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Hou Yifan Finishes Two Points Ahead in Lopota, Ju Wenjun & Danielian Second

Hou Yifan Finishes Two Points Ahead in Lopota, Ju Wenjun & Danielian Second

PeterDoggers
| 10 | Chess Event Coverage

Hou Yifan won the Women's Grand Prix tournament in Lopota, Georgia on Tuesday after dominating the event from start to finish. The 20-year-old Chinese grandmaster eventually scored 9.0/11 (a 2772 performance), and that was 2 points more than Ju Wenjun of China and Elina Danielian Armenia. Hou won €10,000 with her victory.

After the second rest day the last three rounds were played on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Hou Yifan was enjoying a commanding lead, being 1.5 points ahead of Ju Wenjun and Nana Dzagnidze. In the 9th round she immediately increased that lead to a full two points.

Third seeded Anna Muzychuk, who recently changed federations back to Ukraine, had an off-day: 

In the same round, the game between Danielian and Koneru saw a dramatic finish.

A 3000+ performance was theoretically possible, but the next day the women's world champion decided to secure her first place in the tournament with a quick (but entertaining!) draw against ex-world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. 

Hou Yifan finished with another draw, against Danielian, to set her final score at a splendid 9.0/11. She won 18.1 rating points in Lopota to reach 2647.1 in the live ratings - only 28.9 points behind Judit Polgar.


Khotenashvili made her home crowd happy with a crushing victory over Koneru:



Lopota GP 2014 | Final Standings

# Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Pts SB
1 Hou Yifan 2629 2772 phpfCo1l0.png 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 9.0/11
2 Ju Wenjun 2532 2616 0 phpfCo1l0.png 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 1 1 ½ 7.0/11 34.75
3 Danielian,E 2460 2623 ½ 0 phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 7.0/11 34.00
4 Dzagnidze,N 2541 2582 0 ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 6.5/11
5 Harika,D 2503 2553 ½ ½ ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 6.0/11 30.75
6 Stefanova,A 2488 2555 0 0 ½ 1 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 6.0/11 27.75
7 Koneru,H 2613 2513 ½ ½ 0 0 1 1 phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ 0 1 5.5/11 28.75
8 Kosteniuk,A 2532 2520 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 0 ½ 1 1 5.5/11 27.25
9 Muzychuk,A 2561 2517 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 phpfCo1l0.png ½ 1 1 5.5/11 23.75
10 Zhao Xue 2538 2387 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ 1 3.5/11
11 Khotenashvili,B 2518 2351 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 0 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 0 3.0/11
12 Muminova,N 2332 2218 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 phpfCo1l0.png 1.5/11

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The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–2014 is a series of six chess tournaments with all players playing four. Bela Khotenashvili won the first, in 2013 in Geneva. Also in 2013, Humpy Koneru won both the Grand Prixs in Dilijan and in Tashkent and Hou Yifan has now won both 2014 events, in Khanty-Mansiysk and Lopota.

The GP winner will challenge the 2014 women's world champion in a ten-game match. Should the Grand Prix winner be the 2014 World Champion, the Grand Prix runner-up will play the 2015 championship. These are the standings with one more leg to go (24 August – 7 September 2014 in Erdenet, Mongolia):

Women's Grand Prix 2013-2014 | Standings

# Player July Rtg Geneva Dilijan Tashkent Khanty-Mansiysk Lopota Erdenet Played Best 3
1 Koneru 2613 160 160 50 x 3 370
2 Hou 2629 45 160 160 x 3 365
3 Muzychuk 2561 130 120 85 50 4 335
4 Dzagnidze 2541 100 120 65 90 4 310
5 Khotenashvili 2518 160 10 120 20 4 300
6-7 Lahno 2540 60 120 85 x 3 265
6-7 Ju 2538 75 70 120 x 3 265
8-9 Harika 2513 60 85 75 x 3 220
8-9 Girya 2493 10 30 55 130 4 215
10 Kosteniuk 2533 45 55 110 50 4 215
11 T.Kosintseva 2476 100 90 15 x 3 205
12 Stefanova 2488 60 30 65 75 4 200
13 Ushenina 2488 75 80 45 x 3 200
14 Danielian 2458 30 40 120 ? 3 190
15 Zhao 2542 85 45 30 x 3 160
16 Tuvshintugs 2346 20 60 15 x 3 95
17-18 Cmilyte 2525 30 30 x 2 60
17-18 Muminova 2332 20 30 10 x 3 60
19 Nakhbayeva 2300 10 1 10

Source: Wikipedia

The Women Grand Prix took place 19 June - 1 July in Lopota, Georgia. Thanks to press officer in Lopota, Alina l'Ami. All photos courtesy of the official website | Games via TWIC phpfCo1l0.png


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