Women's World Championship match

[John McKenna]

Certainly 7 Nf3 has been much more commonly seen in recent years, even if what was played here is the old "main" line.

10.f3 by Hou looks a tad timid. Still she only needs a draw to get her title back so why go chance her arm with 10.f4!?

(Thanks to RdC for posting the opening and to Martin for the reminder about Hou starting the 5th game - 1.c4...)

Nice to see the Sicillian is still allowed in top chess

The Boleslavsky variation as well, which often seems to favour Black in practice

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Be3 Be6 10. f3 Na5 *

[Mick Norris]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Be3 Be6 10. f3 Na5 11. Nxa5 Qxa5 12. Qd2 Rfc8 13. Rfd1 Kf8 14. a4 a6 15. Nd5 Qxd2 16. Rxd2 Nxd5 17. exd5 Bd7 18. a5 Bb5 19. Kf1 f5 20. c3 g5 21. Rc2 h5 22. c4 g4 23. b4

Clock times - 32 mins & 43 mins left

[Barry Sandercock]

Hou-Muzychuk looking drawish now (move 28).

[Chris Rice]

Maybe I'm wrong but I really like White here.

[Mick Norris]

Maybe I'm wrong but I really like White here.

As soon as she makes the time control, the match is surely over

[MartinCarpenter]

Well yes, although that makes it quite drawish in context Or maybe she'll be ruthless about it now its so good/safe?

[Mick Norris]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Be3 Be6 10. f3 Na5 11. Nxa5 Qxa5 12. Qd2 Rfc8 13. Rfd1 Kf8 14. a4 a6 15. Nd5 Qxd2 16. Rxd2 Nxd5 17. exd5 Bd7 18. a5 Bb5 19. Kf1 f5 20. c3 g5 21. Rc2 h5 22. c4 g4 23. b4 f4 24. Bf2 Bd7 25. c5 Bf5 26. Rc4 Kf7 27. Rd1 Rg8 28. g3 fxg3 29. hxg3 Rac8 30. fxg4 hxg4 31. Kg2 Bd7 32. Rh1 Rg7 33. cxd6 Bxd6 34. Rxc8 Bxc8 35. Bc5 Bxc5 36. bxc5 Bf5 37. Kf2 Rg8 38. Ke3 Rd8 39. Rf1 Kg6 40. Rd1 Kg5 *

[Matt Mackenzie]

Hou wins and regains her title, +3 =6 -0 is an impressive final score even if MM put up a better fight than previous opponents.

[John McKenna]

Sorry to hear that Muzychuk eventually lost the 9th game.

I think 6-3 flatters Hou and that the match could have been closer if the Ukrainian team had helped their player take off her kid gloves and got the handbags out.

The overuse of the insipid Italian game coupled with a tendency to simplify by exchanges is not the way to approach a match for the World Championship.

Whoever's next for Hou should try to be a hero and have a go!

PS A final thanks - to Mick Norris for posting the game up to the time control. I did see it briefly earlier today.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Its a bit like the two Anand-Carlsen matches - the second was way closer than the first even if that wasn't totally obvious in the scorelines.

[Chris Rice]

Agreed. Mariya would I think do even better next time around if she gets the chance ahead of say Koneru, Wejun Ju etc. On the FIDE top women list the gap between Hou Yifan and the next five women is only roughly around 11-15 ECF points, I think, so hardly the "gulf" mentioned above. Hope so anyway, as its good to see some competition between the women. If one women is so much stronger than the rest that she's got to play the men this can't be good for women's chess but that's just my view.

[Tim Harding]

Contrary to some opinions expressed above, I believe that the gap between Hou Yifan and the other top women is, if anything, increasing.
She is a fantastic player who is still improving and you have to go down to the 15th player in the FIDE top 100 women to find a player younger than her (another Chinese: Lei, Tingjie).

Yes, Mariya Muzychuk might do better if they played another match; after all this was the first she played and matchplay is different. On the other hand, despite apparently having had the benefit of special openings preparation (including having her games in the 2015 Ukraine Championship kept secret), when she was on her own out of prep she was unable to make count any of the advantages that she obtained.
Perhaps the Italian and Catalan were poor choices but a lot of top GMs play those lines. Probably a lot of effort went into preparing stuff against the Sicilian but since Hou Yifan took and maintained the lead without having to risk a Sicilian this became irrelevant. Also whenever a situation became critical, Hou Yifan just played better.

On the other hand, not only is the strongest female player approaching Judit Polgar's peak but also the depth of women's chess is becoming impressive.
This was very evident at Gibraltar where I had the opportunity to see many of them play.

Also at Reykjavik two women were in the chasing group on 6/8 before today's round when they both had Black against men rated 2650+.
Elisabeth Paehtz (27th on the women's list at present) eventually lost to Cheparinov but her Rp is still over 2540 so she is probably going to score a GM norm.
Tania Sachdev (94th on the list and "only" 2370) has had a fantastic tournament.
She beat GMs Hannes Stefannson and Alejandro Ramirez then drew with Andreikin (2732!) and Gawain Jones.
Today she drew with Movsesian and her Rp with one game to come is almost 2600. This must mean she already has her second GM norm in the bag.

[Chris Rice]

In August 2014 Hou Yifan was rated 2661 and now in March 2016 she is rated 2667. The difference in Elo between her, Koneru and Wenjun Ju during this period has remained the same, give or take 5-10 Elo. Mariya Muzychuk during this period has cut the difference from 137 Elo to 98. So I would challenge the claim of an increased gap because I can't see the evidence, at least in rating terms.

Hou is definitely the strongest woman player out there at the moment but her progress appears to have stalled and I also can't see the evidence that she is even close to getting to 2700 let alone Judit Polgar's peak of 2735. I'm not saying she can't get there simply that she hasn't proved that she can yet. Judit played a lot of her career well in excess of 2667 and beat a lot of the top men players. Of course citing Judit Polgar kind of pushes one to concede that Hou Yifan should quit playing against the other women. Anyway I agree that she is still pretty young so we will see how it plays out.