FIDE Geneva Grand Prix Round 10

Official Website Report - Bela Khotenashvili overtakes Anna Muzychuk in the lead

In the tenth round of Neva Fondation Women Grand Prix Georgian player Bela Khotenashvili confidently won against Kateryna Lagno and is half a point ahead of Anna Muzychuk, who drew with Viktorija Cmilyte. Tatiana Kosintseva drew against Anna Ushenina and remains in third place before the last round. Nana Dzagnidze defeated Ju Wenjun and shares fourth place with Anna Ushenina one point behind Tatiana Kosintseva. Olga Girya and Tuvshintugs Batchimeg made a relatively quick draw while Alexandra Kosteniuk and Hou Yifan played 6 hours to finish their game in a draw.

The standings after 10 rounds

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Cmilyte-Muzychuk 1/2-1/2

Viktorija Cmilyte got slightly better position with White due to a space advantage. She could have tried to get another pawn structure after 17.c5 but decided to open the c-file. Anna Muzychuk managed to exchange a few pieces and equalized the position. She made a risky decision 26…Qc8. The Lithuanian player could get a big advantage after 28.Qb3 Re2 29.Nc3 and if Re3 then 30.Nd5! Both players were under time pressure when Viktorija got another opportunity to win a pawn after 36. de Qg5 37.Qe4. Instead of this she played 36.Rf2 and Anna Muzychuk got better chances in the endgame. After the inaccurate 50…Kg7 White found a way to make a draw.

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Khotenashvili-Lagno 1-0

Kateryna Lagno chose to play Queen's-Indian against her opponent but it seems Bela Khotenashvili was quite well prepared for the opening. 13…Ne2 was a mistake as Black can do nothing but lose a pawn in all variations. According to Lagno, she simply missed Rd1 and it was hard for her to find any decent move after that. The Georgian player didn’t leave any chance for Katerina to survive after 21.Ne5.

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Kosintseva-Ushenina 1/2-1/2

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The theoretical battle between the players started long time ago but in the last game between same opponents Anna Ushenina chose to play 10…Ne5. 13. Nd5 has never happened in their games before and was prepared by Tatiana Kosintseva at home. Anna Ushenina reacted very well and didn’t let her opponent to create real threats on the King’s side. The game finished with three-fold repetition after 24 moves.

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Dzagnidze-Ju 1-0

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Nana Dzagnidze didn’t expect her opponent to choose Dutch Defence and had prepared mainly for the Kings-Indian. However, Ju Wenjun got quite comfortable position with Black. It was not a type of position which Nana prefers to play and the Georgian player said during the press-conference that she was suffering. Ju Wenjun played 21...b5 at one point and let White’s pieces to have more space for maneuvers. The Georgian player found good counter play and later on managed to simplify the game into the winning endgame with opposite color bishops.

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Kosteniuk-Hou 1/2-1/2

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A very complicated game and the longest of the round, between two former world champions. After the opening Alexandra could not find the right plan and “was choosing strange moves”, as she pointed out during the press-conference. White lost a pawn but was hoping to get some counter chances due to bishop pair. Black missed some opportunities to get a huge advantage and the players ended up in a very complicated endgame with unbalanced material (2 bishops, knight and 4 pawns against rook, bishop and 6 pawns). After 95 moves players agreed a draw.

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Batchimeg - Girya 1/2-1/2

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The last round will start at 12 a.m. local time.