FIDE Women GP : Lopota 2014. Round 10 Report. Hou Yifan grab the tournament with one round to go.

Alexandra Kosteniuk took an easy draw against the winner of the tournament

Photo © http://lopota2014.fide.com

As usual Alexandra Kosteniuk played actively and got an easy draw with black pieces against Hou Yifan. The world champion has already won the tournament, with one round to go. Definitely a great performance. 

Humpy Koneru launched successfully a pawn storm on the queen side against Muminova, but it will not be enough to get the second place of the tournament.

Great game from Elina Danielan who won with black against Xue Zhao.

Wenju Ju strategically overplayed Anna Muzychuk.

FIDE Women GP : Lopota 2014. Hou Yifan, High above the clouds. Round 9 report.

Find the seven differences

Photo © http://lopota2014.fide.com

After 9 rounds, Hou Yifan is untouchable and is about to realize one of the best performance of her career. Only 21 points now separate the world champion and Judith Polgar, the greatest woman player ever, in the live rating. 

In this 9th round, Hou Yifan easily won her game against Anna Muzychuk, with an exchange sacrifice.

Humpy Koneru, under time pressure, blundered in a winning position against Elina Danielan. The indian player in now at only 50%

Antoaneta Stefanova, with black pieces, started with nice active play against Nana Dzagnidze. Nana blundered in the endgame, giving the full point to the bulgarian.

Harika Dronavalli and Wenju Ju played a complicated King’s Indian. A must see draw game.

Alexandra Kosteniuk played as usual very actively against Xue Zhao, and had a nice attack with white pieces. Xue found some counterchances with her c pawn, and the game ended in a draw.
Nafisa Muminova finally managed to win her first game of the tournament against Bela Khotenashvili.

Caïssa problem of the week

Black to play and win
Solution next week

You'll find the solution of the last week problem here.

FIDE Women GP : Lopota 2014. Round 3 report.

The clash of the Titans
Photo © http://lopota2014.fide.com

The game between Hou Yifan and Humpy Koneru ended in a draw where the chinese player had some advantage, without being able to convert it in a win.
Wenjun Ju took the opportunity to join the world champion in the first place, beating Khotenashvili.
Alexandra Kosteniuk suffered another loss today, this time against Anna Muzychuk. Very bad start for the russian player with only 0,5/3. Come on girl !! You can get back on top in this tournament !
Xue Zhao tried to grab the queen of Antoaneta Stefanova without success, but the bulgarian GM finally won a good game, with precise calculation.
200 Elo points separate Nana Dzagnidze and Nafisa Muminova. This was clear over the board with a quite easy win for Nana.

FIDE Women GP : Lopota 2014. Round 2 report.

Hou Yifan, leader with perfect score

Stefanova Antoaneta	½ - ½	Muzychuk Anna
Kosteniuk Alexandra	0 - 1	Dronavalli Harika
Danielian Elina	½ - ½	Dzagnidze Nana
Muminova Nafisa	½ - ½	Ju Wenjun
Khotenashvili Bela	0 - 1	Hou Yifan
Koneru Humpy	½ - ½	Zhao Xue

Black strikes back today with 2 wins, from Hou Yifan against Khotenashvili and from Dronavalli against Alexandra Kosteniuk.

World Blitz championship 2014 : Oups, he did it again!

"You know what? I'm happy"

"After many tough games and hard work, I am honoured to hold the classic, rapid and blitz World Championship titles. Thank you for another memorable time in Dubai and congratulations to all the other players. #WRB2014" (from official Facebook account of Magnus Carlsen).

Yes, he did it again. What an achievement. For the first time ever, one man hold all the titles simultaneously. Nobody's can say now that he is not the really best player in the world.
Gratulerer* Magnus, you really deserve these titles.
After such a result, the rest of the standing is not of a great interest, but let's mention that Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura are respectively second and third.

