Women’s World Cup, Round 4: Fours wins for White

The fourth round of the Women’s World Cup in Batumi was opened by Irma Nizharadze, the Minister for Sport of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, who made the symbolic first move.

But it was a bad day for Black — the best result players with the black pieces could achieve was a draw. Four games ended in a draw; four were won by White.

Among the trio of Chinese favourites, Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi continued their winning streak. Lei won with White against Umida Omonova of Uzbekistan. In a Nimzo-Indian, Lei’s bishops proved stronger than Omonova’s knights. Omonova even sacrificed an exchange to get rid of the bishops, but it was not enough to save the game.

In her game against Tan Zhongyi, Yulia Osmak also faced the Nimzo-Indian Defense. She initially managed to restrain White’s bishop pair and keep the position balanced without suffering major damage. But a central passed pawn soon became her biggest problem, and once it started to advance, Osmak find no adequate defense and lost.

The third Chinese favourite, Zhu Jiner, however, suffered a loss against Divya Deshmukh. In a positional line of the Najdorf, Black’s bishop pair never got going. Instead, a central white knight proved to be the boss, and, working together with the queen, decided the endgame in White’s favor.

Still, there were three Chinese wins in the end. Song Yixin stepped in for Zhu Jiner. In a Ruy Lopez, Song soon gained the upper hand and entered the endgame with an extra pawn. As the Chinese player also had the more active pieces she won without much trouble.

Alexandra Kosteniuk and Humpy Koneru drew their game. The encounter between Kateryna Lagno and Harika Dronavalli ended with the same result. There were no winners either in the games between Mariya Muzychuk and Nana Dzagnidze, or between Vaishali and Meruert Kamalidenova.

Results

Games

Links