d4 32. Bxd6 Nxh2+ 33. Ke2 Rxd6 34. Rh1 e5 35. Rxh2 e4 36. Qc4 Qd8 37. Nxe4 d3+ 38. Kf1 Rd4 39. Qc6 Qe7 40. Rh4 f5 41. Nc3 Rxh4 42. gxh4 Qxh4 43. Rd1 Rd8 44. Rxd3 1-0

Based on ICC live coverage results, GM Danielian has taken a quick draw against GM Stefanova of Bulgaria as shown below:-

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The other drawn game is between GM Chibudanidze and GM Dzagnizde. All other games are still on-going as this blog posts.

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