Kosteniuk, Krush Conquering Cairns Cup After Three Rounds

courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC

After three rounds of the Cairns Cup at the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis, MO, Swiss GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and American GM Irina Krush are tied for first with white-hot 2½/3 starts. Kosteniuk and Krush finished second and third, respectively, in the inaugural Cairns Cup back in 2019, and are each looking for their first Cup.

Results after three rounds

Don’t write anybody off just yet, however, as the ten-player Round Robin has already featured ten decisive results in the first 15 games. No lead is safe, and this author does not envy guest annotator WGM Tatev Abrahamyan’s job of narrowing down this embarrassment of riches into a few key highlights for this article.

Kosteniuk was all smiles before the tournament (courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Her first selection, however, was a no-brainer. Here’s Kosteniuk defeating the 2020 Cairns Cup champion, India’s GM Humpy Koneru, to kick off the tournament.

Kosteniuk followed her opening number up with a repeat performance, making the most of her back-to-back games with the white pieces by defeating the other Indian grandmaster in the event, GM Harika Dronavalli.

But once round one began? Not so much! (courtesy Austin Fuller/SLCC)

Koneru watches Mammadzada's game against Kosteniuk during the third round (courtesy Austin Fuller/SLCC)

Could she make it a hat trick? Not if Azeri GM Gunay Mammadzada had anything to say about. Mammadzada, who is the only first-time Cairns player in the field, bounced back from a tough loss in the second round and managed to keep Kosteniuk from running away with the event early.

GM Irina Krush (courtesy Bryan Adams/SLCC)

Krush also kicked off the tournament with a victory, defeating Kazakhstan's GM Zhansaya Abdumalik in resounding fashion. After drawing her second game, she caught Kosteniuk in the third round thanks to a little help from the “curse of the 41st move.”

Krush doing some last-minute prep before the tournament (courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

The only other player on a plus-score after three rounds is American IM Anna Zatonskih. The lowest-rated player in the field, Zatsonskih’s performance can still hardly be considered an upset given the four-time U.S. Women’s champion’s pedigree.

Zatsonskih in the thinkers' pose (courtesy Bryan Adams/SLCC)

Here is her very instructive win over Georgia’s GM Bella Khotenashvili from round two.

Four players remain in striking distance with an even score: Mammadzada, Dronavalli, Dzagnidze, and German GM Elisabeth Paehtz. These players have already begun “cannibalizing” each other in the standings, with Paehtz boasting a victory over Mammadzada and Dronavalli in turn defeating Paehtz in a rook endgame that is not as “obvious” as Abrahamyan facetiously suggests:

Follow round four live on Twitch at 1:20 p.m. CT with commentary from GM Yasser Seirawan and IM Nazi Paikidze along with IM Almira Skripchenko (not pictured).