Cmilyte leads Euro 2 rounds left

Hello everybody!

In the Women's European Individual Chess Championship 2010 that is being played these days in Rijeka, Croatia Viktorija Cmilyte won today's game against Monika Socko to take the sole lead in the tournament.

[Event "11th EICC Women"]

[Site "Rijeka CRO"]

[Date "2010.3.15"]

[Round "9"]

[White "Socko,M"]

[Black "Cmilyte,V"]

[Result "0-1"]

[Eco "C63"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5

Here Viktorija opted for the Schliemann Defence (Jaenisch Gambit)

3. ... f5!? 4.d3 fxe4 5.dxe4 Nf6 6.O-O Bc5 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.Nxe5 O-O 9.Bg5 Qe8 10.Bxf6 Rxf6 11.Nd3 Bd4 12.c3 Bb6 13.Nd2 d5 14.e5 Rf8 15.Kh1

( The game between Hernandez Hol 2287 - Gomez F 2462 , 2001 Holguin 82/(300) continued with 15.Qe2 Bf5 16.Ne1 Qg6 17.Kh1 Rae8 18.b4 c5 with compensation for the sacrificed pawn)

15. ... Qg6 16.Nb3 Ba6 17.Nbc1 Rf5 18.Qd2 Raf8 19.a4 Rh5 20.Re1

Here Cmilyte found the very strong continuation - 20. ... Rff5! with the threat to play 21. ... Qg3!! and then after 22. fxg3 Rxh2+ and Rh5#. That's why Monika replied with 21. h3

( If 21.a5 then 21. ... Qg3 !! 22. fxg3 Rxh2! 23. Kxh2 Rh5# )

The position before the 21st move of Black.

But Cmilyte continued the attack with the brilliant 21. ... Rf3! and soon was able to win the game

22.Nf4 Qh6 23.gxf3 Rxh3+ 24.Nxh3 Qxh3+ 25.Kg1 Qg3+ 26.Kh1 Bxf2 27.Qxf2 Qxf2 28.Nb3 Qxf3+ 29.Kg1 Be2 30.Nd4 Qg3+ 31.Kh1 Bd3 32.e6 Be4+ 33.Rxe4 dxe4 34.Rf1 Qh4+ 35.Kg2 Qg5+ 36.Kh3 e3 37.b4 c5 38.bxc5 Qxc5 39.Kg2 g6 40.Rf3 Qe5 41.Nc2 e2 42.Kf2 Qxe6 43.Ke1 Qe4 0-1

So after the 9th round, Viktorija Cmilyte is in clear first place with 7,5 points out of 9, followed closely by Anna Muzychuk, Antoaneta Stefanova and Pia Cramling, all with 7 points. There are 2 more rounds to go and we can be sure to see some exciting games. The game live can be found on the official web-site fo the organizers, here.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com