Two Rounds to Play in Skolkovo Grand Prix

Humpy Koneru  is alone in first place at the 2019 FIDE Grand Prix in Skolkovo, Russia, with two rounds to play. She defeated Valentina Gunina in today’s ninth round, while Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun, who lead coming into the day, fell to Kateryna Lagno. Ju has been the form player for much of the event, and in the last few rounds she and Koneru have been pulling away from the rest of the field. In Friday’s game with Lagno she played a variation in the Petroff that had appeared  twice in her practice, once against Lagno in 2017 and once against Elisabeth Paehtz in this tournament, and this time Lagno was able to eke out an advantage. After Ju’s 23…e5?! Lagno found a string of concrete moves that put the World Champion on the defensive, and she took the full point in 36 moves.

[pgn]

[Event "Skolkovo WGP 2019"]
[Site "Skolkovo RUS"]
[Date "2019.09.20"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Lagno, Kateryna"]
[Black "Ju Wenjun"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2545"]
[BlackElo "2576"]
[Annotator "Hartmann,John"]
[PlyCount "71"]
[EventDate "2019.09.10"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bf5 7. O-O Be7 8.
Re1 O-O 9. c4 Nc6 10. cxd5 Qxd5 11. Nc3 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Bxd3 13. Qxd3 Rfe8 14.
Bf4 Bd6 15. Ng5 ({Lagno tried} 15. c4 {against Ju in 2017, when the game
proceeded} Qh5 16. Bg3 Bxg3 (16... b6 17. Re4 Bxg3 18. hxg3 Rxe4 19. Qxe4 Qg6
20. Qf4 Qd6 21. Qe4 Qg6 22. Qf4 Qd6 23. Qe4 Qg6 {1/2-1/2 (23) Paehtz,E (2479)
-Ju Wenjun (2576) Skolkovo RUS 2019}) 17. hxg3 b6 18. d5 Na5 19. c5 h6 20. c6 (
20. d6 $1) 20... Rad8 21. d6 $18 {1-0 (59) Lagno,K (2547)-Ju,W (2567) Huaian
2017}) 15... g6 16. Ne4 Re6 17. Nxd6 {Improving over another Ju game.} (17. Qf3
Kg7 18. Nxd6 Qxf3 19. gxf3 cxd6 20. Rxe6 fxe6 21. Bxd6 Rd8 22. Bg3 {0-1 (44)
Paravyan,D (2627)-Ju,W (2580) Prague 2019}) 17... cxd6 18. Rxe6 fxe6 19. Rb1 b6
20. h4 Rf8 (20... e5 $5 21. Bh6 exd4 22. cxd4 Ne7 (22... Qxd4 $2 23. Qf3 Rc8
24. Rc1 $18) 23. g4 Qf7 $14) 21. Bh6 Qf5 22. Qf1 Rc8 23. Re1 e5 $6 {Now Lagno
uses a series of small tactics to wrest the initiative and advantage.} (23...
Qd5 {keeps the White advantage to a minimum.}) 24. Qa6 Qd7 25. Qd3 {
threatening 26. dxe5 Nxe5 27. Rxe5! when Black can't recapture lest she lose
her queen!} Re8 26. Qf3 {27.Qd5+ Re6 28.Re3 (heading for f3 and the mate
threat on f8) is a big threat!} Nd8 27. dxe5 (27. Qd5+ Qe6 $11) 27... Qf7 $2 (
27... Qe6 {followed by ...Nf7}) 28. Qg4 dxe5 29. Rd1 Ne6 30. Qa4 $1 {31.Rd7
has to be countered.} Nc5 31. Qc6 {(now 32.Rd6-f6!)} Rb8 32. Rd5 Qe7 33. h5 $1
gxh5 $6 (33... g5 34. Rd6 $18) 34. f4 $1 Qb7 $2 (34... exf4 $2 35. Rg5+ $18)
35. Qf6 Qf7 36. Rd8+ 1-0

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Humpy rose to the challenge of Gunina’s Blumenfeld Gambit and, after sopping up Black’s pressure, converted her exchange-up position into a winning rook and pawn ending. Gunina resinged on her 43rd move.

