Dzagnidze winner 4th FIDE Women GP
Nana Dzagnidze won the 4th FIDE Women Grand Prix in Jermuk, Armenia. The Georgian grandmaster finished on 9/11 (a 2748 performance), 1.5 points ahead of Tatiana Kosintseva.The 4th FIDE Women Grand Prix tournament took place June 23 - July 6 in Jermuk, Armenia. Hou Yifan (CHN, 2589), Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL, 2560), Pia Cramling (SWE, 2536), Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS, 2534), Maia Chiburdanidze (GEO, 2514), Xu Yuhua (CHN, 2484), Nana Dzagnidze (GEO, 2478), Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM, 2477), Elina Danielian (ARM, 2473), Shen Yang (CHN, 2452), Baira Kovanova (RUS, 2366) and Martha Fierro (ECU, 2363) played. More info, also on the FIDE Women GP in general, can be found in our first report.Rounds 9-11
Nana Dzagnidze had already reached a phenomenal score of 7.5 points after 8 rounds, and didn't need much energy to secure tournament victory. This was partly because her closest rival Tatiana Kosintseva, who kept pace in round 9 by beating Hou Yifan, missed a win in the penultimate round. (Well, 43...b5 looks like winning - see the game in the viewer below.) The Russian outplayed former World Champ Antoaneta Stefanova with Black, but then blew it and almost lost.
Here the game ended in perpetual check. Can you find the win for White?Missing an opportunity to come within half a point of Dzagnidze, a disappointed Kosintseva blundered a rook against Danielian on move 25 in the final round. This way Dzagnidze could go for a well-known theoretical move repetition in the Catalan (you've seen Qc2-c1-c2 & Bb7-e4-Bb7 before) to clinch first prize. The Georgian GM finished 1.5 points ahead of Kosintseva, who on her turn had a full point more than Elina Danielian and Lilit Mkrtchian, who shared third.

Games rounds 9-11
Game viewer by ChessTempo
The closing ceremony with the same figures as during the opening ceremony...

...one by one asking the players to come forward - here Lilit Mkrtchian...

...Hou Yifan, in her own chess-themed dress


A joyful finish of the tournament

Mkrtchian, Kosintseva and Dzagnidze holding a FIDE cheque

Hou Yifan, Shen Yang, Xu Yuhua and Lilit Mkrtchian

Tatiana Kosintseva and Baira Kovanova

And the winner is... Nana Dzagnidze
Photos © Arman Karakhanyan courtesy of FIDE, more here