Dzagnidze, Tatiana lead at Jermuk Women's Chess Grand Prix

Nana Dzagnidze

Hello Everyone!

Fighting chess marked the third round of the Jermuk Women's Chess Grand Prix. The third round results included:

• Danielian - Yang 1-0
• Yifan - Mkrtchian 1-0
• Stefanova - Xuhua 1-0
• Fierro - Kosintseva 0-1
• Cramling - Dzagnidze 1/2-1/2
• Kovanova - Chiburdanidze 1/2-1/2.

The talented Hou Yifan also notched up a win after two losses in the first two rounds. Fierro B. Martha L has no wins in the tournament so far. Dzagnidze and Kosintseva lead with 2.5 points each.

1. GM Dzagnidze Nana 2478 GEO 2½

2. GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2534 RUS 2½

3. IM Danielian Elina 2473 ARM 2

4. GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2560 BUL 2

5. IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2477 ARM 2

6. GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2514 GEO 1½

7. WGM Kovanova Baira 2366 RUS 1½

8. GM Xu Yuhua 2484 CHN 1

9. WGM Shen Yang 2452 CHN 1

10. GM Cramling Pia 2536 SWE 1

11. GM Hou Yifan 2589 CHN 1

12. IM Fierro B. Martha L 2363 ECU 0

You can read about key moments in all the games here. You can also track the tournament progress at the official website.

Meanwhile, here is the nice game between Hou Yifan and Mkrtchian. You can run it in our pgnplayer or watch the flash below. Nothing much happened in the opening and Yifan did go for a not-so-reasonable pawn sacrifice but Mkrtchian failed to handle the assault giving Yifan her first point of the tournament.

The Fide Women Grand Prix is a new series of six elite tournaments spread over two years. They are part of the Women's World Championship cycle which now becomes an annual event. This year the Champion will be determined in the Women;s Knockout World Championship which will be held in Turkey. Next year, 2011, the World Champion will face the winner of the Grand Prix series 2009/2010. You can read more statistics here.

PGN: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Be7 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bd3 c5 7. c3 Nc6 8. O-O a5 9. a4 cxd4 10. cxd4 Nb4 11. Bb5 O-O 12. Nb1 Nb8 13. Nc3 Bd7 14. Re1 N8c6 15. Bf4 Na7 16. Bf1 Rb8 17. Re3 b5 18. h4 Bxh4 19. Nxh4 Qxh4 20. Bg3 Qg5 21. axb5 Nxb5 22. Ne2 Ra8 23. Bh2 Qf5 24. Nf4 Qc2 25. Qg4 Nxd4 26. Nh5 Qg6 27. Qh3 Nf5 28. Rf3 Rfc8 29. Rf4 Nh6 30. Nf6+ gxf6 31. Rxf6 Qg7 32. Rxh6 Kh8 33. Bf4 Rg8 34. Bg5 1-0

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

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