Women World Ch: Eight still fighting

At the Women World Championship in Nalchik, the world's no. 2 Humpy Koneru and Swedish veteran Pia Cramling started their quarter finals with victories, beating Shen Yang and Antoaneta Stefanova respectively.

We left Nalchik after the first round, in which 64 players were meant to play but as is well known by now, a number of players including all from Georgia decided not to participate.

Due to our focus on the Bilbao Grand Slam, we are forced to limit our coverage of the Women World Championship but fortunately the official website and our Chessdom colleagues are providing ample material.

Let's have a look at the knockout table first:

Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6
1 Xu Yuhua
	Xu Yuhua
64 Solomons
		Matveeva
32 Khurtsidze
	Matveeva
33 Matveeva
			Ushenina
16 Paehtz
	Paehtz
49 Kadimova
		Ushenina
17 Ushenina
	Ushenina
48 Le Thanh Tu
8 Kosintseva,T
	Kosintseva,T
57 Muminova
		Kosintseva,T
25 Zatonskih
	Zatonskih
40 Bosboom Lanchava
			Kosteniuk
9 Kosteniuk
	Kosteniuk
56 Pourkashyan
		Kosteniuk
24 Korbut
	-
41 Gvetadze
4 Stefanova
	Stefanova
61 Zapata
		Stefanova
29 Bojkovic
	Ju, Wenjun
36 Ju, Wenjun
			Stefanova
13 Zhukova
	Rohonyan
52 Rohonyan
		Gaponenko
20 Gaponenko
	Gaponenko
45 Zhang Jilin
5 Cramling
	Cramling
60 Sanchez Castillo
		Cramling
28 Tania
	Tan Zongyi
37 Tan Zongyi
			Cramling
12 Ruan
	Ruan
53 Zakurdjaeva
		Ruan
21Javakhisvili
	Amura
44 Amura
2 Koneru
	Koneru
63 Alaa El Din
		Koneru
31 Lomineishvili
	-
34 Khukhashvili
			Koneru
15 Hoang Thanh
	Hoang Thanh
50 Arribas
		Hoang Thanh
18 Socko
	Socko
47 Foisor,S
7 Zhao Xue
	Zhao Xue
58 Zuriel
		Shen Yang
26 Shen Yang
	Shen Yang
39 Kachiani-G
			Shen Yang
10 Cmilyte
	Cmilyte
55 Golubenko
		Kosintseva,N
23 Kosintseva,N
	Kosintseva,N
42 Mohota
3 Hou Yifan
	Hou Yifan
62 Khaled
		Hou Yifan
30 Rajlich
	Mongontuul
35 Mongontuul
			Hou Yifan
14 Chiburdanidze
	Nguyen, Thi
51 Nguyen, Thi
		Sedina
19 Krush
	Sedina
46 Sedina
6 Sebag
	Gasik
59 Gasik
		Mkrtchian
27 Mkrtchian
	Mkrtchian
38 Moser
			Mkrtchian
11 Muzychuk
	Muzychuk
54 Velcheva
		Harika
22 Harika
	Harika
43 Nebolsina

In the second round, reigning world champion Xu Yuhua was eliminated by Svetlana Matveeva. The Chinese had lost her first game, and then in a winning position with White, she let it slip away:






14-year-old Hou Yifan from China, who finished sixth at the recent World Juniors (and not in the girls section!) had started with 5 victories, but then she suddenly lost the second game of the third round against Elena Sedina from Italy. In the tiebreak however the Chinese won both games convincingly. This his her win with Black in the first (regular) game:



[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"154","attributes":{"alt":"","title":"","class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","wysiwyg":1}}]]


Photos ?Ǭ© FIDE

These are the eight players left in the tournament, with the results of game one of the fourth round (quarter finals), played yesterday:


Round 4

	Name	Rtng	G1	G2	Rp1	Rp2	Bz1	Bz2	SD	Total
	Round 4 Match 01
RUS	Kosteniuk, Aleksandra	2510	?Ǭ?							0.5
UKR	Ushenina, Anna	2476	?Ǭ?							0.5
	Round 4 Match 02
IND	Koneru, Humpy	2622	1							1
CHN	Shen, Yang	2445	0							0
	Round 4 Match 03
ARM	Mkrtchian, Lilit	2436	?Ǭ?							0.5
CHN	Hou, Yifan	2557	?Ǭ?							0.5
	Round 4 Match 04
BUL	Stefanova, Antoaneta	2550	0							0
SWE	Cramling, Pia	2544	1							1

And here are these games:





Links:

• Official website
• Games in PGN