After seventh rounds of tough struggle Humpy Koneru managed to become the sole leader in FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Ankara. In a complicated game against Ju Wenjun Humpy Koneru managed to outplay her opponent in the deep endgame. Anna Muzychuk made a draw against Zhao Xue and placed second half a point behind of Indian player. After unpleasant start the current Olympic Champion Tatiana Kosintseva won the second game in a row against Monika Socko and climbed in the middle of the table. The derby between Turkish players Betul Yildiz and Kubra Ozturk finished peacefully as well as two other games Stefanova-Batkhuyag and Cmilyte-Lufei. Zhao Xue and Ruan Lufei share the third place with 4.5 points.
All the games were scored in the round sixth of FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Ankara. Humpy Koneru won against another leader Ruan Lufei in the variation which happened already in the game Kosintseva-Koneru. Anna Muzyhcuk showed fighting spirit and managed to win against Betul Yildiz after 130 moves of tough fight. Both Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk have 5 out of 6 and keep on leading in the Grand Prix at the moment. Monika Socko celebrated her first victory over Turkish player Kubra Ozturk. Tatiana Kosintseva defeated Viktorija Cmilyte in the rook endgame. Chinese players Ju Wenjun and Zhao Xue outplayed Antoaneta Stefanova and Munguntuul Batkhuyag respectively and share the third place in the tournament.
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Round 5In the fifth round of the sixth stage of the FIDE Women Grand Prix 2011-2012 in Ankara the record number of games finished peacefully. The leaders Humpy Koneru and Ruan Lufei drew their games and allowed the rating favorite of the tournament Anna Muzychuk to catch up on the shared first place. Slovenian player managed to outplay Monika Socko in an equal endgame. Another decisive game was played between Chinese Zhao Xue and Ruan Lufei. Turkish player Kubra Ozturk saved lost position playing with white against Tatiana Kosinsteva and her teammate Betul Yildiz managed to hold the position playing against Munguntuul Batkhuyag.
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Round 4
Only one game finished in a draw in the fourth round of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Ankara. The leader of the tournament Ruan Lufey gave first half a point to her compatriot Zhao Xue after the long battle. Humpy Koneru defeated Tatiana Kosintseva and climbed on the top to share the first place with Ruan Lufei. Indian player was the only one who won her game with black pieces - all the other decisive games finished on favor of white. Both Turkish players Betul Yildiz and Kubra Ozturk were overplayed by rating favorites of the matches Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk respectively. Monika Socko unexpectedly lost an equal endgame after she blundered the knight, playing against Munguntuul Batkhuyag. Cmilyte Viktorija received comfortable position after the opening and outplayed Antoaneta Stefanova. 20th of September will be a free day. The fifth round of the sixth stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix will start on 3 p.m. on 21st of September.
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Round 3The third round of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix started at 3.00 pm according to the schedule and brought more decisive games compare to the previous round.
The Vice President of the Turkish Chess Federation, the candidate for the TCF President Gulkiz Tulay made the first symbolic move in the game Kubra Ozturk-Batkhuyag Munguntuul and later on Turkish player succeeded to get good position and made the first draw in the tournament.
The biggest sensation of the third round happened in the game Monika Socko against Ju Wenjun. Chinese player had absolutely winning position but Monika was not in a hurry to resign and successfully used her last chance! (read more about it in the review of the day 3 provided by GM Evgeniy Miroshnichenko).
The Bulgarian chess player Antoaneta Stefanova got slightly better position after the opening playing against Indian player Humpy Koneru. In the endgame former world champion started to play inaccurately and let her opponent to grab the point.
Viktorija Cmilyte was in the trouble after the opening as she didn't get enough compensation for the pawn but later on her opponent Zhao Xue made a mistake and the evaluation of the position changed on favor of Latvian player. Ruan Lufei won the third game in a row playing against Betul Yildiz and keeps the sole lead in the tournament.
Anna Muzychuk and Tatiana Kosinsteva played a long complicated game which finished on favor of Slovenian player.
