Nerves of steel

WGM Tan Zhongyi of China ( born May 2, 1991, Chongqing, China) is the new Women’s World Champion. In a gigantic upset, she defeated GM Anna Muzychuk of the Ukraine 2.5-1.5 and claimed the throne left vacant by China’s Hou Yifan who chose not to defend her title.

Anna Muzychuk ( born Feb. 28, 1990 in Lviv, Ukraine) was the heavy favorite. She is the holder of a full International Grandmaster title — Tan Zhongyi is a Woman’s Grandmaster ( WGM), which is actually supposed to be even weaker than an International Master ( IM) let alone a full GM. Muzychuk is also higher-rated, 2569 against her opponent’s 2502, and what’s more seemed to be in excellent condition in this tournament, defeating all her opponents in the regular two-game matches without need of any tie-breaks and in fact did not lose a single game.

Rd01 Muzychuk vs WIM Amina Mezioud (Algeria 2055) 2.0-0.0

Rd02 Muzychuk vs IM Alina Kashlinskaya (Russia 2422) 1.5-0.5

Rd03 Muzychuk vs IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen ( Vietnam 2351) 2.0-0.0

Rd04 Muzychuk vs GM Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria 2533) 1.5-0.5

Rd05 Muzychuk vs GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia 2555) 2.0-0.0

Her opponents were not weakies — Antoaneta Stefanova, aside from being a knock- out beauty ( just thought to mention it) is also the 2004 Women’s World Champion, and as recently as 2012 reached the finals again of the Women’s World Championship although this time she had to settle for the silver medal.

Alexandra Kosteniuk, another beauty ( had to mention this as well) and another former Women’s World Champion (2008) is also the first Chess960 ( the new name of FischerRandom chess) women’s world champion, a title that she won in 2006 and defended successfully in 2008.

Tan Zhongyi’s path to the world championship was a lot rockier.

Rd01 Tan vs WGM Sabina Foisor (USA 2272) 1.5-0.5

Rd02 Tan vs GM Anna Ushenina (Ukraine 2444) 5.0-4.0

Rd03 Tan vs IM Padmini Rout (India 2387) 3.5-2.5

Rd04 Tan vs GM Ju Wenjun (China 2604) 1.5-0.5

Rd05 Tan vs GM Harika Dronavalli (India 2539) 5.0-4.0

The rules provided that in case of a drawn two-game match then tie-breaks have to be played to determine who goes to the next round. These consist of additional two- game matches at ever-faster time controls. First two 25 min + 10- sec increment rapid games; if there is still no decision then two additional 10+ 10 games. If that still doesn’t work then two 5+3 blitz games and finally, if all else fails, a single Armageddon game, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4, but a draw counts as a win for Black.

Tan Zhongyi had to go through three such tie-breaks in two of which (against Ushenina, the 2012 world champion, and super- tough Harika Dronavalli) they went all the way to Armageddon. Some people thought that having gone through all of that the Chinese player would be easy pickings for the wellrested Anna Muzychuk, but truly “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

The Finals between Anna Muzychuk and Tan Zhongyi was a four-game match (as opposed to the regular two-games) with the same tie- break rules in case of a drawn match. The Chinese player showed up fully warmed up for a life-ordeath struggle. The 1st game was drawn and then Zhongyi drew first blood in the 2nd game.

Tan, Zhongyi (2502) — Muzychuk, Anna (2558) [D43] Wch Women 2017 Tehran (6.2), 27.02.2017 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Qd3!?

Pushing e2–e3 or Bg5 are much more common here. White’s move has the simple idea of trying to get in e2–e4 as soon as possible.

5...dxc4 6.Qxc4 b5 7.Qd3 a6 8.e4 c5 9.dxc5

Avoiding the complications which arise from 9.e5.

9...Bxc5 10.Qxd8+

Wang Hao had a nice victory here: 10. e5 Ng4 11. Qxd8+ Kxd8 12. Bg5+ Kc7? (12...Ke8! is correct) 13.Ne4 Bb4+ 14. Ke2 Bb7 15. Rc1+ Kb6 16. h3 Bxe4 17. hxg4 Bc5 18. b4! Bxb4 19. Be3+ Kb7 20.Ng5 Bg6 21.g3! (with his bishop coming to g2 White has a decisive advantage) 21...Nc6 22.Bg2 Rac8 23.Rhd1 h6 24.Rd7+ Kb8 25.Bxc6 1–0 (25) Wang,H (2724)-Potkin,V (2626) Ningbo 2010.

10...Kxd8 11.Bd3 Bb7 12.e5!

A novelty and one which creates more trouble for Black than the “normal” 12.0–0.

12...Ng4?

A mistake. It looks good because of the attack on f2, but actually this knight becomes shut out of play. Black should have preferred 12...Nfd7 or 12...Nd5. All of Black’s later woes can be traced to this bad knight!

13.Ne4! Bb4+

Trying to win the exchange with 13...Bxe4? 14.Bxe4 Nxf2 does not work: 15. Bg5+ Kc7 16. Bxa8 Nxh1 17. b4! Ba7 (17...Bxb4+ 18.Ke2.Bc5 19.Rxh1) 18.Ke2 Nf2 19.h3 there doesn’t seem to be any way to extricate the knight.