Final standing

	Player	Pts
1	Carlsen Magnus	17.0
2	Nepomniachtchi Ian	16.0
3	Nakamura Hikaru	16.0
4	Le Quang Liem	14.0
5	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	13.5
6	Aronian Levon	13.5
7	Anand Viswanathan	13.5
8	Mamedov Rauf	13.5
9	Sargissian Gabriel	13.0
10	Morozevich Alexander	13.0
11	Svidler Peter	13.0
12	Yudin Sergei	12.5
13	Dreev Aleksey	12.5
14	Harikrishna P.	12.5
15	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	12.5
16	Korobov Anton	12.5
17	Grischuk Alexander	12.5
18	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	12.5
19	Bacrot Etienne	12.5

pgn file  (thanks to ©The Week in Chess)
Official site

*congratulations

World Blitz championship 2014 : Round 1...guess who leads...

Photo © Anastasiya Karlovitch

With 9/11, Magnus Carlsen already leads the championship. This is not so surprising.
But look at the standing:

	Name	Pts
1	Carlsen Magnus	9.0
2	Meier Georg	8.5
3	Nakamura Hikaru	8.5
4	Nepomniachtchi Ian	8.0
5	Lu Shanglei	8.0
6	Le Quang Liem	8.0
7	Sargissian Gabriel	8.0
8	Polgar Judit	7.5
9	Laznicka Viktor	7.5
10	Harikrishna P.	7.5
11	Wang Hao	7.5
12	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	7.5
13	Fressinet Laurent	7.5
14	Caruana Fabiano	7.5
15	Anand Viswanathan	7.5

Caruana and Anand are already 1.5 poitns behind.Aronian, Grischuk, Karjakin are only 6.5/11, 2.5 points away from the leader. Ok, there are still 19 rounds to play, but it looks like the world champion is on the road to victory.

pgn file  (thanks to ©The Week in Chess)
Official site

FIDE Women GP : Lopota 2014. Round 1 report.

The world champion in action
Photo © http://lopota2014.fide.com

Muminova have probably missed a chance to put some pressure on the world champion on move 16 (16…g5 instead of 16…Cxh3?!). After what Hou Yifan got the initiative won the game in 30 moves.

The game between Humpy Koneru and Antoaneta , a Pirc defense, started with slow maneuvers where the indian player looked to have a small advantage. But the 23rd move of Antoaneta looks a bit suspicious and white took a clear initiative. 29…Qxc3 is clearly a bad choice and Humpy managed to win straightforwardly.

The last win of the day is for Ju Wengju who won a long Queen’s gambit Ragozin against Elina Danielan in Carlsen’s style.

Alexandra Kosteniuk drew an interesting and complicated game, where Nana Dzagnidze missed a « computer like » move with 15.Bd4!! 

The quite boring game between Zhao and Khotenashvili (sorry if I missed a letter or two) ended in a draw…

Dronovali and Akhsharumova (sorry if I missed a letter or two) played an interesting game with a rook endgame that white was enable to win, despite 2 more pawns.

A good start for this tournament.

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Photo © http://lopota2014.fide.com

game in pgn
Official site
live games
live videos

Koneru Humpy	1 - 0	Stefanova Antoaneta
Zhao Xue	½ - ½	Khotenashvili Bela
Hou Yifan	1 - 0	Muminova Nafisa
Ju Wenjun	1 - 0	Danielian Elina
Dzagnidze Nana	½ - ½	Kosteniuk Alexandra
Dronavalli Harika	½ - ½	Muzychuk Anna

	Elo	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts
Koneru Humpy	2613	*											1	1
Hou Yifan	2629		*									1		1
Ju Wenjun	2532			*							1			1
Zhao Xue	2538				*					½				½
Dzagnidze Nana	2541					*			½					½
Dronavalli Harika	2503						*	½						½
Muzychuk Anna	2561						½	*						½
Kosteniuk Alexandra	2532					½			*					½
Khotenashvili Bela	2518				½					*				½
Danielian Elina	2460			0							*			0
Muminova Nafisa	2332		0									*		0
Stefanova Antoaneta	2488	0											*	0