Hou Yifan also wins in Shenzhen
Hou Yifan also won the second tournament in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Series 2011-2012. Just like last month in Rostov, the reigning World Champion from China scored 8/11 and this time she remained undefeated. IM Anna Muzychuk, from Ukraine but playing for Slovenia, finished a full point behind the winner, and also undefeated.
2-1-3 in Shenzhen: Anna Muzychuk (SLO), Hou Yifan (CHN) and Ju Wenjun (CHN)
General infoThe second event in the FIDE Women Grand Prix 2011-2012 series took place September 5-20 in the Wuzhou Hotel in Shenzhen, China. The participants of the event included current Women World Champion Hou Yifan and former World Champion Zhu Chen. Former World Champion Xu Yuhua was a technical adviser. The winner of each tournament receives 6,500 euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 euros. The overall winner of the Women's Grand Prix will win a further 15,000 Euros at the end of the series. Players can only offer draws through the chief arbiter in special cases and the "zero tolerance" rule is also in effect, which requirer chess players to be seated at their boards when the games are scheduled to start. |
Rounds 9-11
We left the tournament after eight rounds, when Hou Yifan had just grabbed the lead with a smooth win over Viktorija Cmilyte. In the 9th round she continued with another win, against her compatriot Ruan Lufei. In a Classical Scheveningen, the World Champion played a rare move order, skipping ...Qc7 and going for 10...Bd7 immediately, when 11.Nb3 allowed 11...b5. After 12.Bf3 Qc7 White's 13.a3 was probably a bit too slow:
Ruan Lufei-Hou Yifan
Shenzhen, 2011
Zhao Xue, who was trailing by half a point, lost to Ju Wenjun and so Hou Yifan had increased her lead to a full point, with just two rounds to go. Two draws would almost certainly be enough to finish clear first, and that's exactly what happened - in fact the Chinese maintained her lead of a full point.
Anna Muzychuk eventually finished clear second, with 7/11. Like the winner she remained undefeated: eight draws and wins against Danielian, Yildiz and Cmilyte. The four other Chinese participants finished on places 3-6: Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi, Zhao Xue and Ruan Lufei. Turkish participant Betul Cemre Yildiz is not a 2200-player anymore, but still has't reached the level of the other participants yet; she drew five games and lost six.
Games rounds 9-11
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Shenzhen Women GP 2011 | Round 11 Standings
Hou Yifan does it again...
...and is of course interviewed by local TV
Photos © Anastasiya Karlovich and He Long
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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. 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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