The second round of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix started as it was planned at 3.00 pm Moscow time. The second day presented three resultative games: Nadezhda Kosintzeva won with black playing against the local chess player Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Alisa Galliamova played inaccurately in the opening and lost with black to the Chinese Hou Yifan. Elina Danielian made a decisive mistake on the move 40 and lost to another Chinese player Ruan Lufei. Three other games Tatiana Kosintseva - Muzychuk, Lahno - Kosteniuk and Stefanova - Koneru were drawn. After the second round the Women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan is leading in the tournament with an absolute result. Half a point below are Ruan Lufei, Nadezhda Kosintseva and Ekaterina Lahno, all of them take part in the Grand Prix series for the first time.
The second day of the tournament was marked with another interesting event: the President of the Chess Federation of Rostov region Sergey Nesterov played a blitz game with the Deputy Chief Arbiter Zhuzha Verochi before the start of the round. The game was finished in a friendly draw.
Hou Yifan - Galliamova Alisa
Black have played the Scheweningen variation of Sicilian Defense having made a saving move 9...d5 (Alisa Galliamova noted later that this move was her decisive mistake), there was one more doubtful move 12...Qd7, at that moment when it was not too late to play Bе7 and to move the king to a safe position. The Chinese chess player reacted in a very interesting way and finished the development very quickly by having made a queen castling. The problem of black was that they did not have enough time to finish the development and to lead the king to a safer position. By making a move 15. f5 white confirmed their advantage and caused serious problems to the opponent. Further on the World Champion passed to the technically won endgame with exchange and one pawn up. Therefore, Hou Yifan started with the result 2 out of 2.
Kovalevskaya Ekaterina - Kosintseva Nadezhda
The game played by the Don chess player with white also attracted the attention of chess fans this time. Ekaterina Kovalevskaya played the opening very accurately without causing any problems to her opponent and thus got a worse position at some moment having left its king in the center. The breaking moment was move 15 of the White when instead of the calm continuation 15.Qd1, that allowed to lead the king from the center, White chose a doubtful 15.kg5 after which Black reacted in the best way by moving Rfd8, having sacrificed a pawn on h7. Then Black could have won the game rather quickly. However Nadezhda Kosintseva preferred to pass to the endgame with exchange and pawn up and led it to the victory with confidence.
Kosintseva Tatiana - Muzychuk Anna
The game was played in a Sicilian Defense (Dragon Variation). Black made a non-standard for such positions maneuver а7-а5-а4 and sacrificed a pawn having gained the central pawn е4 instead. It could seem that the White's position was more active that could have provided a lasting advantage, however the position of Black was very strong - all pieces had great potential. Then Black, having sacrificed a pawn, gained two bishops and a more active piece composition that provided their dynamic equality. At one moment White refused the repetition of the position but Black having made a queens exchange passed over to the endgame opposite color bishops that led to a draw.
Lahno Kateryna - Kosteniuk Alexandra
They have played the Queen's Indian Defense in their game in the variation when Black got central hanging pawns c and d. White got a strong pieces play against and had an obvious advantage during a long time. However, after the 20th move White started loosing this advantage and blundered a strong continuation 24...Bd7. Further on Black managed to get a little bit better position. However, in the endgame the Ukrainian chess player could neutralize the activity of black pieces and find a "drawish position".
Stefanova Antoaneta - Koneru Humpy
After the opening they faced the Carlsbad structure, however in the opening Black chose a rather rare continuation by moving the Queen to а5 and the bishop to b4 already after when White made an exchange cd-ed. Further on White created an attack of pawn minority, and caused weaknesses in the camp of Black, however, the Indian chess player has reacted very correctly. After the first time control Black had one pawn down, but White did not manage to implement it into more in the rook ending. As a result - four rooks endgame with 2 against 3 pawns on King's side where Black could made a draw without any problem. On the 104 move Black made crucial mistake by playing 104...Kf8 instead of Kh8 but Antoaneta didn't use that opportunity.The game was played in 111 moves.
Ruan Lufei - Danielian Elina
Elina had to play Black in the second game too and to struggle against 1.е4. This time she chose a French Defense and solved opening problems rather easily having exchanged queens. Then both chess players applied typical ideas in this structure of the French Defense - Black released their white square bishop and distributed the rooks on "с" line while White concentrated their pieces along the center and took the key square d4. The position was equal up to the 40th move, but it was namely the last move where Black made a decisive mistake 40....Кс6 having exchanged knights and entered the rook endgame which was lost. Therefore, the Chinese chess player who mysteriously managed to save 0.5 points yesterday, was favoured by fortune today once again. Tomorrow she will have to play Black with the Rating favourite Humpy Koneru.
