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Lausanne Women's Grand Prix Day 3: The World Champion Stumbles
Ju Wenjun lost in round three in Lausanne. Photo: David Llada/FIDE.

Lausanne Women's Grand Prix Day 3: The World Champion Stumbles

PeterDoggers
| 9 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Harika Dronavalli joined the leaders at the Lausanne Women's Grand Prix as she outplayed Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun in an endgame. There's now a tie for first place among five players after three rounds.

You can follow the Lausanne Women's Grand Prix here as part of our live portal. The games start each day at 15:00 CET which is 9 a.m. Eastern and 6 a.m. Pacific. Our preview with all the background information on this event can be found here.


Results round 3

Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) – Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) 0-1
Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ) – Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) ½-½
Antoaneta Stefanova (BLG) – Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) ½-½
Harika Dronavalli (IND) – Ju Wenjun (CHN) 1-0
Anna Muzychuk (UKR) – Marie Sebag (FRA) 1-0
Mariya Muzychuk (UKR) – Pia Cramling (SWE) ½-½

Standings

# Fed Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Pts SB
1 Muzychuk, Anna 2535 2610 ½ ½ 1 2.0/3 2.5
2 Harika, Dronavalli 2517 2620 ½ ½ 1 2.0/3 2.25
3 Kashlinskaya, Alina 2485 2657 ½ ½ 1 2.0/3 2.25
4 Goryachkina, Aleksandra 2579 2596 ½ ½ 1 2.0/3 2
5 Dzagnidze, Nana 2509 2585 ½ 1 ½ 2.0/3 2
6 Muzychuk, Mariya 2551 2499 ½ ½ ½ 1.5/3 2.75
7 Cramling, Pia 2475 2534 ½ ½ ½ 1.5/3 2.75
8 Stefanova, Antoaneta 2453 2511 ½ ½ ½ 1.5/3 2
9 Sebag, Marie 2443 2382 0 ½ ½ 1.0/3 1.75
10 Abdumalik, Zhansaya 2461 2437 ½ 0 ½ 1.0/3 1.5
11 Ju Wenjun 2583 2357 0 ½ ½ 1.0/3 1.25
12 Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2482 2245 0 0 ½ 0.5/3

Harika's win was a slow but excellent technical achievement in a bishop endgame that seemed drawish. However, White definitely had something to play for as she had fixed her opponent's pawns on dark squares and was able to create a passed pawn, unlike Ju.

Harika Dronavalli
Harika Dronavalli showed good technique. Photo: David Llada/FIDE.

In an all-Russian encounter, GM Alina Kashlinskaya with the black pieces defeated GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. In a theoretical line of the Petroff, Kosteniuk erred with 19.Bd2 (moving the bishop via c1 to a3 would have avoided Nc6-e7 in some lines), and soon she was worse.

Muzychuk's win was spectacular and possibly relevant for theory as well. GM Yannick Pelletier criticized GM Marie Sebag's 14th move, but this author thinks Black should look at alternatives as early as move seven!

Anna Muzychuk
A great win by Anna Muzychuk. Photo: David Llada/FIDE.

Round 3 games

After Skolkovo and Monaco, Lausanne is the third Women's Grand Prix in the 2019-2020 series. The fourth and final leg will be held in May in Sardinia, Italy.

Each tournament is a 12-player round-robin. The prize fund in each Grand Prix is 80,000 euros, with 15,000 euros and 160 Grand Prix points awarded to the winner.

Pairings round 4

Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) – Pia Cramling (SWE)
Marie Sebag (FRA) – Mariya Muzychuk (UKR)
Ju Wenjun (CHN) – Anna Muzychuk (UKR)
Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) – Harika Dronavalli (IND)
Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) – Antoaneta Stefanova (BLG)
Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) – Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ)


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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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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