Cairns Cup 2020: Ju Wenjun and Kosteniuk move into joint lead
In the bloodiest round of the Cairns Cup thus far, a remarkable five out of five games ended decisively. Every encounter produced intriguing fireworks as players were able to give it their all before the rest day. Nana Dzagnidze let her first place position slip after a disappointing loss to Humpy Koneru. Meanwhile, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Wenjun Ju scored thrilling victories to leapfrog the Georgian GM and secure a tie for the lead. Nana Dzagnidze – Humpy Koneru: 0 – 1 Nana Dzagnidze entered this round in clear first as she has displayed some of the most solid and impressive play of the event. In this hard-fought battle, however, she was outclassed. Humpy Koneru was well prepared from the black side of a Queen’s Gambit Declined and obtained a pleasant position in the middlegame. Despite missing some strong tactical shots, Koneru was in control throughout. In a tricky queen+bishop versus queen+knight endgame, she displayed an impressive endgame technique to take home the full point. This marks Dzagnidze’s first loss of the event, and she is now tied with Koneru for third place with 3/5 points. Kateryna Lagno – Wenjun Ju: 0 – 1 After grabbing a poisoned pawn in the opening, Ju Wenjun could have easily had a losing position by move 13! Kateryna Lagno spent over 30 minutes in the critical moment but failed to seize a golden opportunity (13.Rc1 looks extremely stong). Ju was able to stabilize in the middlegame and then steered the battle into a flurry of tactical complications. Because Lagno took so much time in the opening, she did not have enough time to calculate precisely in the late middlegame. A few mistakes spelled disaster for the Lagno as Ju ripped the white king from its shelter. The reigning women’s World Champion was thrilled to capture her second win of the event, knowing that the result could have easily gone the other way. She now sits in a tie for first with 3.5/5. Kosteniuk – Muzychuk: 1 – 0 After achieving a very pleasant position from the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez, Alexandra Kosteniuk made some questionable decisions. First, she misplaced her knight on the very edge of the board rather than putting it on a key central square. Next, she played the terribly weakening 24.f3? which gave her opponent an opportunity to strike. Mariya Muzychuk could have replied with the highly aggressive 24…Re2 with the deadly threat of Bh3! After Black missed this chance, however, Alexandra reclaimed her spot in the driver’s seat. The Russian GM managed to maneuver her knight back into the center and achieved positional domination. In the end, Kosteniuk’s rooks dominated the 7th rank and Muzychuk ran out of time in a hopeless position. With this victory, Kosteniuk joins Ju in the tie for first with 3.5/5. Valentina Gunina – Harika Dronavalli: 1 – 0 After losing a heartbreaker against Ju yesterday, Valentina Gunina rebounded strongly in Round 5. She was well rewarded for her decision to play a somewhat exotic Closed Sicilian. The pleasant opening advantage eventually snowballed into a vicious middlegame attack. Gunina was relentless in pushing her kingside pawns while Harika’s pieces failed to coordinate in a defense. In the end, Gunina executed a beautiful mating sequence to score her second victory of the event. In a post-game interview with Tatev Abrahamyan, Gunina revealed that she has been watching The Foreigner starring Jackie Chan to help take her mind off some of the painful losses. With today’s one-sided demolition, it seemed that Gunina emulated the ruthless fighting style of Jackie Chan! Irina Krush – Carissa Yip: 0 – 1 This all-American clash kept chess fans on the edge of their seats. In an offbeat opening, Irina Krush emerged with a clear advantage. She wisely sacrificed a pawn with a powerful central break and took advantage of Yip’s tendency to be overly materialistic. After achieving a queen versus two rooks imbalance, Krush was in control. The combination of her queen, bishop, and h-pawn seemed to be deadly for Yip’s delicate kingside. Just as it seemed Krush was going to outplay her American counterpart, the evaluation swayed. After a few inaccuracies, Carissa Yip managed to activate her pieces and find safety for her king. It wasn’t long before Krush’s position collapsed and Yip scored her first victory of the event. “I feel pretty relieved,” Yip told Ramirez in the post-game interview. The youngster admitted to feeling the nerves given the elite field but was able to relax in today’s battle. With a rest today tomorrow, action will resume on Thursday at 1 PM local time. With over half of the games, producing decisive results and many players still contention to capture first, chess fans can look forward to an exciting second half of the tournament! Text: IM Eric RosenPhoto: Austin Fuller, Crystal Fuller, Lennart Ootes, Spectrum StudiosOfficial site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/
Cairns Cup 2020: Ju Wenjun claims first victory
With the rest day soon approaching, some players were keen on conserving energy while others were adamant about fighting until the bitter end. Round 5 produced two decisive games as Wenjun Ju defeated Valentina Gunina, and Alexandra Kosteniuk took down Carissa Yip. Nana Dzagnidze maintains her lead with 3/4 points, but there is a large group of players trailing close behind in 2nd place. Ju Wenjun – Valentina Gunina: 1 – 0 The longest battle of the day was also the most topsy-turvy. Ju Wenjun achieved a very promising position from the opening, but then let her advantage slip. Valentina Gunina demonstrated a strong middlegame play and capitalized on the reigning world champion’s inaccuracies. Unfortunately for Gunina however, she fell victim to time pressure. With only 5 minutes left on her clock, she missed an opportunity to snag Ju’s central pawn and obtain a very stable edge. Her position then went from clearly better to completely lost in just a few moves. GM Ramirez described the dramatic turn around: “It was like an avalanche that suddenly hit her.” Although it took a while to convert her advantage, Ju went on to win the game, scoring her first victory in the tournament. She is now part of the large group of players tied for 2nd place, while Gunina has suffered her third loss of the event. Carissa Yip – Alexandra Kosteniuk: 0 – 1 In what GM Ramirez dubbed “a very strange game,” it was Alexandra Kosteniuk who emerged victorious. After the play unraveled quite slowly in a closed and maneuvering middlegame, immense complications emerged later on. At a critical moment, Yip misplaced her bishop and gave the Russian GM a beautiful sequence of attacking moves. Kosteniuk pounced and unleashed a number of impressive tactical shots. In the end, the young American was defenseless to her opponent’s threats, thus losing her fourth consecutive game. This marks the third decisive outcome of the tournament for Kosteniuk who has been displaying some of the sharpest and most dynamic chess among all the competitors. Harika Dronavalli – Irina Krush: ½ – ½ Yesterday, Harika Dronavalli won a masterpiece against Alexandra Kosteniuk by achieving a monster passed pawn on the d4-square. Today, Irina Krush gave Harika a taste of her own medicine by creating the same type of monster on the same square! It seemed that Krush was well on her way to produce a masterclass, but the Indian Grandmaster defended resiliently. After a dubious decision by Krush to play 23…f6?! Harika exploited the light square weaknesses and eventually executed a nice tactic to force a draw. Despite being close to winning in many games, Krush has yet to score a win in this event. It is often said that the hardest thing to do in chess is to win a better position! Mariya Muzychuk – Nana Dzagnidze : ½ – ½ This battle between two experienced grandmasters featured a sharp variation of the Richter-Rauzer Sicilian. It was clear that Nana Dzagnidze was better prepared as Mariya Muzychuk started taking her time after just 2 moves! Muzychuk explained in the post-game interview that Dzagnidze “plays everything” and is “hard to prepare against.” At a critical moment well into opening theory, Muzychuk deviated from mainline with the incredibly rare 12.Be1. Not wanting to risk encountering further preparation from the Georgian grandmaster, Muzychuk played safely and solidly. As the middlegame soon transitioned to an endgame, play remained relatively balanced and neither player made any clear mistakes. The eventual draw was a very fair result, allowing Dzagnidze to maintain her spot atop the leaderboard. Humpy Koneru – Kateryna Lagno: ½ – ½ In the most peaceful game of the day, pieces disappeared from the board quicker than the Olive Garden catering disappeared from the Chess Club’s basement kitchen. Commentators compared the liquidation of pieces to a vacuum cleaner. An endgame was reached by move 13 and there was never a moment where either side had much of an edge. The game ended in a draw well before any other game concluded. I would like to predict that round 5 will be the most interesting and exciting thus far, as players can give it their all before the rest day. Be sure to tune in tomorrow at 1 PM central time for all the action! Text: IM Eric RosenPhoto: Austin Fuller, Crystal Fuller, Lennart Ootes, Spectrum StudiosOfficial site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/overview