Ju Wenjun

The 2017 Women’s World Chess Championship began in Tehran on February 11 and continues until March 3. 63 players are taking part in a six-round knockout tournament that has been surrounded by controversy since it was announced that all players would have to wear the hijab, leading to the refusal of several players to take part. Top seed, fresh from her triumph at the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters where she won the women’s first prize, is Ju Wenjun. If she can add the $60,000 first prize to the £15,000 she won in Gibraltar, it would make it a terrific start to 2017 for her. The odd number of players is explained by the death of the Romanian women’s chess champion, Cristina-Adela Foisor, last month. She has not been replaced and her opponent in round one has been given a bye.

Second seed in the competition is Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine who also had a fine tournament at Gibraltar, scoring 6/10, although her sister Maria, a former women’s world champion, is one of the absentees, saying that in her opinion “it’s absolutely obvious that Iran isn’t a suitable country for such a prestigious event.” An alternative view was understandably offered by the Iranian WGM Mitra Hejazipour, who said: “This is going to be the biggest sporting event women in Iran have ever seen; we haven’t been able to host any world championship in other sporting fields for women in the past. It’s not right to call for a boycott. These games are important for women in Iran; it’s an opportunity for us to show our strength.”  Unfortunately, we shall not be seeing any more of the strength of Iranian women’s chess for now as all three home players have already been eliminated.

The current world champion, Hou Yifan, is also absent from Tehran owing to her objection to the arrangements. Her mood at Gibraltar and bizarre protest in the final round may have had something to do with this defeat in Round 6 to her new rival and the favourite to take her crown.                                  

White:   Hou Yifan (2651)   Black:  Ju Wenjun (2583)       

Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

       1.  e4  e6  2.  d4  d5  3.  Nc3  Nf6  4.  e5  Nfd7  5.  f4  c5  6.  Nf3  Nc6 7.  Be3  Be7  8.  Qd2  O-O  9.  dc5  Nc5  10.  O-O-O  a6  11.  Qf2  b6 12.  Nd4  Qc7  13.  g3  Bb7  14.  Bg2  Na5  15.  f5  Qe5  16.  Bf4  Qf6 17.  h4  e5  18.  Nd5  Bd5  19.  Bg5  Qd6  20.  Be7  Qe7  21.  Bd5  ed4 22.  Ba8  Ra8  23.  Rhe1  Qc7  24.  b4  Nc6  25.  bc5  bc5  26.  Qf4 Qb6  27.  Qd6  h5  28.  Re5  c4   29.  Rde1  c3  30.  Re8  Re8  31.  Re8 Kh7  32.  Qd5  d3  33.  Qd3  Nb4  34.  Qe4  Qg1  35.  Qe1  Qg2  36.  Qe4  Qd2   

Hikaru Nakamura

While congratulations go to Hikaru Nakamura for his victory in the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters – and commiserations to the unlucky runner-up, David Anton Gujarro after a play-off – the sensational news from Gibraltar today was not a victory by anyone but a defeat….and a deliberate one.  In what GM Stuart Conquest described as ‘the biggest crisis to hit chess in fifteen years’ (why fifteen? what happened in 2002?), our favourite female Chinese GM, Hou Yifan, amazed everyone in her final match by resigning after five moves. This was no blunder as you will see from the details below. In an interview afterwards Hou Yifan said that she was ‘upset’ at having been drawn against seven women in the first nine rounds and felt that this was not fair on the other women players although it did not do Ju Wenjun any harm as she won the women’s first prize of £15,000, beating Hou Yifan on the way.  The tournament organiser, Brian Callaghan, was sympathetic but pointed out that the draw is done by computer and that was the way it turned out.  I suspect we have not heard the last of this.

White:   Hou Yifan (2651)   Black:  Lalith Babu (2587)       

Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

   1.  g4  d5  2.  f3  e5  3.  d3  Qh4  4.  Kd2  h5  5.  h3  hg4     

Congratulations to Wesley So who has added victory in the Tata Steel Masters to his success at London and the Chess Grand Tour. Over fifty games unbeaten – where will it end? Well, Broadstairs’ favourite grandmaster, Wei Yi, had a good go yesterday in the penultimate round where victory would have put him in the driving seat. After an interesting start where Wei Yi had a slight advantage but with isolated pawns, the game evened out and a draw was agreed. This followed victory for Wei Yi on Friday in only 31 moves against the World Championship runner-up, Sergey Karjakin. There was an amusing finish to this game for those following online where the result was initially given as a draw with Wei Yi in a clearly won position. Presumably, the chap pressing the button misunderstood the handshake between the two players and had not seen the position. Sadly, Wei Yi lost his last game today – only his second defeat in the tournament – but his final position of joint third was a tremendous result against some of the best in the world for a player who is still only seventeen.

                         Nigel Short

Meanwhile, attention now turns to the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters which, according to the Financial Times is “the strongest and best-organised event of its kind in the world”. Certainly, most of the world’s top players who were not at Wijk aan Zee are taking part in the 250-player ten-round Open which has just completed its sixth round. Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and MVL (Maxime Vachier Lagrave) are all competing for the £23,000 first prize and Hou Yifan is hoping to win the £15,000 for the top woman. British interest rests on the shoulders of Michael Adams, David Howell and Nigel Short. With four rounds to go, Adams shares the lead with Nakamura and David Anton Guijarro of Spain. However, Short is only half a point behind after a terrific win today against Caruana, the world number three, that must have brought back memories of his battles with Kasparov all those years ago.

White:   Nigel Short (2684)   Black:  Fabiano Caruana (2816)       

Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

         e4  c6  2.  Nc3  d5  3.  Nf3  Nf6  4.  e5  Ne4  5.  Ne2  Qb6  6.  d4  e6 7.  Ng3  c5  8.  Bd3  Nc6  9.  Ne4  de4  10.  Be4  cd4  11.  O-O  Bd7 12.  a3  h6  13.  Re1  Rd8  14.  h3  g6  15.  b4  Bg7  16.  Bf4  Ne7 17.  Qd4  Qd4  18.  Nd4  Ba4  19.  Nf3  Nd5  20.  Bd2  Bb5  21.  Bd5 Rd5  22.  a4  Bd7  23.  c4  Rd3  24.  b5  O-O  25.  Re3  Re3  26.  Be3 Ra8  27.  Rd1  Be8  28.  Bc5  f5  29.  ef6  Bf6  30.  Bd4  Be7  31.  Re1 Bf7  32.  Ne5  a6  33.  c5  ab5  34.  ab5  Be8  35.  b6  Rd8  36.  c6  bc6 37.  b7  Rb8  38.  Rb1  c5  39.  Nd7  Bd7  40.  Be5  Re8  41.  b8Q  Rb8 42.  Rb8  Kf7  43.  Rh8  h5  44.  Rh7  Kf8  45.  Bd6  Bd6  46.  Rd7 Be5  47.  g3  c4  48.  Kf1  c3  49.  Ke2  Ke8  50.  Rd1  Ke7  51.  Kd3 Bf6  52.  Ra1  Kf7  53.  Ra7  Ke8  54.  Ke4  Kd8  55.  Ra4  Ke7 56.  Rc4  Kd7  57.  Kd3  Ke7  58.  Rc7  Ke8  59.  g4  hg4  60.  hg4 Be5  61.  Rc5  Bf6  62.  g5  Bg7  63.  Rc8  Kd7  64.  Rg8  Bd4  65.  f3 Be5  66.  Rg6  Kd6  67.  Rg8  Ke7  68.  Rc8  Bf4  69.  Rc5  Bd2 70.  Rc7  Kd6  71.  g6 resigns