Anna Muzychuk leads ACP Women Cup after five rounds

Top seed Anna Muzychuk had a good start in Tbilisi, Georgia where she is leading the ACP Women Cup after five rounds. The Ukrainian born IM, who has been playing for Slovenia since 2004, scored 4.5/5 while Kateryna Lahno and Pia Cramling are trailing by half a point. The ACP Women Cup is one of the strongest rapid events for women ever held, with a prize fund of US $40,000.

Anna Muzychuk, sole first in Tbilisi after round 5 | Photo © Anastasya Karlovich for the official website

The ACP Women Cup is organized by the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) and the Georgian Chess Federation. It is the final tournament of the ACP Women Series 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 and is staged February 17-22 at the Sheraton Hotel, in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia.

It is one of the strongest tournaments in the history of women chess with three world champions and five Olympic champions participating among twelve world top women chess players. The list of participants include:

Eight qualifiers from the ACP Women Series
1. Kosintseva Nadezhda (Russia)
2. Kosintseva Tatiana (Russia)
3. Muzychuk Anna (Slovenia)
4. Cmilyte Viktorija (Lithuania)
5. Stefanova Antoaneta (Bulgaria)
6. Cramling Pia (Sweden)
7. Lahno Katerina (Ukraine)
8. Zatonskih Anna (USA)

Four nominees of the Georgian Chess Federation
9. Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgia)
10. Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia)
11. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia)
12. Zeinab Mamedyarova (Azerbaijan)

It is a round robin rapid tournament with 20 minutes and 5 seconds increment on the clock. Two rounds were played last Saturday and three on Sunday.

The playing hall | Photo © Anastasya Karlovich for the official website

As so often in women events, the is nothing wrong with the fighting spirit in Tbilisi! After five rounds, the drawing percentage is as low as 26,7%, with just 8 draws in a total of 30 games.

Anna Muzychuk started with four wins, against Anna Zatonskih, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Nana Dzagnidze and Zeinab Mamedyarova (one of the sisters of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov) and one draw against Viktorija Cmilyte. Muzychuk's win in the second round was impressive:

[Event "Rapid"]
[Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"]
[Date "2012.02.18"]
[Round "2.6"]
[White "Kosintseva, Nadezhda"]
[Black "Muzychuk, Anna"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2537"]
[BlackElo "2580"]
[PlyCount "118"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 d6 5. O-O g6 6. c3 Bg7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Re1
a6 9. Ba4 h6 10. Nf1 b5 11. Bb3 d5 12. exd5 Nxd5 13. Ng3 Be6 14. Ne4 f5 15. Nc5
Bf7 16. c4 bxc4 17. Bxc4 Qd6 18. Na4 Ndb4 19. Be3 Bxc4 20. dxc4 e4 21. Nd2 Nd3
22. Re2 Nd4 23. Bxd4 Qxd4 24. Qc2 Rab8 25. Nb3 Qd6 26. Nc3 Nb4 27. Qd1 Qxd1+
28. Nxd1 Nd3 29. Rb1 Rb4 30. Rc2 Rfb8 31. Kf1 Ra4 32. Nc1 Nxc1 33. Rcxc1 Rxa2
34. Ra1 Rxa1 35. Rxa1 Rb6 36. Ra2 Kf7 37. Ke2 Bd4 38. Nc3 Bxc3 39. bxc3 Ke6 40.
Ke3 c5 41. Ra5 Rc6 42. f3 exf3 43. gxf3 g5 44. h3 Ke5 45. Ra2 f4+ 46. Kf2 Rb6
47. Ra5 Kd6 48. Ke2 Rc6 49. Ra2 Kc7 50. Kf2 Re6 51. Rd2 Re3 52. Rd5 Kc6 53. Rf5
Rxc3 54. Rf6+ Kb7 55. Rxh6 Rxc4 56. Rg6 a5 57. Rxg5 a4 58. Ke2 a3 59. Kd3 Ra4
0-1

In the third round Cmilyte followed the latest rage in the QGD with an early h2-h4:

