Astana Chess: Women's World Team R5 - Russia, Ukraine Lead

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

Chess sure is fun.

The day before the International Women’s Day and the first rest day at the Women's World Team Chess Tournament 2013, the chess players finished round 5 a bit earlier than usual. The Romanian team continued to play "peacefully" and drew with the Turkish team. The latter also managed to pick up their first points in the event after Round 5.

Ukraine, after a slightly weak start showed its strength and beat China! At the press conference after the completion of her game, Valentina Gunina was asked if she worried during the game, as even “computers started to get worried when they saw her position.” She noted that team mates could not feel very happy about her game. In any case Valentina managed to trick her opponent and even won the game. Russian team defeated France 3.5-0.5.

The Georgian girls looked quite confident in the fifth round and beat the Americans. Irina Krush made the only draw and all the others lost their fights. Kazakhstan team lost to India 3:1, but it is not the reason for being sad. First of all, there are four more rounds ahead, secondly, the team is the youngest at the championship, so the girl can keep the energy till the end. 

Friday is a rest day and the game resume on Saturday. The tournament can be watched live at the official website.

Standings after Round 5

1 RUSSIA 9
2 UKRAINE 9
3 CHINA 7
4 GEORGIA 7
5 INDIA 6
6 ROMANIA 4
7 USA 4
8 KAZAKHSTAN 2
9 TURKEY 1
10 FRANCE 1 

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Astana Chess R3: China, Russia Lead Women's World Team Event

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone,

GM Alisa Galliamova of Russia by Anastasiya Karlovich/official website 

The third round started with the symbolic move in the game Ju Wenjun-Anna Zatonskikh made by Chinese Ambassador Mr. Zhou Li. He came today to support his compatriots and it’s obviously helped the Chinese girls, who confidently won against the American team with 3,5-0,5 score.

“Turkish team came to learn and gain experience here,” the captain and coach of the team, Adrian Mikhalchishin, said in the interview. Everyone could notice that Turkey showed really stubborn defence in the previous rounds. Nevertheless luck was not on the side of Turkish girls today as they lost all the games in the match against Russia.

The outcome of the match Ukraine versus Kazakhstan was not easy to predict till the end. Katerina Lahno relatively quickly outplayed the leader of the team Guliskhan Nakhbayeva but on the last board Inna Gaponenko lost to Abdumalik Zansaya, the youngest participant in the tournament. In time trouble Inna lost good winning chances and made a few crucial mistakes. The world champion Anna Ushenina was also close to get into big troubles today but her opponent didn’t find very nice move 26…Kh8 and Anna Ushenina got a chance to force a draw. Once again Natalia Zhukova left alone in the playing hall and the outcome of the match depended on the result of her game. After a few hours of play Ukrainian IM got an advantage and played precisely till the end to save the match.

Georgian team has recovered after yesterday's defeat, and showed great result in the match against France. Silvia Collas was the only French player, who managed to grab half a point in the game against Nino Khurtsidze, while all the others were defeated.
The only match which finished in a draw was India versus Romania.

After the third round China and Russia continue to lead and play the fourth round against each other on Wednesday. Ukraine remains on the third place.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel