 As GM Ioannis Papaioannou put it today in a short interview,” women’s play have been of a very interesting and fighting natüre” and today was certainly no exception, well except the two quick draws on top two boards. The round even saw an event which will surely go down into pages of chess history as a curiosity but more on that later.
The games between leaders on top four boards ended in draws with the first two being very quick as already stated but the 3rd and 4th boards saw very hard fought games. It was just because chess is a draw when played correctly that we saw two draws on these boards.
The first decisive game we encounter as we go down the game list is the clash between Guichard and Dzagnidze. GM Nana Dzagnidze played a good game well until zeitnot but as some past master stated one bad move is enough to nullify 40 good ones. Guichard used the given opportunity and went on to win:
Guichard – Dzagnidze
38...Qd2?? [A dramatic moment in zeitnot. Dzagnidze who has the much better position missed White's idea completely and as always one mistake is enough to lose the game.]
[38...Nc4–+ and black should win]
39.Rd1 Qxb2 40.h5! [Easy but to see it in zeitnot deserves praise.]
40...Bf7 [40...Bc2 41.Nxc2 Qxc2 42.h6; 40...Be4? 41.Qxe4+–]
41.Qb7 Bxh5 [41...Bb3 42.Nf5 Rg8 43.h6! gxh6 44.Be4]
42.g4 Bg6 43.Qxb6 [White wins the knight and with it the game. Although there is still a technical task ahead due to reduced number of pawns, the result was never in doubt until Guichard won the game on 82nd move. A great result for the French WGM!]
Another very interesting game was Cramling – Matnadze. The Spanish player mixed up the moves in the opening
Cramling - Matnadze
Here Matnadze decided to employ a classic Accelerated Dragon trick but at a very wrong moment. As a consolation there has been at least 132 more cases in chess history.
9…Ng4?? [9...Bd7]
10.Bxg4 Bxg4 11.Nxc6! Bxd1 12.Nxd8 Bg4 13.Nxb7 [Black could have resigned here as well but she continued until 30th move.]
1–0
Finally an incident which will certainly go down in chess history. If you check live broadcast you’ll notice that on 27th board Gevorgyan-Cornette game has stopped after Black’s 23rd move. Why? Because Gevorgyan castled queenside illegally!! She has moved her rook twice in the game to come back to starting square and then castled queenside anyway!
Here is the game score:
Gevorgyan - Cornette
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nf3 a6 5.Bd3 g6 6.Nxd4 cxd4 7.Ne2 d5 8.c3 dxe4 9.Bxe4 dxc3 10.Qa4+ Bd7 11.Qd4 Nf6 12.bxc3 Qc7 13.Bf3 Rd8 14.Rb1 [First move with rook] 14…b5 15.Qh4 Bf5 16.Ra1 [Second move with rook. Now back to a1] 16…Bd3 17.Qf4 Qb6 18.Nd4 Bg7 19.Qe3 Bc4 20.Ba3 0–0 21.Nc6 Qc7 22.Nxd8 Rxd8 23.Qc5 Qd7
24. 0-0-0!!
[Exclamation marks for making the impossible happen! If you look at the position it’s really the “best move”. Reminiscent of Kasparov-Dreev 1994 and Kindermann-Korchnoi 1995.]
To make matters even more dramatic Gevorgyan eventually won this game! A very unfortunate event for Cornette obviously. The lesson? Never trust your opponent, even when it comes down to basic chess rules!
After this round there are 22 players with 2,5 points sharing the lead followed by a group of 28 with 2 points. There is still certainly everything to play for even after a so-so start!
The fourth round will start tomorrow (April 14 Saturday) at 15:00 local time. Don’t forget to follow the live broadcast with excellent commentary of GM Ioannis Papaioannou & IM Can Arduman and other top-class guests like Ivan Sokolov, Adrian Mikhalchishin and Eva Repkova!
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