[pgn]

[Event "Skolkovo WGP 2019"]
[Date "2019.09.20"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Koneru, H."]
[Black "Gunina, V."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E10"]
[WhiteElo "2560"]
[BlackElo "2502"]
[Annotator "Hartmann,John"]
[PlyCount "85"]
[EventDate "2019.09.10"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 b5 {The Blumenfeld Gambit is considered
theoretically questionable. Does Gunina have a new idea to change that?} 5.
dxe6 fxe6 6. cxb5 a6 $5 (6... d5 {is the traditional Blumenfeld.}) 7. bxa6 Bxa6
8. Nc3 (8. g3 Be7 9. Bh3 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. Nc3 Nb4 12. Bg5 Bb7 13. Qd2 Nbd5
14. Nxd5 Bxd5 15. Qc2 {1-0 (34) Zubov,A (2623)-Kosteniuk,A (2552) Bastia 2017})
8... Nc6 9. e4 Bxf1 10. Kxf1 Qb8 $146 {Gunina's idea appears to be to play
this as a kind of Benko with the dark squared bishop still on the a3-f8
diagonal, allowing her to play ...Bd6 (as in the game) and pressure the
kingside while also trying for traditional Benko-style play on the queenside.}
(10... Be7) 11. Rb1 Bd6 12. Bg5 {The computer initially dislikes this, but
comes around after seeing Koneru's 14th move.} (12. g3 O-O 13. Kg2 {may be a
safer way to tuck the king away.}) 12... O-O (12... Ng4 $5 13. Nd2 h5 14. h3
Nge5) 13. Bxf6 Rxf6 14. h4 Ne5 15. Rh3 Qb6 {Clearing the eighth rank for a
possible rook swing?} 16. Qb3 Qd8 (16... Qxb3 17. axb3 Nxf3 18. Rxf3 Rxf3 19.
gxf3 {leaves White up a pawn but with multiple positional weaknesses.}) 17. Nb5
c4 $2 18. Qc3 $1 (18. Qc2 $2 Bc5 {wti ...Ng4}) 18... Rxf3 $8 (18... Nxf3 19.
Nxd6 Nxh4 20. Rxh4 Rxf2+ 21. Kxf2 Qxh4+ 22. Kg1 $18) 19. gxf3 Bb8 (19... Qb6
20. Nxd6 Nd3 21. Rh2 Qxd6 22. Rg2 $1) 20. f4 Ng6 21. Rd1 (21. f5 $5 Be5 22.
Qxc4 Nf4 23. Rh1 $16) 21... Nxf4 (21... Bxf4 {may be better}) 22. Rg3 Ng6 23.
Rg5 {Precise.} (23. h5 {is met with} Be5 $1) 23... Bf4 24. Rg4 Be5 25. Qxc4
Nxh4 26. Nc3 $6 (26. Nd4 Qf6 27. Nf5 $1 {keeps the pressure on.}) 26... Nf3 27.
Ke2 Qb6 $2 (27... h5 28. Rg2 Nh4 29. Rgg1 Rb8 {and Black's initiative may
amount to something.}) 28. Na4 Qa7 29. Nc5 Rc8 30. b4 h5 31. Rg6 d5 $2 {
Gunina crumbles in a difficult position.} (31... Qa3 {loses to} 32. Rxe6 $1
dxe6 (32... Kh7 33. Re7) 33. Qxe6+ Kh8 34. Qxc8+ $18) 32. exd5 Qf7 33. Rxe6 (
33. Rg2 $1) 33... Rf8 34. Ne4 Qf4 35. Nf6+ $1 {A very clean way of converting
the White advantage.} Rxf6 36. Qxf4 Rxf4 37. Ke3 g5 38. d6 Bd4+ 39. Ke2 Ne5 40.
Rxd4 Rxd4 41. Rxe5 Rxd6 42. Rxg5+ Kf7 43. Rxh5 1-0

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With just a half point separating Ju and Koneru, everything is still to play for. Key pairings include a Round 11 battle between Women's World Champion Ju and her Challenger Goryachkina, who currently is in third place, and a critical final round matchup between Ju and Koneru. Complete pairings for the final two rounds: Saturday – starts at 15:00 Moscow / 8:00 EDT Ju, Wenjun - Goryachkina, Aleksandra Cramling, Pia - Kosteniuk, Alexandra Stefanova, Antoaneta - Kashlinskaya, Alina Paehtz, Elisabeth - Sebag, Marie Gunina, Valentina - Harika, Dronavalli Lagno, Kateryna - Koneru, Humpy Sunday – starts at 13:00 Moscow / 6:00 EDT Koneru, Humpy - Ju, Wenjun Harika, Dronavalli - Lagno, Kateryna Sebag, Marie - Gunina, Valentina Kashlinskaya, Alina - Paehtz, Elisabeth Kosteniuk, Alexandra - Stefanova, Antoaneta Goryachkina, Aleksandra - Cramling, Pia Live coverage in both English and Russian is available at the FIDE YouTube channel, and complete details can be found at the official event website.