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Round 2In the second round of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix TCF board member Askin Keles made the first symbolic move in the game between Tatiana Kosinsteva and Antoaneta Stefanova. He chose move 1.d4 which impressed both players very much as Tatiana normally doesn't play it. After small discussion Mr. Keles made the move 1.e4 and game continued.
The game Humpy Koneru - Zhao Xue finished in a draw after three-time repetition comparatively quickly. The acting Olympic Champion Tatiana Kosintseva made the second draw in a row against the former World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Another draw of the second round was in the game Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia against the Mongolian Munguntuul Batkhuyag. A surprising victory of the Turkish chess player Betul Yildiz against the Latvian Grandmaster and rating favorite in the match Viktoria Cmilyte was followed later on. Another Turkish player Kubra Ozturk was defeated by Chinese player Ju Wenjun. Polish player Monica Socko was trying to hold worse endgame but after long struggle was outplayed by Chinese player Ruan Lufei. Only two rounds have passed and we already got everything one can expect from the interesting tournament - a sole leader (Ruan Lufei), an unexpected result (in Cmilyte - Yildiz), and of course a lot of interesting ideas on 64 squares (check review of GM Miroshnichenko).
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Round 1
The first round of the 6th stage of FIDE Women Grand Prix tournament got under way in the building of TCF on the 16th of September 2012. The President of TCF, FIDE Vice-President Ali Nihat Yazici made symbolic move 1.e4 in the game between Betul Yildiz and Humpy Koneru. In spite of the fact that the current Women's World Champion Hou Yifan has already won the Grand Prix 2011-2012 and cannot be caught by any of the other player, the one who placed second in the Series still have the chance to become the challenger in the match in 2013.
It might be possible if current world champion will also win World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk on December 2012. Anna Muzychuk, Humpy Koneru, Zhao Xue and Ju Wenjun keep the chances for the second place in Grand Prix Series 2011-2012.
Therefore the opening round passed in a tense struggle on all the boards and, as a result, only two games finished peacefully. Chinese players Ruan Lufei and Zhao Xue won their games against Kubra Ozturk and Antoaneta Stefanova respectively. Their compatriot Ju Wenjun made a draw with the top-seed of the tournament Anna Muzychuk. Viktorija Cmilyte and Humpy Koneru overplayed with black pieces Monika Socko and Betul Yildiz. The longest game of the first round between Munguntuul Batkhuyag and Tatiana Kosintseva finished in a draw.
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Opening ceremony
Only five days passed since the World Chess Olympiad had finished in Istanbul and Turkey once again welcomes participants of another international chess event! The opening ceremony and technical meeting of the 6th stage of FIDE Women Grand Prix Series 2011-2012 took place in Goksu Lokantasi Restaurant in Ankara on the 15th of September.
The event was attended by such honorable guests as the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE Vice-President and President of TCF Ali Nihat Yazici, FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg, Assistant to the FIDE President Berik Balgabaev, Suat Sözen, the corporate communications Manager of Türkiye İş Bankası, other guests and players.
During the technical meeting the Chief Arbiter Ozgur Solakoglu drew the attention of the participants to the “no-draw offer” and "zero tolerance" rule. Any draw claim will be permitted only through the chief arbiter in the cases of the triple-repetition of the position, perpetual check, in case of theoretically drawn position and the 50 moves rule. Nona Gaprindashvili and Nana Alexandria will be the Technical Adviser and the Head of Appeal Committee respectively.
Ali Nihat Yazici welcomed participants and honorary guests and thanked the government of Türkiye İş Bankası for their great support.
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov thanked the board of TCF, the President of TCF Ali Nihat Yazici, the sponsor Is Bankasi for the organization of the 6th stage of FIDE Women Grand Prix in Ankara. He welcomed participants and chess legends Nana Alexandria and Nona Gaprindashvili.
The Chief Arbiter of the tournament Ozgur Solakoglu conducted the ceremony of drawing of colors. The top seed Anna Muzychuk chose number 2.
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Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich
