Women's World Chess Championship of 2013

I`m not sure if Ushenia`s play is not affected by poor acclimatization. Actually it made me think about Carlsen`s chances in his match vs Anand.

WGM Natalia Pogonina in chessgames.com:

"Well, the score looks very grim for Ushenina. She is clearly not playing her best here. However, if we take a look at the actual games, then it's not THAT terrible.

Game 1: Anna had a comfortable advantage. Lost due to falling behind on the clock and messing up in time trouble.

Game 2: Hou Yifan got a slightly worse endgame as White and saved it.

Game 3: For some reason Anna went all-out as White and self-destructed.

Generally speaking, if the Ukrainian team manages to find lines leading to more positional middlegames and technical endgames, then their chances will be ok. The only real problem is that they are already trailing behind by two points.

Hou Yifan is playing fine so far, but I wouldn't say that she is showing anything special. It's Anna who's performing badly."

In the fourth game Ushenina already seems to be in some trouble before the tenth move. She is 35 minutes behind on the clock and this far the position looks good for Hou.

Objectively position seems to be very unclear. Hou has made a opening surprise  (plan with 8.Qf3 and 9.h4 seems to be never used before), but Ushenina has figured out counter-surprise (9...h5) over the board, so Hou has to think about too.

After 15 moves Hou has 58 minutes left while Ushenina is down to 36. Small advantage Hou (around +0.5 to engines) but looks quite holdable if Ushenina can avoid mistakes.

IMHO engines rates this position too optimistic for White. Don`t think that Black should have a problems to hold on.

Yifan is all calculation, it is how she has been trained. But yes, it appears to be ugly at times.

Ushenina's position does still looks quite holdable, but she's down to 12 minutes with 20 moves left to the time control.

Hou just seems to be waiting for Ushenina to do something rash and take the draw whenever she wants it otherwise, and being two wins up in such a short match there is not much need to take risks.

He's saying that he doesn't know what he's talking about, wouldn't you say.

Charlotte couldn't be here for today's game so here it is. It turned out to be a draw. The score is now Yifan Hou leading 3-1 with six games to go:

After four games here are some pictures which tell the story of the match thus far:

During the press conferance for game three, Anna did not hide her disappointment. She was barely able to respond to any questions. Anna was asked if she feels pressure, she said, "Not so much pressure, it is just hard to play so far away from home".

And I imagine it's hard to play in a city that has your opponent's name:

Taizhou

Ushenina may of course improve, but I wonder if she will reach much higher than her current level. She had her top rating six years ago, more or less the same as today, but the best players apart from Polgar are all younger (Hou, Muzychuk, Koneru, Dzagnidze, Lahno etc). Ushenina has more than 75 points up to fifth place on the women's rating list and that is still quite a significant distance to the top players.

Intellectually, men and women both peak in their 40s. However, men begin losing their stamina in their mid-30s, which is why women that age often prefer younger men.

Taizhou is over five thousand years old.

Here is a seven hundred year old mummy found in Taizhou:

There seems to be a Taizhou School of philosophy formed by Wang Gen:

http://books.google.com/books?id=TQN9nwkkXGsC&pg=PA864&lpg=PA864&dq=Wang+Gen+formed+Taizhou+School&source=bl&ots=lw8RM8Rgbw&sig=O-3NX5fAQ5qNPMpPf1qdEZ_UYTg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=k981UtGHNcazqgH1iYCABQ&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Wang%20Gen%20formed%20Taizhou%20School&f=false

I couldn't find any UFO sightings in Taizhou

@trysts: the city looks just as clean as LA, but there are more cities with the name of Taizhou in China. The 5000 year old city is a different one then where Hou Yifan and Ushenina are currently playing. Hou Yifan is almost playing at home, because she is born in a place nearby. The Taizhou where the chess championship is taking place seems to be around 2100 years old.

Oops! Y'all are correct. Apparently they are playing in Taizhou, in the province of Jiangsu, and not Taizhou, in the province of Zhejiang. Taizhou, Jiangsu, China is also known as China Medical City. Thank you Loek and Yekatrinas:)

thanks for posting the game#4  Sharon

I'm rooting for Anna ... it's obvious she's tilting and not performing up to her own standards. I can see playing venue plays a big role in player mentality and performance. I guess that's also something to improve on to become a Chess Champion.

the 5th game has started, a bit earlier than the previous ones. it's been a wild opening