Lahno Defeats Hou In Rostov Grand Prix
Kateryna Lahno (pictured) of the Ukraine defeated Hou Yifan in the 9th round of the Rostov Grand Prix, but the young Chinese champion still leads the competition by a point with two rounds remaining.
Round nine was a particularly bloodthirsty round, with all games being decided in favour of the white pieces.
Tatiana Kosintseva is the nearest challenger to Hou Yifan, beating Antoaneta Stefanova's Caro-Kann defence to stay in touch.
Humpy Koneru suffered her second loss of the event. Having previously only lost to Hou, she lost badly to last-placed Ekaterina Kovalevskya to end her faint chances of winning the event.
The standings after round nine:
| Hou, Yifan | CHN | 2575 | 7 |
| Kosintseva, Tatiana | RUS | 2557 | 6 |
| Lahno, Kateryna | UKR | 2536 | 5½ |
| Muzychuk, Anna | SLO | 2538 | 5½ |
| Kosintseva, Nadezhda | RUS | 2560 | 5 |
| Koneru, Humpy | IND | 2614 | 4½ |
| Stefanova, Antoaneta | BUL | 2524 | 4½ |
| Galliamova, Alisa | RUS | 2492 | 3½ |
| Ruan, Lufei | CHN | 2479 | 3½ |
| Danielian, Elina | ARM | 2521 | 3½ |
| Kosteniuk, Alexandra | RUS | 2497 | 3 |
| Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina | RUS | 2427 | 2½ |
Lahno (left) and Hou at the post-game press conference
Elina Danielian (left) beat Alisa Galliamova
A disappointing event for Kosteniuk, but still a smile for the camera
Anna Muzychuk beat Ruan Lufei to reach a score of 5½ points
Tatiana Kosintseva won to stay within a point of the lead
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (right) earned her first win of the competition
Games start at 3pm local time except the last round which will be three hours earlier. Live coverage is available at the official website at this link.
The winner of each of the six Grand Prix tournaments in the series will win 6,500 euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 euros, and the overall winner will win a further 15,000 euros.
The regulations for the 2011/12 Grand Prix can be found here.
Pictures from the official website.
