Cairns Cup R7: Muzychuk Beats Gunina
It was not a great Valentine's Day for GM Valentina Gunina, who pressed too hard and lost her game to GM Mariya Muzychuk. With draws in the other four games, GM Humpy Koneru and GM Ju Wenjun continue to lead the Cairns Cup in St. Louis.
You can follow the tournament here as part of our live portal. Chess.com is offering a daily, live-commentary broadcast with GM Robert Hess, IM Hans Niemann, GM Roeland Pruijssers, WFM Anna Cramling, WFM Alessia Santeramo and WIM Jesse Nikki February on Chess.com/tv. The rounds start at 1 p.m. local time which is 11 a.m. Pacific and 20:00 Central European Time, with rounds on Feb. 7-11 and 13-16.
The official broadcast has WGM Jennifer Shahade, GM Yasser Seirawan, and GM Alejandro Ramirez, and there's a Russian-language broadcast with IM Almira Skripchenko and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich on www.uschesschamps.com.
Still avoiding draws in this tournament, Gunina moved to a minus-three score on Friday. Last year's winner in St. Louis declined a draw offer from Muzychuk in a roughly equal endgame, but ended up losing it.
Earlier, Muzychuk had reached a dream position out of the opening and it seemed she was getting the first win of the day, but Gunina showed her fighting spirit once again. "She doesn't like draws," Muzychuk said about her opponent, but it's hard to believe Gunina actually prefers to lose instead...
Muzychuk interviewed by Chess.com's Nigarhan Gurpinar.
Ju had a very disappointing finish to her game with GM Nana Dzagnidze. In a winning position the women's world champion blundered a check from her opponent, and as it turned out, her king had nowhere to go:
The eighth round will be played on Saturday, starting at 1 p.m. local time, which is 11 a.m. Pacific and 20:00 Central European Time. The tournament is a 10-player round-robin with a prize fund of $180,000.
Round 7 games
Previous reports:
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