GM Alexandra Kosteniuk has continued her run of decisive outcomes on the Cairns Cup 2024 with a win over GM Mariya Muzychuk and now strikes to three.5/6, half some extent behind the only real chief GM Tan Zhongyi.
Attracts on the remaining boards occurred with minimal drama apart from the conflict between IM Alice Lee and GM Irina Krush, the place the 14-year-old tried to crack her compatriot’s defenses for greater than 5 hours.
Spherical seven will begin on Thursday, June 20, at 2 p.m. ET / 20:00 CEST / 11:30 p.m. IST.
Spherical 6 Outcomes
Standings
The Saint Louis Chess Membership was nonetheless bustling with occasions on the remaining day and the headliner was a “Girls’ Knight” which gave aspiring chess gamers the possibility to ask the legendary GM Nona Gaprindashvili questions and be taught from one of many best to play the sport. Chaired by WGM Thalia Cervantes Landeiro, there definitely would have been dialogue about how the Cairns Cup individuals would fare the subsequent day…
Strong chess was the secret in spherical six and for these enjoying with the black items, the additional preparation time allowed them to quash the attacking ambitions of their opponents. Apart from in Kosteniuk-Muzychuk, a +0.5 margin in Harika-Zatonskih, which arose six strikes right into a French Protection, was the closest anybody got here to a decisive outcome.
For the 2 gamers behind the leaders on 3.5/6, and 5 within the chasing pack on 3/6, time is working out to strike. The following three rounds will decide whose title might be inscribed on the perpetual trophy and win the $50,000 first prize.
Kosteniuk 1-0 Mariya Muzychuk
Kosteniuk’s erratic play on this yr’s cup has made her a real contender for first and, after beating Muzychuk, the “Chess Queen” silenced any negativity and confirmed she has the grit and fortune required to go all the way in which.
Muzychuk’s “higher” preparation from the black facet of a Caro-Kann Protection meant that Kosteniuk spent many of the recreation battling from a worse place, though when time stress turned an element, Kosteniuk used her years of expertise streaming Area Kings, Titled Tuesday, and different pace chess occasions to flip the script.
Our Sport of the Day has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao under.
With this being her third win of the occasion, Kosteniuk has been concerned in additional than half of all of the decisive outcomes on the event. In a post-match interview, Kosteniuk would humorously state: “I’ve been enjoying chess for a few years and I’m determined to learn to play calmly.”
Harika 0.5-0.5 Zatonskih
The French Protection was utilized by Tan as a shock weapon earlier within the event and in spherical six IM Anna Zatonskih used the opening in a bid to maintain her title protection goals alive. Sadly for the four-time U.S. champion, exchanges meant that almost all of the sport was spent in a rook endgame.
Following her defensive effort towards Mariya Muzychuk in spherical 5 in an analogous ending, GM Harika Dronavalli was untroubled within the endgame and a repetition was reached on transfer 56, pushing her into =2nd on 3.5/6 and stamping out Zatonskih’s probabilities of profitable the occasion.
Paehtz 0.5-0.5 Anna Muzychuk
The prospect of enjoying the identical colour towards siblings at an occasion is a frightening one and GM Elisabeth Paehtz dealt with the stress properly. Sticking along with her pet King’s Indian Assault, which she performed towards Mariya and Lee, Paehtz sacrificed materials early to push GM Anna Muzychuk in direction of a theoretical place the place White may have elected to repeat strikes.
Deciding towards peace, Paehtz tried her greatest to capitalize on Muzychuk’s awkward king place, however alas, the tables turned, courtesy of White’s queen shifting a minimum of 13 instances in 27 strikes! Thankfully for Paehtz, Black’s king was nonetheless a weak level and the German GM was capable of safe a repetition.
Paehtz’s post-match interview shed instructive perception into how ready she was for this encounter.
In the case of their preventing spirit, GM Nana Dzagnidze and Tan are two of probably the most belligerent within the area, nonetheless their round-six recreation petered out after a pointy line within the Queen’s Gambit Declined pressured items off the board.
The middlegame pawn construction arising from the Tartakower, Makogonov Variation (to not be confused with the combative King’s Indian Protection counter attributed to the identical honorary GM Vladimir Makogonov), options three pawn islands for Black and dominant central pawns whose energy is taken into account double-edged.
With extra time than she began left on the clock after 13 strikes, Dzagnidze confidently shut down any likelihood of Tan extending her lead and her opponent jumped on the alternative to safe a draw by repetition on transfer 30.
Lee 0.5-0.5 Krush
The benefit of youthfulness got here to the fore in spherical six as Lee was concerned in one other recreation that lasted greater than 5 hours. On this all-American showdown, a concrete line of the Catalan Opening led the gamers to a same-colored bishop endgame by transfer 30.
Whereas such endings can usually show extra decisive than opposite-colored bishop endings, the twelve pawns on the board acted as a progress blockade. On a mission to show her Cairns Cup into an endurance occasion, Lee performed on for 60 strikes, poking and prodding at Krush’s pawn construction earlier than repeating on transfer 91.
No public announcement has been made concerning the U.S.’s 2024 Olympiad groups, nonetheless Lee’s current outcomes and fourth rating within the U.S. ladies’s FIDE rankings put the 14-year-old proper in competition alongside Krush, who has performed in each Olympiad since 1998.
Though a single loss would rip the event standings broad open, Tan will fancy her probabilities of profitable the occasion as she finishes with two Whites. An thrilling spherical 9 pairing towards the tempestuous Kosteniuk does stand in her approach, although…
The 2024 Cairns Cup is without doubt one of the strongest ladies’s tournaments on the earth. The occasion is a 10-player round-robin with a classical time management (120 minutes for your complete recreation, plus a 30-second increment per transfer). The 2024 Cairns Cup runs from June 13 to June 23 and incorporates a $200,000 prize fund.
Earlier Protection
