Ju Wenjun strikes back

As I write, Game 10 in the World Championship is in progress. After nine draws, everyone is hoping for a decisive result in one of the three remaining games but at the moment the computer has the position as 0.00 which is as equal as you can get. Of course, with only three games left, an error by either player might be decisive not just in that particular game but in the contest overall. Is Carlsen prepared to wait until the tiebreaks where he may well have the edge?

So, if it is drama you are looking for, check out the Women’s World Championship instead. The other day we saw the challenger, Kateryna Lagno take a 1-0 lead in the second of the four-game final. The current World Champion, Ju Wenjun, therefore needed to win one of the two remaining games to take the match to a tiebreak. She tried desperately to win with the white pieces in Game 3 but was forced to accept a draw with an opposite colour bishop ending. That therefore left the last game played today when she would have to win with black to hold on to her crown. This is what happened.

White:  Kateryna Lagno (2556)      Black:  Ju Wenjun (2568)

 2018 FIDE Women’s World Championship Game 4

It’s worth playing through the game. To give you an idea of how games can fall apart even at the highest level, the computer had the position as dead equal after Black’s 27th move. After 28.Kh1? it had Black as winning and after 29.Qh5? it said that Black can mate in ten moves. There is a brief interview with Ju Wenjun recorded after today’s game on the official website here. The tiebreaks start tomorrow and consist of two 25 min + 10-sec increment rapid games, then if needed two additional 10+10 games, two 5+3 blitz games and finally a single Armageddon game, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4, but a draw counts as a win for Black.

Posted in: News (2018-19)

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