Twelve players will return tomorrow to play tie-breaks.
The second games of the second round were played on Thursday, November 15th.
The players demonstrated very tense and spectacular chess, and there were many decisive games. Predicting the outcome of most encounters was nearly impossible. The outcome in many games was impossible to predict during the course of the round, because the evaluation was changing constantly, and emotions often prevailed over logic.
The main headline of the day was the loss of the World Champion Hou Yifan (China), who had White against grandmaster Monika Socko (Poland). Monika demosntrated exceptional determination and won on demand (she lost her first round game, so winning the second one was a must) with Black pieces, which is a big achievement. Tomorrow this match will be continued on tie-break.
Natalia Zhukova (Ukraine) played another great game against the rating favorite of the tournament Humpy Koneru (India) and won the match with the perfect score.
The Russian derby Gunina-Galliamova ended in favor of the experienced Alisa Galliamova, who won today with Black pieces. Natalia Pogonina won another very tough match against Alexandra Kosteniuk (both – Russia) and advanced to the next round. The Russian Tatiana Kosintseva completely crushed the defensive line of Hoang Thanh Trang (Hungary) and also proceeded to the third round. Olga Girya (Russia) lost to Marie Sebag (France) and was knocked out from the championship.
In the match of the former World Champions Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) defeated Zhu Chen (Qatar). Harika Dronavalli (India) and Maria Muzychuk (Ukraine) won against Elina Danielian (Armenia) and Maritza Arribas (Cuba) respectively and also advanced to the next stage. Lela Javakhishvili (Georgia) took the upper hand in a lengthy battle with Kateryna Lahno (Ukraine).
Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia) and Lilit Mkrtchian (Armenia) made a second draw and will continue their match on tie-break tomorrow. Also two draws occurred in the matches between Anna Muzychuk (Slovenia) and Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), and Ju Wenjun (China) and Anna Zatonskih (USA).
Results:
Tomorrow twelve players will return for the tie-breaks:
Hou, Yifan (CHN) – Socko, Monika (POL)
Muzychuk, Anna (SLO) – Ushenina, Anna (UKR)
Khurtsidze, Nino (GEO) – Zhao, Xue (CHN)
Mkrtchian, Lilit (ARM) – Kosintseva, Nadezhda (RUS)
Krush, Irina (USA) – Cramling, Pia (SWE)
Ju, Wenjun (CHN) – Zatonskih, Anna (USA)
The tie-breaks begin with two rapid games: 25 minutes plus 10 second per move for each player. If the score is 1-1, they will continue with two quicker games: 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the winner is still not determined, the players will proceed to blitz games: 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move. Finally, is the score remains equal, the Armageddon game steps up: White has 5 minutes, Black has 4 minutes, 3 seconds per move are added starting with the move 61, and a draw counts as a victory for Black.
The 8th Ugra Governor Cup started today in Khanty-Mansiysk. This is a part of the Russian Cup series. The prize fund of this event is 1 million 641 thousand roubles, which is slightly more than $50,000. More than 100 players from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan already registered to play, including Anton Korobov (2702), Nikita Vitiugov (2700), Alexey Dreev (2654) and Igor Kurnosov (2645). Evgenia Ovod (Russia) and Madina Davletbaeva (Kazakhstan), who busted from the World Championship, joined the field as well. The tournament runs until November 24th.
Official website: http://chess2012.ugrasport.com
She’s so adorable.