Dzagnidze leads Nanjing Women GP
Like their male Grand Slam colleagues, the Grand Prix women are enjoying their first rest day today and so we take the opportunity to do a first report on this second FIDE GP event. After a 4/4 start, GM Nana Dzagnidze lost her first game in round 5 yesterday, to French GM Marie Sebag, but the Georgian lady is still in clear first place, with six more rounds to go.The 2nd tournament in the FIDE Women Grand Prix Series takes place September 27 - October 10 alongside the Pearl Spring Grand Slam, in Nanjing, China. It's a 12-player round-robin with GM Zhao Xue (2544), Wenjun Ju (2443), GM Nana Dzagnidze, (2536), GM Marie Sebag (2531), GM Xu Yuhua (2485), GM Zhu Chen (2473), IM Lilit Mrktchian (2467), WGM Shen Yang (2453), WGM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (2412), WGM Baira Kovanova (2406), IM Martha Fierro (2394) and WIM Betul Yildiz (2217), who play for a € 40,000 prize fund. Rounds 1-5
With 4 out of 4, Georgian GM Nana Dzagnidze had an even better start than Magnus Carlsen in Nanjing. She started off with a nice, positional game against Ju Wenjun in which the players borrowed some ideas from the Benkö/Volga gambit in their Sämisch KID. After easily outplaying the lowest seed, Betul Yildiz, Dzagnidze then beat Zhu Chen in a hypersharp Meran Slav, the line we saw a few times in Kramnik-Anand last year. Grinding down Kovanova with Black until a winning pawn ending meant a fourth consecutive victory, but yesterday things didn't go as smoothly against a well-prepared Marie Sebag.This 2nd Grand Prix event doesn't have Humpy Koneru, the winner of the first tournament, among its participants, but there are two former World Champions: Xu Yuhua and Zhu Chen. With 3.5/5 and a clear second place Xu Yuhua (China's third World Champion) is doing quite well and with only half a point less we find Zhu Chen on shared third place - she's China's second World Champion after Xie Jun, but playing for Qatar since she got married to Mohamad Al-Modiahki.Betul Yildiz, Istanbul's nominated player, is much lower rated than the rest of the field and it shows: so far she hasn't been able to collect any (half) points. In Istanbul she eventually scored 2 out of 11, so she still has some work to do if she wants to improve on that one. Top seed Zhao Xue is also underperforming in Nanjing so far, with only a 50% score.Selection of games rounds 1-5
Game viewer by ChessTempo2nd Pearl Spring (Nanjing) 2009 | Round 5 Standings
The playing hall of the 2nd FIDE Women Grand Prix in Nanjing, China
Leading after five rounds: GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO, 2536)
Clear second with 3.5/4: GM Xu Yuhua (CHN, 2485)
Shared 3rd-5th: GM Marie Sebag (FRA, 2519)...
...GM Zhu Chen (QAT, 2488)...
...and Ju Wenjun (CHN, 2443)
Shared 6th-8th: IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM, 2468)...
...WGM Batkhuyag Munguntuul (MGL, 2412)...
...and GM Zhao Xue (CHN, 2542)
Shared 9th-11th: WGM Shen Yang (CHN, 2453)...
...WGM Baira Kovanova (RUS, 2408)...
...and IM Martha Fierro Baquero (ECU, 2386)
Last place with 0/5: WIM Betul Cemre (TUR, 2224)
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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.
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