Former girls’s world chess champions GMs Tan Zhongyi, Mariya Muzychuk, and Alexandra Kosteniuk opened with victories within the first spherical of the Cairns Cup 2024 which started on the Saint Louis Chess Membership on Thursday. Muzychuk’s sport featured a twin alternate sacrifice and proved to be an entertaining affair.
The $200,000 prize cash match with a primary prize of $50,000 noticed large fights in all 5 video games. The GM Harika Dronavalli vs. GM Nana Dzagnidze encounter went all the best way for greater than six hours and 126 strikes of play earlier than lastly ending in a draw.
Spherical two begins Friday, June 14, at 2 p.m. ET / 20:00 CEST / 11:30 p.m. IST.
Cairns Cup Spherical 1 Outcomes
Cairns Cup Standings After Spherical 1
Saint Louis Chess Membership has the legendary 83-year-old GM Nona Gaprindashvili, five-time girls’s world champion and first girl ever to be awarded the title of grandmaster, as a particular invitee for the match. The fifth world champion earlier loved her time on the Final Strikes, a conventional enjoyable pre-event on the membership, and created the image of the day going through her 14-year-old opponent, IM Alice Lee.
Befittingly, Gaprindashvili additionally sounded the bell to start out the occasion within the presence of Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield, the co-founder of the membership after whose maiden identify the occasion is called.
The Cairns Cup is formally underway! 🔔👀https://t.co/XXx6NlRrg9
📹: @STLChessClub#chess #womeninchess #CairnsCup pic.twitter.com/euJQ8aKyHl
— Ladies’s Chess Protection (@OnTheQueenside) June 13, 2024
Kosteniuk 1-0 Paehtz
Kosteniuk with the white items caught GM Elisabeth Paehtz in her opening preparation, having fun with a wholesome benefit proper from the start, each on the board and the clock. In a Sicilian Rossolimo sport, Paehtz’s weak kingside and the presence of opposite-colored bishops gave her trigger for concern. Kosteniuk’s benefit was by no means doubtful, particularly after Paehtz appeared to overlook her means between strikes 27-31, shifting her queen forwards and backwards on the a-file. This enabled Kosteniuk to make the essential 32.d4 break and in the end convert her benefit.
Kosteniuk revealed afterward that she had had a tough run simply earlier than this occasion: “I’ve been on this chess world and on this enterprise for a really, very very long time, and I’ve discovered to understand each victory. I’m coming right here from the final three rounds of the Bundesliga, and I performed terribly… I’m coming right here after two defeats, and it feels nice to win a sport.”
I’ve been on this chess world and on this enterprise for a really, very very long time, and I’ve discovered to understand each victory.
—Alexandra Kosteniuk
Lee 0-1 Tan
Tan gave the impression to be flirting with hazard whereas using an unorthodox opening setup (the Accelerated Queen’s Indian?), which transposed to an English Protection and resulted in a barely cramped middlegame place. Nevertheless, in an important second early within the middlegame, Lee’s alternative of avoiding a bit sacrifice subsequently led to her being outplayed by Tan.
Krush ½-½ Anna Muzychuk
Recent from being pleasantly shocked on the opening ceremony with a $100,000 verify, GM Irina Krush appeared to take pleasure in a substantial benefit within the middlegame ensuing from an Change variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. GM Anna Muzychuk‘s play proper after simplifying the place with 14…d4 appeared tentative, and there was a second within the sport when Krush may have taken the initiative.
Mariya Muzychuk 1-0 Zatonskih
Commenting on the sport, GM Yassar Seirawan exclaimed in the direction of the tip: “A drama turned tragedy turned drama turned tragedy once more!”
A drama turned tragedy turned drama turned tragedy once more!
—Yasser Seirawan
Certainly it proved to be a seesaw affair. Muzychuk gave the impression to be having fun with a typical area benefit towards a French Protection vs. the winner of the Cairns Cup 2023, IM Anna Zatonskih. However in a tense middlegame with a cramped place, it was Zatonskih who missed tactical methods that might have given her the benefit. The sport proved to be a topsy-turvy affair with many ups and downs, and Zatonskih’s time stress lastly proved to be the decisive issue.
It was a spectator’s delight—for multiple purpose.
Thus after sacrificing the alternate, Mariya Muzychuk selected to repeat it once more after three strikes.
Suitably, that is our Recreation of the Day, which GM Dejan Bojkov has analyzed.
Harika ½-½ Dzagnidze
This was the final sport to finish, after greater than six hours of preventing for 126 strikes. Dzagnidze had famously remarked previously about Harika’s opening breadth: “I believe there are not any openings strains with Black that she would not play. So, once I play towards her, I at all times get drained even earlier than the sport as a result of I would like to organize and repeat all of the strains.”
On this sport between two pals, it was Dzagnidze’s flip to shock her opponent with the Sicilian Taimanov, and the sport confirmed a number of promise for White within the middlegame.
The 2024 Cairns Cup is among the strongest girls’s tournaments on the earth. The occasion is a 10-player round-robin with classical time management (120 minutes for all the sport, plus a 30-second increment per transfer). The 2024 Cairns Cup runs from June 13 to June 23 and includes a $200,000 prize fund.
Earlier protection:
