Women's World Championship match

[JustinHorton]

Another trouble is that I'm not seeing any entry point for her king.

[John McKenna]

Hou is thinking about her 39th and is down to about 5 mins.
Muzychuk will have 43 seconds plus 30 seconds increment to reply.

[Roger de Coverly]

Another trouble is that I'm not seeing any entry point for her king.

I would assume you mean the White King as the Stockfish evaluation is of an edge for White. That's over optimistic as apart from attacking the a5 pawn from b3, there isn't anything useful for the White Knight to do either and little prospect of constructing a Zugswang. I think a draw can be predicted with a degree of confidence.

[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 Rg8 40.Nb3 Rg7 41.Kf2 *

Yes, Justin & Roger, no way in for W it seems, so it's looking like another draw.

[John McKenna]

What was wrong with trying 30.Rdf3, instead of Nxg6, (apart from complicating when short of time), I wonder.

[IM Jack Rudd]

30...Bxf4 31.gxf4 Nh4, and it's white who has things to worry about.

[Richard Bates]

What was wrong with trying 30.Rdf3, instead of Nxg6, (apart from complicating when short of time), I wonder.

Bxf4 and Nh4?

[John McKenna]

I still think 30.Rdf3 is a better try than the move 30.Nxg6 in the game, Richard.

Jack, Black also has things to worry about, White could switch his rooks to the g-file then the Black a-pawn is vulnerable should the rooks ever be exchanged.

(NB: I'll let my Freudian slip of "his rooks" stand since Mariya didn't do what I was thinking of.)

[John McKenna]

Anyway, 30.Rdf3 was just a passing thought.

The 8th game was a draw in forty-four.

That means Muzychuk must win the last two games to tie the match?!

[Barry Sandercock]

Not very likely !

[Mick Norris]

That means Muzychuk must win the last two games to tie the match?!

Yes, starting today with black at 1:30 pm - unlikely to say the least

[John McKenna]

Yes, Mick, last chance today for Muzychuk to take the match all the way to a 10th and final game.

It's game 9 - she's yet to win a game and must win with Black or it's all over.

In the previous 3 games where Hou was White, Muzychuk has essayed the Open Spanish.
She lost the first, drew the second by force and was a pawn up at the end of the third but Hou drew.

Let's see if (at 13:00 + 30 mins. delay), for a fourth time, they repeat the opening moves -

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Ne4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.de Be6...
I believe Hou tried 9.Be3, 9.c3 and 9.Nbd2, respectively, in the previous 3 games.

Unfortunately I'll not be able to watch it live today.

[MartinCarpenter]

There was an English opening in between too, but she got a little less than nothing there, so back 1 e4. Nice to see the Sicillian is still allowed in top chess

[Roger de Coverly]

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 *

[Matt Mackenzie]

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