WWCh G3: Hou Yifan scores first win
Hou Yifan scored the first win in the World Championship match in Tirana, Albania. The Chinese grandmaster, who defends her world title in a match over 10 classical games against Humpy Koneru of India, won the third game with the black pieces.
The start of the third game in Tirana | All photos © FIDE by Anastasiya Karlovich
|
The third game of the Women's World Championship match was an intense and sharp struggle. Humpy Koneru, who played with white pieces, came out of the opening with a slight advantage. The Chinese, though, was precise in her play for queenside and center activity which eventually led to a win for her.
“I took my time to think about taking the pawn on a2”, said Hou Yifan after the game. “My king could get into trouble, but I decided to go for this principled continuation”. “I had a good position, but I wasn't playing good moves”, commented Koneru on her play in the middlegame.
The World Champion could have won earlier on move 25, but in the game she kept a big advantage. Further mistakes from Koneru's side made the game finish very soon.
Game 3
[Event "WCh w"]
[Site "Tirana ALB"]
[Date "2011.11.17"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Koneru, Humpy"]
[Black "Hou Yifan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D38"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "74"]
[EventDate "2011.11.14"]
1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 c5 8. e3
c4 9. Be2 g5 10. Bg3 Ne4 11. Rc1 Qa5 12. Ne5 Bxc3+ 13. bxc3 Nc6 14. O-O O-O
$146 (14... Nxc3 15. Rxc3 Qxc3 16. Bh5 O-O 17. Qf3 Nd8 18. Qf6 Qc2 19. Ng4 Bxg4
20. Be5 Qh7 21. Bxg4 Ne6 22. f4 Qg7 23. Qe7 Rae8 24. Qd7 Qh7 {Topalov,V (2775)
-Aronian,L (2808)/Monte Carlo 2011}) 15. Bf3 Nxg3 16. fxg3 Nxe5 17. dxe5 Be6
18. Bh5 Qxa2 19. Rf6 Qb2 20. Rxh6 Bf5 21. Rf6 Be4 22. Bf3 (22. Rf2 $5 Qb6 23.
Qd2 $11) 22... Bd3 23. Qe1 $6 (23. h4 $5) 23... Rae8 24. Bxd5 Rxe5 25. e4 Kg7 (
25... Rd8 $1 $19) 26. Rf2 Qb6 27. Qd2 Rd8 28. Qb2 f5 29. Qxb6 axb6 30. Bxb7
fxe4 31. Rb2 Re7 32. Bc6 Rd6 33. Ba4 e3 34. Re1 e2 35. Bc2 Rf7 36. Bxd3 cxd3
37. Rd2 Rdf6 0-1
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.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
