Alexandra Kosteniuk – Nino Batsiashvili 1/2:1/2
Alexandra Kosteniuk, who used to play the central variation in Ruy Lopez, decided to surprise her opponent and chose another line. Nino, whose home preparation has finished after few moves, spent a lot of time in the opening, trying to figure out the right plans for this type of the positions.
According to Alexandra, the position on the board was a critical one as she had many different opportunities but had to choose the only plan. “I'm not sure that my plan with c4 was the right one. I could have tried also to open the a-file after c3 and a4”, added Russian player. Nino was defending precisely and it seems that former Women's World Champion felt the right moment to simplify the position and convert the game into a drawish ending.
Nana Dzagnidze - Anna Muzychuk 1/2:1/2Anna Muzychuk managed to equalize quite easily in Greunfeld Defence. According to Nana, 11. Be3 seemed stronger but she was not sure about complications after 11...bc 12.Bc5 Kg8 12. bc
Black has better chances in that endgame because of the stronger bishop and good play on the King's side. However, Nana Dzagnidze hold the position quite confidently and after Black allowed to exchange the rooks, the ending became completely drawish.
Elina Danielian - Valentina Gunina 0:1Playing with Black pieces Gunina managed to equalize the position after precise 13...e5 and 14...c5 and the games was transferred into an equal ending. Elina maneged to place her knight on c5 and after that White's position slightly better. According to Valentina, she was just trying to hold the position and to use the fact that her opponent was playing under the time pressure. Russian player found good practical chances and made it hard to Elina not to start making mistakes.
Maria Muzychuk – Almira Skripchenko 0:1Almira Skripchenko came well-prepared against Maria Muzychuk and solved her opening problems quite easily.
It's hard to define the exact moment when things went wrong for White but in the position on the diagram Black has obviously better play, even though the “calm brain” of computer gives an equal evaluation.
Black could have finished the game almost immediately by playing 38...Kg6 and 39…Rh7. Nevertheless, the move in the game 38...ef leads to a winning rook endgame.
Olga Girya – Zhao Xue 1:0A very complex game which started with Nimzo-Indian Defence. Zhao Xue showed an interesting plan with e5 and c5 but until her knight reached so pleasant square on d4, Olga Girya sacrificed an exchange and managed to get enough compensation in the endgame, which happened by force on the board.
Zhao Xue could not explain how could she blunder an exchange right on the next move (by playing 24...Rd8 instead of accurate Re8), which allowed Olga Girya to get a decisive advantage. However, it was not the end of the adventures as Russian player gave her opponnet few chances to save the game but Zhao Xue was the last one to make a mistake.
Lela Javakhishvili – Bela Khotenashvili 1:0Lela Javakhishvili got a nice advantage out of the opening due to inaccurate play of her opponent, who lost few tempos by playing Bf5-e4-g6. The exchange sacrifice gave Black an interesting counter play and Bela obtained full compensation in the endgame.
According to Khotenashvili, Nf4 was just a blunder, which led to lost position for Black.