14. Ke2 Nd7 15. Bf4 Nc5 16. Nxc5 Bxc5 17.Rhc1! Bb6

[17...Bxf2 18.h3 wins a piece]

18.Ng5 Ke7 19.Be4 Bxe4 20.Nxe4

White is threatening 21. f3 Nh6 22.Bg5+ Kd7 23.Rd1+ Kc7 24.Rac1+ Kb7 25.Rd7+, winning.

20... Rhc8 21. f3 Nh6 22. g4 Ng8 23.Nd6 Rxc1 24.Rxc1

White has ideas involving Nc8+ or Rc6.

24...Kd7

Muzychuk sets a trap. If now 25.Nxf7 Rf8 wins a piece, or does it?

25.Nxf7!

But the trap doesn’t work!

25...Ne7

Does 25...Rf8 win a piece? Let’s see: 26.Rd1+ Kc6 26...Kc8 27.Nd6+ Kc7 28.Bg5; 26... Ke7 27. Rd6 Bc7 28. Bg5+ Nf6 ( 28... Ke8 29. Rxa6 Rxf7 30. Ra8+) 29.exf6+ Kxf7;

26...Kc6 27.Be3! Bxe3 28.Nd8+! saves the piece and preserves the win.

26. Be3 Bxe3 27. Kxe3 Ng6 28. h4 Rf8 29.h5! Ne7

Everything loses: 29... Rxf7 30. hxg6 hxg6 31.Rd1+ Ke7 (31...Kc7 32.Rd6 wins a crucial pawn) 32. Rd6 a5 33. Ra6 a4 34.Ra7+ Ke8 35.Rxf7 Kxf7 36.Kf4. The pawn ending is easily won for White, as all of her opponent’s kingside pawns will fall. Rxb2 39.Ke4 a4 40.f4 Rb1 41.Kf5 Rb3 42.Rc5 Kd7 43.Kg6 b4 44.axb4 Rxb4 45.Kf5 Ke7 46.Rc7+ Kf8 47.Ra7 Kg8 48.g5 hxg5 49.fxg5 Rb6 50.Rxa4 g6+ 51. hxg6 Rb1 52. Ra8+ Kg7 53. Ra7+ Kg8 54. g7 Rf1+ 55. Kg6 Ra1 56. Rf7 1–0

To the surprise of no one though Muzychuk struck back quickly in the third game when Tan Zhongyi overlooked a “Greek Gift Sacrifice.” An interesting sidelight here is that the new Filipino no. 1 player Ino Sadorra defeated Wesley So in the same line in their US Chess League game, which was played over the Internet Chess Club in October 2015. Ino, who was Black, annotated the game for ChessBase Magazine and in his notes pointed out a combination that he avoided — and this combination was exactly what Muzychuk played against Tan!

Really interesting, right? I’ll show you both games on Thursday.

To continue our coverage of the Muzychuk-Tan Finals match, the 4th game was drawn and now they went into the tie-breaks.

Last December the World Rapid (15 minutes + 10 seconds increment after every move) and Blitz ( 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment) Chess Championships were held in Doha, Qatar. Anna Muzhychuk won both the rapid ( Tan Zhongyi 19th place) and blitz (Tan Zhongyi 4th place, 2 full points behind) so understandably the Ukrainian was the heavy favorite to win.

Anna got a strong position in the first game but could not break through. In the second game of the rapid tie-break ( game 6 of the match) she then overextended herself trying to win and it was Tan Zhongyi who made the best of her chances to come up with a mating net.

*** Tan, Zhongyi (2502) — Muzychuk, Anna (2558) [D11] Wch Women 2017 Tehran (6.6),

03.03.2017 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 dxc4 7.Nxf5 exf5 8.e3 Nbd7 9.Bxc4 Nb6 10.Be2 Bd6 11.Bf3 0– 0 12.0– 0 Re8 13. Qc2 Qd7 14. b3 Re7 15.Na4 Rae8 16.Nc5 Qc8 17.Bd2 Nbd5 18.Rac1 Ne4 19.Bg2 g6?!

An inexactitude. It is the right time for 19...Bxc5! as White is forced to recapture with the pawn, and after 20.dxc5 the first player queenside play is stalled while Black’s two knights in the center have full sway. At the very least it is Black who has all the play.

20.b4 Qc7 21.Nxe4 fxe4 22.b5 Ba3 23. Rb1 cxb5 24. Qb3 Qd6 25. Qxb5 Rc8 26. Qb3 Kg7 27. Bc1 Bxc1 28.Rbxc1 Rc6 29.Rxc6 Qxc6 30.Qa3 Qb6 31.Rc1 Qb4!

Giving up a pawn for some activity.

32.Qxa7 Nc3 33.Rf1 Qc4 34.Qa3 Re6 35.Re1 Ra6 36.Qe7 Rxa2 37.Bxe4 b5

[ 37... Nxe4 38. Qxe4 b5 39. Qe5+ Kg8 40.d5 White’s passed pawn is more dangerous than Black’s]

38.Bf3 b4 39.Qe5+

The most obvious reply is, of course 39...Kg8, but that would allow White to immediately force a draw with 40.Qe8+, and if instead of the draw White wants to continue the game then 40. d5 and she has an inherent extra tempo in the resulting pawn race because bringing the pawn to d8 will queen with check, so Muzychuk decides to get her king out of the firing line.

39...Kh6?? <D> POSITION AFTER 39…KH6

40.g4! Unfortunately, this move forces mate.

40...f6 41.Qxf6 Ra5 42.h4 1–0

And that was that. Long live Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi!