Women's Event At The 42nd Chess Olympiad

The women's event at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), was held from 2–13 September 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is contested by a record number of 142 teams representing 138 nations. Azerbaijan, as host nation, field three teams, whilst the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) and the International Chess Committee of the Deaf (ICCD) each provide one team. A total number of 693 players are participating in the women's event.

China won the gold medal in the women's event, their first since 1994 and their fifth overall. Russian Valentina Gunina, playing on board two, was the best individual player in the women's event with 8 out of 10 points (seven wins, two draws and one loss) with a rating performance of 2643. The gold medals on the other boards were won by Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine on board one, Gulnar Mammadova of Azerbaijan on board three, Tan Zhongyi of China on board four, and Guo Qi of China as a reserve player.

Competition format and calendar

The tournament was played in a Swiss system format. The time control for all games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, after which an additional 30 minutes were granted and increment of 30 seconds per move was applied. Players were permitted to offer a draw at any time. A total of 11 rounds were played, with all teams playing in every round.

In each round, four players from each team faced four players from another team; teams were permitted one reserve player who could be substituted between rounds. The four games were played simultaneously on four boards, scoring 1 game point for a win and ½ game point for a draw. The scores from each game were summed together to determine which team won the round. Winning a round was worth 2 match points, regardless of the game point margin, while drawing a round was worth 1 match point. Teams were ranked in a table based on match points. Tie-breakers for the table were i) the Sonneborn-Berger system; ii) total game points scored; iii) the sum of the match points of the opponents, excluding the lowest one.

Tournament rounds started on 2 September and will end with the final round on 13 September. All rounds start at 15:00 AZST (UTC+5), except for the final round which will start at 11:00 AZST (UTC+5). There was one rest day at the tournament, on 7 September after the fifth round.

:''All dates are AZST (UTC+5)''

Teams and players

Eight of the top ten players from the FIDE women's rating list published in August 2016 were playing in the women's event with only India's Humpy Koneru and Russia's Kateryna Lagno not playing. The current Women's World Champion and highest rated woman Hou Yifan was playing on board one for China, while former Women's World Champions Antoaneta Stefanova, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Ushenina and Mariya Muzychuk were also part of their national teams.

The top seed in the women's event were China with an average rating of 2528. They were led by the Women's World Champion Hou Yifan on board one, along with Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Guo Qi. The reigning champions Russia have the second highest average rating. They were led by Alexandra Kosteniuk and were playing with the same players as in the previous Olympiad, where the only difference was the induction of Aleksandra Goryachkina instead of the absent Kateryna Lagno. Ukraine and Georgia were the other two teams with average rating higher than 2400. The Ukrainian team consisted of most Grandmasters (four) and Women's World Champions (two), and included both Anna and Mariya Muzychuk playing on the top two boards, Anna Ushenina, Natalia Zhukova and Inna Gaponenko. Georgia were led by the best individual player in the women's event of the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø in 2014 Nana Dzagnidze, and also had Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Bela Khotenashvili and Salome Melia on the team.

File:HouYifan13a.jpg, Women's World Champion and women's world no. 1 Hou Yifan was playing on board one for China
File:Fondation Neva Women's Grand Prix Geneva 11-05-2013 - Ju Wenjun during the press conference.jpg, Women's world no. 3 Ju Wenjun is playing on board three for China
File:AMuzychuk1 Ukr Ch 2014.jpg, Women's world no. 4 Anna Muzychuk was playing on board one for Ukraine
File:HarikaDronavalli12.jpg, Women's world no. 5 Harika Dronavalli was playing on board one for India
File:Muzychuk-Mariya-chess-women-Lviv-2016-03-07 5736bsa HBR LUFA.jpg, Former Women's World Champion and world no. 6 Mariya Muzychuk was playing on board two for Ukraine

Rounds

Round 1

The most common result in the matches of the opening round was 4–0. Top five seeded teams, China, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and India swept Luxembourg, Portugal, Scotland, the ICCD and Macedonia, respectively. All three teams of the host-nation Azerbaijan also had perfect scores as Azerbaijan-1 and Azerbaijan-2 defeated Nicaragua and Japan, respectively, while Azerbaijan-3 won their match again Lesotho without playing, because Lesothan players had not arrived yet. The only close match was Greece's win against Sri Lanka 2½–1½. Three of the world's top four players, Hou Yifan, Anna Muzychuk and Harika Dronavalli, did not play in the first round. Natalia Zhukova and Inna Gaponenko from Ukraine, playing with the White pieces on boards 2 and 4, respectively, won nicely with sacrificial combinations targeting the square g7 in Ukraine's whitewash of Portugal.

Round 2

The number of teams continuing their winning streak from the first round reduced to 20 with only five, China, Russia, Lithuania, Italy and France, scoring 8 of 8. China and Russia recorded another clear sweeps against Montenegro and Ecuador, respectively, while Ukraine were cut off half point by Moldova after Anna Muzychuk drew her game with the White pieces against Diana Baciu on board one. United States beat Norway by a minimal margin in an interesting match with three draws and American Women's Champion Nazí Paikidze scoring the only win with a spirited attack as Black. Bulgaria's Antoaneta Stefanova won her game with the Black pieces against Oksana Vovk on board one, yet her team played 2–2 with Denmark, because Iva Videnova and Adriana Nikolova lost their games on the next two boards. Spain were also surprisingly held to a 2–2 tie against Estonia.

The biggest upset of the day, however, was Georgia's loss to the 46th seeds the Philippines 2½-1½. Nino Batsiashvili beat Christy Lamiel Bernales as White on board three and Nana Dzagnidze drew Janelle Mae Frayna on board one. The disappointment for the Georgian team came from boards 2 and 4. Bela Khotenashvili brought the game against Jan Jodilyn Fronda to a positionally won rook endgame but then she threw it away to a drawn endgame before making a blunder on move 31 that costed her the game (see diagram). Fronda's win was her first against a grandmaster in her life. She said she had not expected her preparation would come in the game and added that had not expected to beat a grandmaster. The match was tied with only game ongoing, the one between Catherine Secopito and Salome Melia. Secopito was offered a draw in a position with winning advantage that would have led the match to end in a tie. Then, she asked her coach how a draw would impact the team, which is allowed by the rules at the Olympiads, and he encouraged her by saying to "just play". She later managed to convert her advantage to a full point to secure the win for her team. After the round, Philippine team captain Jayson Gonzales said that the team lack exposure and that their rating is relative of their strength. He added that their rating is plus 300 from the published number and that they had shown they could compete.

Harika Dronavalli was the last still playing her game for India, who had already secured the win against Brazil with three wins on the boards 2–4. Nevertheless, it seemed like she forgot about the clock and lost on time in an endgame with better position to Brazil's Juliana Terao.

Round 3

The matches of round three saw Russia and Ukraine continuing their winning streak, while China were halted to a 2–2 tie by Vietnam. France did also proceed on the winning run with a third consecutive match win for a remarkable 11½ out of 12 board points. The number of teams winning their first three matches fell down to 13.

Russia defeated Uzbekistan 3-1 thanks to the wins on the first two boards by Alexandra Kosteniuk as White against Nafisa Muminova and Valentina Gunina as Black against Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. Ukraine had a more serious opponent in the United States and entered the match with the strongest line-up. The games on the first three boards between Irina Krush and Mariya Muzychuk, Nazí Paikidze and Anna Muzychuk, and Anna Zatonskih and Natalia Zhukova were all drawn; the only decisive game appeared on board four, where Anna Ushenina beat Kateřina Němcová to give Ukraine a narrow win by 2½-1½. Hou Yifan played her first game at the Olympiad and won against Vietnamese Phạm Lê Thảo Nguyên. Her win, however, was not enough for China to snatch the match win as Zhao Xue suffered a loss with the White pieces from Nguyễn Thị Mai Hưng on the third board and the other two games were drawn. Georgia recovered from the shocking loss to the Philippines in the previous round to convincingly beat Estonia 3½-½, in a match with only Lela Javakhishvili failing to win her game against Monika Tsõganova. The Philippines were out of the form against Georgia and were doused by the strong Indian team with 3½-½, though Janelle May Frayna showed consistency and held a drew to Harika Dronavalli.

Besides the tie of the Chinese team, surprising results occurred in some other matches. One of the biggest upsets of the day was Bulgaria, who were beaten by lower-rated Kazakhstan. The victory of the Kazakh team was supported by Zhansaya Abdumalik's win over the former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova with a powerful long-term sacrifice (see diagram). The strongest of the Azerbaijani teams edged out the higher-rated Polish team 2½-1½ after Zeinab Mamedyarova beat Monika Soćko with the Black pieces on the top board and Gunay Mammadzada defeated Jolanta Zawadzka on the second board. Azerbaijan-2 also remained unbeaten against a higher-rated team as they held Germany to a 2–2 tie. Another surprising result was also Iceland's minimal win over England, in which the Icelandic players were efficient with the White pieces as Lenka Ptáčníková and Hallgerður Þorsteinsdóttir beat Jovanka Houska and Sarah Longson, respectively.

Round 4

The pairings in the fourth round resulted in interesting matches involving strong teams. Ukraine, Serbia, Russia and Kazakhstan remained the only teams with four match victories. Russia narrowly beat Hungary on the top match board with draws on the first three boards and a single win by Natalija Pogonina over Anita Gara. The game on the first board between Hoang Thanh Trang and Alexandra Kosteniuk may have directly affected the match outcome but the Russian closely escaped from an inferior position with a pawn down in the endgame. On the second match board, Ukraine faced France, who had arrived at the Chess Olympiad without their top two players Marie Sebag and Almira Skripchenko. The French team was additionally weakened for the match, because their highest rated player in the tournament Sophie Milliet was given a day off. Under these circumstances, the Ukrainian team snatched a convincing 3½-½ victory with wins by the Muzychuk sisters and Natalia Zhukova on the first three boards. Serbia and Kazakhstan started the tournament as 27th and 31st seeds, respectively but continued their perfect match score in the fourth round to join Ukraine and Russia on the top. Serbia's Jovana Rapport lost to Pia Cramling on board one but her teammates dominated on the other boards to give her team a 3–1 win against Sweden. Kazakhstan closely won the clash with Lithuania 2½-1½.

Following the surprising tie with Vietnam in the previous round, the Chinese team bounced back with a minimal win against Latvia thanks to the wins with the White pieces by Ju Wenjun against Laura Rogule and Guo Qi against Elina Otikova. However, the biggest attention in the match and perhaps the whole day overall was attached to the first board, where Latvian Dana Reizniece-Ozola (the country's Minister of Finance at the time) outplayed the current Women's World Champion Hou Yifan. The World champion was out of inertia and committed herself to mistakes that brought her to a hopeless position, leaving the opponent with a kingside attack that could have not been stopped (see diagram). Prior to the Olympiad, the Latvian modestly commented in an interview about their chances:

What can we expect from it? They say that you have to shoot for the stars to get to the moon. However, an objective assessment of the situation is that we’re not ready to win medals, but we’ll work with a common goal – to represent Latvia strongly, sincerely and vigorously. Remember a rule that doesn’t disappoint: If you’ve done everything in your power, you also deserve good fortune.

In the other matches contested by teams who had perfect match scores in the first three rounds, India unexpectedly drew with Israel as well as Azerbaijan-1 with Romania, leaving all four teams unbeaten after four rounds.

Round 5

The top two match boards in round five featured the four teams with a perfect score after the first four rounds playing among themselves. Ukraine beat Serbia 3-1 thanks to the wins by the Muzychuk sisters on the first two boards. Yet, they both had worse positions at some point during their games but managed to consolidate and even win. Anna Muzychuk had an inferior position with the Black pieces against Jovana Rapport until the Serbian decided to push the h-pawn and eventually got a position with a piece up for two pawns. Shortly after, Rapport played a blunder, which allowed Muzychuk to play a combination with a queen sacrifice that left her with a winning advantage. Mariya Muzychuk had a worse position throughout most of the game with the White pieces against Irina Chelushkina and even went into the endgame with an exchange down but managed to win the endgame after Chelushkina played some imprecise moves. Russia scored a convincing victory against Kazakhstan 3½-½. Alexandra Kosteniuk opened the scoring with a 30-move win as White against the 16-year old Zhansaya Abdumalik, who blundered a piece on move 29 and resigned after the opponent's next move. Valentina Gunina and Olga Girya completed the job adding two wins as Black.

Women's World Champion Hou Yifan scored a nice win over Olga Zimina after sacrificing two minor pieces for a strong attack against the uncastled Black king. Tan Zhongyi did also win her game as White against Daniela Movileanu to secure a 3–1 win for her team against Italy. Lithuania, who had arrived in Baku without their highest rated player Viktorija Čmilytė, faced the United States. Deimantė Daulytė beat Irina Krush with the Black pieces on board one in a flourishing game with a rook sacrifice that helped her cut off the opponent's king and prepare her pieces for the winning attack (see diagram). Nevertheless, the American players scored two wins on the bottom boards, where Anna Zatonskih and Sabina-Francesca Foisor defeated Daiva Batytė and Laima Domarkaitė, respectively, and subsequently edged out Lithuania 2½-1½. Azeribaijan-1 scored an important victory of 3–1 against higher-rated Germany as a result of two wins scored on the lower boards, where Gulnar Mammadova beat Elena Levushkina and Aydan Hojjatova defeated Judit Fuchs. India were trailing to Vietnam but Padmini Rout equalised for 2–2 in one of the longest games of the day.

Round 6

The match of the day was played between the only teams with perfect scores, Russia and Ukraine, on the first match board. The Ukrainian players gained advantage on the first three boards, where Anna Muzychuk was playing versus Alexandra Kosteniuk as White, Mariya Muzychuk versus Valentina Gunina as Black and Natalia Zhukova versus Aleksandra Goryachkina as White. Nonetheless, Gunina found a miraculous resource and tricked her opponent in a position being a rook and three pawns down to survive with a perpetual check (see diagram); Zhukova also did not exploit her advantage and lost her extra pawn to a tactical oversight on move 27 that transposed the game into a drawn endgame. Yet, Anna Muzychuk succeeded to convert her advantage to a full point but Olga Girya was victorious for Russia against Anna Ushenina on the lowest board for a 2–2 tie, despite the fact she committed herself to a blunder and gave up a crucial pawn on move 40. On the second match board, Romania surprisingly halted the top-seeded China to draw thanks to the win by Corina Peptan over Ju Wenjun with the White pieces on board one. For the Chinese team, who lacked World Women's Champion Hou Yifan, the only win came from Guo Qi who beat Irina Bulmaga on board four.

On the next two match boards, Kazakhstan and Hungary drew in a winless match, while Azerbaijan-1 and Georgia exchanged one win each in another tie. Nana Dzagnidze scored a full point for Georgia Zeinab Mamedyarova as White on board one and Gulnar Mammadova beat Nino Batsiashvili as Black on board three. Thus, all four matches played on the top four match boards ended without winner. Poland were the team playing on the highest board who secured a match victory after beating Vietnam 3–1 in a match with four decisive games. Monika Soćko, Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska and Klaudia Kulon scored full points for Poland against Phạm Lê Thảo Nguyên, Nguyễn Thị Mai Hưng and Nguyễn Thị Thanh An; Hoàng Thị Bảo Trâm won against Jolanta Zawadzka to score the only point for Vietnam. Klaudia Kolun's win was sixth at the tournament, which put her in the lead with a perfect score. India minimally beat Latvia 2½-1½ thanks to the wins by Harika Dronavalli against Dana Reizniece-Ozola and Soumya Swaminathan against Ingūna Erneste.

Round 7

The two leading teams after six rounds, Russia and Ukraine, faced Poland and China on the top two tables. The Polish team managed to halt the Russians to a 2–2 tie. Valentina Gunina scored once again for Russia by beating Jolanta Zawadzka with the Black pieces in a game in which her opponent was standing well but made several blunders from moves 31-35 and resigned after the move 36, because the Russian spotted a nice attacking combination with a thematic queen sacrifice that would have left her with a rook and a pawn up. On the other hand, Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska levelled the result by beating the Russian champion Aleksandra Goryachkina also with the Black pieces after Goryachkina forced exchange of queens that put her in a passive position and allowed Szczepkowska-Horowska take full control of the two central files with the rooks. The Polish win did even have a chance to clinch a match victory but Alexandra Kosteniuk defended the rook endgame with a pawn down against Monika Soćko on board one. China minimally defeated Ukraine 2½-1½ thanks to the only decisive game in the match, in which Tan Zhongyi beat Natalia Zhukova as White. The game reached a position out of the opening with strong White pawn on d5, which posed problems for Black throughout most of the game. On move 20, Zhukova mistakenly took on e5 with her d-pawn instead of her bishop on g7, allowing Tan's White d-pawn to roll ahead. The only way to get rid of the strong pawn was to sacrifice an exchange but it resulted in a winning endgame for the Chinese (see diagram).

United States beat Romania 2½-1½ with the only decisive game being played on the second board, where Nazí Paikidze beat Cristina Adela Foișor

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases