Nadezhda Kosintseva - Ruan Lufei

Anastasia: the game Nadezhda Kosintseva - Ruan Lufei was drawn. What was your expectation before the game. Did you have in mind to fight for a victory today?

Nadezhda: of course I wanted to fight today, moreover I was playing White.

Nadezhda: of course I wanted to fight today, moreover I was playing White today. I went for the English defence today which I play very rarely, I did not want to play again the Berlin defence. I just wanted to play chess, without long and forced variations. I think that during the game I had a slight advantage as a result of non precise moves. After that Ruan did not let me play d4. She blocked this line and my position was worse for sure. I think I would prefer to play this position with Black. My blunder is just a miscalculation. In fact the variation was simple, nothing complicated. But I spent a lot of time to calculate some stupidities.
    
Ruan: of course I did not expect my opponent to start with c4. I did not prepare for this line. I wanted to play today some solid position, that is why I chose c4 е5. I was satisfied with my position although I think White was better. But also I believe I did not have any weakness. To my mind Nadya's move on e4 was a bit early. Maybe she should have waited a bit and play e4 later. The truth is that my opponent had only one weakness. If she would have another one, I could have attacked her and fight for a score.

Anna Muzychuk - Elina Danielian

Anastasia: the game Muzychuk-Danielian was drawn. It seemed that athe evaluation of position was changing during the game.
Elina: It seemed also to me that I had a stable advantage. And when I had to play precisely and of course I was spending a lot time for thinking. Nevertheless  after Qf4, Qf7 I was thinking I had better position. After that I made a move f4... I should have played f3, of course. After that Bf2. After f4 we had an equal position. Black pieces became active.

Anna: I started to sharpen the position after f4. Perhaps it is not correct. I mean that I could have played f5 with worse position for me. But I decided to play something more complicated. I was calculating many variants, but in each of them there were problems with developing. The position I entered was not pleasant for me, gently speaking. I was very close to lose the game. Fortunately I managed to escape.



Ekaterina Kovalevskaya - Alexandra Kosteniuk

Anastasia: The game Kovalevskaya - Kosteniuk is over.  Ekaterina Kovalevskaya playing white won the game.

Ekaterina: I wanted to finish the game as soon as possible. Because when I made the 40th drawish move yesterday I was not in the mood and I wanted to finish the tournament fast. Today we got the game of two chess players who were not in their best shape. Before I was playing n a horrible way and then it was Sasha's turn. I would like to wish both of us to forget unpleasant moments of this tournament. Sasha will play a very important tournament in three days and I would like to wish her to perform the real way she can play chess.

Alexandra: I don't know when I committed a decisive mistake, probably rook d7. But even before this knight f4 was a terrible move.





Tatiana Kosintseva - Alisa Galliamova

Alisa Galliamova won the game. What was your set-up for the game today?

Alisa: I was glad that finally this nightmare was coming to an end and it was finally the last round today. Of course I was ready to struggle before the game but I did not hope for much. I did not know the move g4 and I got a worse position, it is just that White have blundered and there was not a very clear flight there. The game was difficult today...

Anastasia: How did you feel during the last minutes?

Alisa: I was afraid to give up something and run out of time. Everything was under nerves. It is very difficult to play under this time-control.

Anastasia: Tanya, your comments...

Tatiana: After h4, knight e5 that happened in the game there were some complications, one could have chosen not such a sharp position. White had a good position, h6 is a constant sticking point. Then there were some complications, there was not enough time and when going out of the time-trouble, I made a mistake by making a move h5.   


Kateryna Lahno - Koneru Humpy

Humpy: It was quiet interesting opening. In fact I didn’t expect she`ll repeat the line which she chose in the game with Hou Yifan. After the opening I think I had clearly better position due to my pawn structure. Even in the queen ending I was keeping some pressure but my opponent found strong move Qe6 with the threats to give a perpetual check. I was unable to support my h-pawn so it was a draw.

Kateryna: it was very complicated game. I saved very complicated position where Black could surely win. After move Qe6 I did not see how Black could do it. I have to check with my computer. Perhaps after move 20 king was escaping from mate, but it is impossible to find it when playing






Yifan Hou - Antoaneta Stefanova

Anastasia: The game Hou-Stefanova is drawn. Yifan, let me congratulate you on your great success in this tournament and your first victory in the FIDE Grand Prix series. The first question why did not you force a draw on the 30th move?
Yifan: Yes, actually there was a misunderstanding , I thought that in that position I might have a compensation. I calculated queen e3 and I missed the possibility that she could play queen b5, that is why I refused to repeat the moves. I am not sure that there was enough compensation or maybe just equal position.

Anastasia: But this draw on the move 30 would anyway quarantee you the first place in the tournament immediately.

Yifan: Of course, I thought in that position I could not lose and surely there was a misunderstanding.

Anastasia: Antoaneta, what do you think?

Antoaneta: Well, ok, I was ready either for a draw or to continue playing. It was not a problem for me. Even after queen b5 I thought I had better chances already, but there was enough activity for White to make a draw, my rook was still out of play and many pawns were hanging. So at the end I could not really find the way out to become better, so I did not measure so much if she would make a draw immediately or not..

Anastasia: However, she refused to continue with perpetual check, did you think to play for win at that moment?

Antoaneta: Of course I thought about it, but I consider it normal for someone who has a better position to continue playing..I was always doing it, so why not even in the last round. I just could not find better moves for me after the time-trouble. But okey, I just want to congratulate Hou Yifan because she played a really good tournament and she deserved the first place.