Women's Chess Grand Prix R3 in Ankara: Spot Socko's Draw vs Wenjun in Lost Position

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

The third round saw exciting chess games at the FIDE Women's Chess Grand Prix in Ankara on Tuesday. 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. Both drew their game.

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! See the position below. Can you spot the draw?

Black could have easily won by playing almost anything but 70. ...Bf7-d5. Can you spot how White gets a draw now? Answer at the end of the post.

The Bulgarian chess player Antoaneta Stefanova got slightly better position after the opening against Indian Humpy Koneru. In the endgame former world champion started to play inaccurately and let her opponent grab the point.

Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia

Photos: Anastasiya Karlovich

Viktorija Cmilyte was in the trouble after the opening as she didn't get enough compensation for a pawn but later, her opponent Zhao Xue made a mistake and the evaluation of the position changed in favour of the Latvian player. Ruan Lufei won the third game in a row playing against Betul Yildiz. Anna Muzychuk and Tatiana Kosinsteva played a long and complicated game, but Muzychuk eventually won.

Answer: Bd5 was a blunder by Black. A simple 70...Qxf3+ 71.Kh2 (In case of 71.Qg2+ Qxg2+ 72.Kxg2 Black has got the "right" bishop.) 71...Qf4+ winning without any trouble.
However, now White draws easily using the stalemate idea with 71.Qh8+! 71...Kf7 72.Qf6+ Kg8 73.Qh8+ Kf7 74.Qf6+ Kxf6 1/2-1/2

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