Women's World Championship match

[IM Jack Rudd]

I am a bit disenchanted with Ms. M. Muzychuk - she's more of a sugar babe than a spice girl.

Can we not use descriptions like this, please? It's hardly the sort of language that's going to encourage women to join the chess community.

[John McKenna]

Yes, Loz, a good position as so eloquently elucidated by Jan Gustafsson in the link on previous page you so kindly provided. Great pity that Mariya ruined it so quickly...

I was wrong, above, it looks like Hou may have varied first with 9.Nbd2!?


[Event "FIDE WWC Lviv"] [Site "C83"] [Date "2016.03.11"] [Round "1.7"] [White "Hou, Y. (2667)"] [Black "Muzychuk, M. (2563)"] [Result ""] [ECO "C83"] [WhiteElo "2667"] [BlackElo "2563"] [Annotator "JM"] [PlyCount "42"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 (9. c3 {Game 4}) 9... Be7 10.c3 Nc5 11. Bc2 d4{...} *

[John McKenna]

[Event "FIDE WWC Lviv"] [Site "C83"] [Date "2016.03.11"] [Round "1.7"] [White "Hou, Y. (2667)"] [Black "Muzychuk, M. (2563)"] [Result ""] [ECO "C83"] [WhiteElo "2667"] [BlackElo "2563"] [Annotator "JM"] [PlyCount "42"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 (9. c3 {Game 4}) 9... Be7 10.c3 Nc5 11. Bc2 d4 12.cxd4 Nxd4 13. Nxd4 Qxd4 14.Nf3 Qxd1 15.Rxd1 O-O 16.Be3 Rfd8 17.Rdc1 h6 18.Nd4 Bd5 19.Bd1 Nd3 20.Rxc7 *

And, Muzychuk has had a good 20+ minute think about what to do next. That now leaves her with less than 65 mins. Hou still has 90 mins. Looking ominous for Black.

Must go - I'll catch up tonight.

[Barry Sandercock]

Drawn at move 81.

[JustinHorton]

Shame Muzychuk couldn't have made something of the extra pawn.

[NickFaulks]

Shame Muzychuk couldn't have made something of the extra pawn.

She can't be accused of not trying.

[JustinHorton]

Indeed not. (She might anyway have been encouraged by Hou messing up that ending against Giri last month.)

[MartinCarpenter]

She seems to have been doing quite well in endings/technical positions by and large I guess? And with black really - =/+ at some point three times now iirc?

Not very likely to help her in the end now of course but its been quite a good effort.

[John McKenna]

I am a bit disenchanted with Ms. M. Muzychuk - she's more of a... (deleted) demure young lady than a spice girl.

Can we not use descriptions like this (sugar babe), please? It's hardly the sort of language that's going to encourage women to join the chess community.

Sorry, Jack. I'll try to curb my tongue...

But, it's after the watershed so I hope you don't mind the repeats, above.

What do you make of what follows?

I wonder what input her sister, of little or no mercy, Anna is making to the match?

Look at this recent anti-Italian game of hers -

[Event "Gibraltar Masters"] [Site "C50"] [Date "2016.02.03"] [Round "?"] [White "Padmini, Rout (2427)"] [Black "Muzychuk, Anna (2537)"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "2427"] [BlackElo "2537"] [Result "0-1"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. c3 a6 7. Bb3 Ba7 8. Re1 h6 9. Nbd2 g5 10. Nf1 g4 11. N3d2 h5 12. Nc4 h4 13. Be3 h3 14. g3 d5 15. Ncd2 d4 16. Bg5 Rh5 17. Bxf6 Qxf6 18. c4 Bd7 19. Ba4 Bc5 20. a3 Bf8 21. b4 Rg5 22. Ra2 Rg6 23. c5 b5 24. Bc2 a5 25. Rb2 axb4 26. axb4 Bh6 27. Qb1 Ke7 28. Bd1 Rgg8 29. Ra2 Rxa2 30. Qxa2 Nxb4 31. Qa3 Nc6 32. Be2 Rb8 33. Rb1 Ke8 34. Qa6 Bc8 35. Qa3 Qe7 36. Nb3 Be6 37. Nfd2 Qd8 38. Ra1 Qc8 39. Kf1 Rb7 40. Qa6 Nb4 41. Qa5 Nc6 42. Qa3 Ra7 43. Qb2 Qa8 44. Rxa7 Qxa7 45. Qc2 Bxd2 46. Nxd2 Qa1+ 47. Qd1 Qxd1+ 48. Bxd1 Nb4 49. Ke2 Kd7 50. Bb3 Bxb3 51. Nxb3 Kc6 52. Na5+ Kxc5 53. Nb7+ Kb6 54. Nd8 f6 55. Nf7 c5 56. Nh6 c4 57. dxc4 bxc4 58. Nxg4 c3 59. Nxf6 d3+ 60. Ke3 c2 61. Kd2 Na2 0-1

After that would you be recommending playing the Italian game to your sibling?

If Mariya wheels out the Italian Game, again, I'll really let rip (only if she loses).

[John McKenna]

Good! Muzychuk has switched to 1.d4 for the second time.

It's a repeat of game 3 -

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.g3 d5 4.Bg2, but now Hou has gone 4... b5!?
5. O-O Bb7...

[Correction - the 3rd game of the match began - 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Bb4+... 1/2 in 36 moves.]

[John McKenna]

My connection to chessdom.com has frozen and blanked so I'll have to return later as I have other things to do now.

[John McKenna]

[Event "FIDE WWC Lviv"] [Site "A46"] [Date "2016.03.12"] [Round "1.8"] [White "Muzychuk, M (2563)"] [Black "Hou, Y (2667)"] [Result "*"] [ECO "A46"] [Annotator "JM"] [PlyCount "42"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 (2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Bb4+ {... 1/2 Muzychuk-Hou 3rd game.}) 2... e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 b5 5. O-O Bb7 6. a4 (6. Bg5 Nbd7) 6... b4 7. c4 a5 (7... bxc3 8. Nxc3 c5 9. Bg5 Nbd7 10. a5 Rc8 11. Re1 Be7 12. Bf4 a6 { Meissner,C-Lomineishvili,M 2004}) 8. Bg5 Nbd7 9. Nbd2 Be7 10. Rc1 h6 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. Qc2 c6 13. e4 O-O 14. e5 Be7 15. c5 g5 16. h3 Kg7 17. Rfe1 Rh8 18. Bf1 Qg8 19. Re3 Kf8 20. Ne1 h5 21. Ng2 Ke8 {30'-22' I prefer W...} 22.Kh2 Nf8 23.Bd3 Ba6 24.f4 Bxd3 25.Qxd3 Qh7 26.Rf1 Qxd3 27.Rxd3 gxf4 28.Nxf4 Ng6 {18'-15'} 29.Nb3 Bg5 30.Nxg6 fxg6 31.Rdf3 Ra7 32.Kg2 Rg8 33.Kf2 Rf8 {1'-10'} 34.Kg2 Rxf3 35.Rxf3 Bd8 36.Nc1 g5 37.Nd3 Rg7 38.g4 h4 39.Nc1 *

[IM Jack Rudd]

Punished how, though? This is absolutely standard stuff from black: moving the king out of danger on the kingside so that she can build up an attack there.

[John McKenna]

True that I don't see any punishment, yet.

On the other hand I don't see any k-side attack by Black, either.

Didn't much like the simplifying move 30.Nxg6...

[John McKenna]

Trouble is Muzychuk has only about 4 mins. to Hou's 12 mins.