[Event "Rapid"]
[Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"]
[Date "2012.02.19"]
[Round "3.3"]
[White "Cmilyte, Viktorija"]
[Black "Zatonskih, Anna"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2503"]
[BlackElo "2506"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bxf6 Bxf6 7. e3 O-O 8. Rc1
c6 9. h4 g6 10. h5 g5 11. Bd3 Bg7 12. Bb1 Nd7 13. Qc2 Re8 14. Ne5 Qf6 15. Qh7+
Kf8 16. f4 gxf4 17. exf4 Nxe5 18. fxe5 Qf4 19. Ne2 Qg5 20. Rc3 Bxe5 21. dxe5
Qxe5 22. Rf1 Re7 23. Rg3 Ke8 24. Rg8+ Kd7 25. Rxf7 1-0

In the fourth round Nana Dazgnidze won a nice game against Alexandra Kosteniuk.

[Event "Rapid"]
[Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"]
[Date "2012.02.19"]
[Round "4.1"]
[White "Dzagnidze, Nana"]
[Black "Kosteniuk, Alexandra"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2535"]
[BlackElo "2448"]
[PlyCount "102"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 c6 4. O-O Bg4 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 e5 7. b3 Bd6 8. Bb2
O-O 9. h3 Bh5 10. e4 a5 11. a4 Qc7 12. g4 Bg6 13. Nh4 dxe4 14. dxe4 b5 15. Nf5
Nc5 16. Ba3 Rfd8 17. Qe2 Bf8 18. Rfd1 Rab8 19. Qe3 Ne6 20. Bxf8 Rxf8 21. Nf3
Nf4 22. Bf1 h5 23. g5 Nd7 24. Rxd7 Qxd7 25. Nxe5 Qe6 26. Qxf4 Rbe8 27. Nxg6
fxg6 28. axb5 Kh7 29. Bc4 Qc8 30. Qh4 cxb5 31. Bxb5 Qc3 32. Rf1 Rd8 33. Bd3
Rxd3 34. cxd3 gxf5 35. Qxh5+ Kg8 36. g6 Rd8 37. Qh7+ Kf8 38. Qh8+ Ke7 39. Qh4+
Kd7 40. exf5 Qxd3 41. Re1 Kc8 42. Rc1+ Kb7 43. Qe7+ Rd7 44. Qe6 Qb5 45. Qe4+
Qd5 46. Re1 Kb6 47. Qxd5 Rxd5 48. Re7 Rxf5 49. Rxg7 Kc5 50. h4 Kd6 51. Rf7 Kd5
1-0

It must also be noted that there have been some big mistakes. First, an endgame example.

[Event "Rapid"]
[Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"]
[Date "2012.02.19"]
[Round "4.6"]
[White "Muzychuk, Anna"]
[Black "Mamedjarova, Zeinab"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2580"]
[BlackElo "2318"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "R7/8/7k/2K5/6pp/8/8/8 b - - 0 58"]
[PlyCount "6"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

58... h3 $2 ({Surely online commentator Mark Dvoretsky would have noted here
that Black is forgetting about a basic endgame technique: 'shouldering the
king' with} 58... Kg5 59. Kd4 Kf4 {and Black draws this ending.}) 59. Kd4 Kg5
60. Ke3 h2 61. Rh8 1-0

In the following game Black is already winning, but after White's move no technical phase is needed.

[Event "Rapid"]
[Site "Tbilisi. Georgia"]
[Date "2012.02.18"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Dzagnidze, Nana"]
[Black "Cramling, Pia"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2535"]
[BlackElo "2491"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "5r1k/1p5p/p1p3b1/2PpR3/1P1P1q2/5p2/P4N1P/3Q3K w - - 0 39"]
[PlyCount "2"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

39. Re7 Qg5 0-1

There will three more rounds on Monday and also three on Tuesday. The ladies are fighting for a US $10,000 first prize (€ 7,577). The total prize fund (US $40,000) is provided by the main sponsor of the Georgian Chess Federation: the Georgian branch of the SOCAR Energy company from Azerbaijan.

ACP Women Cup 2012 | Round 5 standings