Sharjah: Woman Grandmaster Ju Wenjun of China beat WGM Elina Danielan of Armenia to grab the solo lead with 3½ points after four rounds of the Fide Women’s Grand Prix at the Sharjah Chess Club in Sharjah.
Ju Wenjun, playing white, essayed the Closed Catalan against Danielan and won a marathon minor piece endgame.
Ju exchanged her Knight for two pawns on the 55th move and methodically advanced her kingside pawns. Carefully avoiding traps that would lead to a draw, Ju forced Danielan to resign on the 85th move facing unstoppable pawn promotion.
Women’s world champion Hou Yifan of China, Harika Dronavalli of India, former women’s world champion Anna Ushenina of Ukraine and WGM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs of Mongolia follow with three points each.
In the battle of the two top seeds, Hou Yifan, playing black, beat Koneru Humpy of India in a Queen’s Gambit Declined. An early trade of Queens on the 12th move and exchange of minor pieces transposed to a Rook and pawn endgame. Hou Yifan had the better kingside pawn structure and more active Rook. Hou Yifan emerged with two connected kingside pawns against one. Koneru resigned on the 56th move as she was about to lose her remaining pawn.
Anna Ushenina and Batchimeg Tuvshintugs had easy assignments, winning against scoreless Alina L’Ami of Romania and Zhu Chen of Qatar, respectively. Ushenina needed only 28 moves to crush the Pirc defense of L’Ami who blundered away a Knight. Tuvshintugs had a harder time against Zhu Chen’s Gruenfeld Defense. The Mongolian managed to promote her pawn to Queen on the 72nd move and force resignation two moves later.
GM Harika Dronavalli of India used the Semi Slav defence against GM Zhao Xue of China and drew on the 58th move by repetition of position in a Bishop and pawn endgame.
Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia follows with 2½ points after a marathon 87 moves against the French Defense of Nafisa Muminova of Uzbekistan. The Uzbek sacrificed a Knight on the 11th move to create two passed pawns but Kosintseva returned the piece on the 33rd move and reached a drawn endgame.
The final leg of the World Chess Federation (Fide) Women’s Grand Prix offers €60,000 (Dh290,500) for the tournament and €90,000 total cash prizes for the Grand Prix. The series will choose the Challenger to the Women’s World Championship next year.
Twelve players are competing in a single round robin of 11 rounds. In the Women’s Grand Prix, each player plays in four of the six Grand Prix tournaments, but only the best three results count. The player accumulating the highest number of points will get the right to Challenge the Women’s World Champion in a match next year. If the same player wins both events, the second placed in the Grand Prix circuit will become the Challenger.
Koneru Humpy won the previous Women’s Grand Prix tournaments held June last year in Dilijan, Armenia and repeated her victory in the next leg, September in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Koneru tied for 7th last June in Lopota, Georgia which was won by Hou Yifan. Other previous Women’s Grand Prix tournaments in this series were held in Geneva, Switzerland and Khanti Mansiysk, Russia.
Games are broadcast live through the www.fide.com site with live video coverage and post-game interviews of players.
The tournament resumes at 3pm on Saturday.
