3-Way Tie At Monaco Women's Grand Prix
Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia), Humpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli (both India) are tied for first place halfway through the Monaco Women's Grand Prix. Koneru won the previous GP in Skolkovo, Russia.
The second leg in the four-tournament series, part of the 2019-2021 women's world championship cycle, takes place Dec. 2-15 at the Yacht Club de Monaco under the patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II.
Each GP tournament is a round-robin featuring 12 participants. After winning in Skolkovo, Koneru is playing now in Monaco where Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno of Russia are her biggest rivals in terms of Elo. Other favorites include the former world champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) and Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine).
Koneru continued her success in the Grand Prix series and took the lead right away in the first round. With draws on the other boards, the Indian grandmaster defeated Valentina Gunina of Russia in a topsy-turvy game.
Gunina had been dominating during the first half of the game but couldn't capitalize on her better bishop vs. Black's knight. Later she should have taken the draw at some point:
Koneru also won her second game, against Muzychuk—Mariya that is; her sister Anna Muzychuk also plays in the tournament. Because Koneru's opponent played too passively, the Indian GM gained a better endgame and showed excellent technique in converting it:
Harika won a good game against Elisabeth Paehtz in this round. The German IM might have mixed up something when she played 5...Nbd7, which led to a passive position after White traded on d5. Black later seemed to gain decent counterplay on the kingside, but Harika was alert and used the new developments to reach a promising endgame.
Goryachkina's win against Harika in round four was quite impressive as well. The Russian world championship challenger (she'll face Ju Wenjun next month) needed only a small weakness in the white camp to gain an advantage that just got bigger and bigger:
Monaco Women Grand Prix | Round 6 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Goryachkina,Aleksandra | 2575 | 2614 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 4.0/6 | 12 | |||||||
| 2 | Koneru,Humpy | 2577 | 2643 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4.0/6 | 10 | |||||||
| 3 | Harika,Dronavalli | 2518 | 2631 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.0/6 | 8.5 | |||||||
| 4 | Kosteniuk,Alexandra | 2483 | 2591 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 3.5/6 | 12.25 | |||||||
| 5 | Muzychuk,Anna | 2543 | 2583 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3.5/6 | 10.25 | |||||||
| 6 | Dzagnidze,Nana | 2502 | 2519 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 3.0/6 | 9.25 | |||||||
| 7 | Cramling,Pia | 2443 | 2507 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/6 | 8.5 | |||||||
| 8 | Lagno,Kateryna | 2549 | 2543 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.0/6 | 8 | |||||||
| 9 | Muzychuk,Mariya | 2552 | 2468 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 2.5/6 | 7.75 | |||||||
| 10 | Zhao,Xue | 2485 | 2460 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/6 | 4.75 | |||||||
| 11 | Paehtz,Elisabeth | 2484 | 2385 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 2.0/6 | ||||||||
| 12 | Gunina,Valentina | 2509 | 2237 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0/6 |
Monday is a rest day. The remaining five rounds will be played from Tuesday to Saturday, starting at 15:00 CET, which is 9 a.m. Eastern and 6 a.m. Pacific. You can find the games here as part of our live portal.
After Monaco, two more Grand Prix will be played:
- Mar. 1-14: Lausanne, Switzerland
- May 20-June 10: Sardinia, Italy
A total of 16 players compete in these four tournaments, but each participant plays in just three. Unlike the general FIDE Grand Prix, the women's tournaments do not transform into knockouts but are instead 12-player round-robins. The prize fund in each Grand Prix is 80,000 euros with 15,000 euros and 160 Grand Prix points for the winner.
Eventually the winner (based on the cumulative points earned in all three tournaments she plays) and the runner-up qualify to the Women's Candidates' Tournament to be held in the first half of 2021.
Games rounds 1-6 for replay/download:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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