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Tan recovered to win the next 2 games (which means 5 white wins so far), so Harika has to win game 6

Incredibly brave Harika to take must-win game after blundering her queen for R+B!!

Two blitz games next.

Joshua Gibbs wrote:

Andrew Bak wrote:

Joshua Gibbs wrote:I don't know if anyone else has made this point because I am blind drunk, but I don't really think the winner of the FIDE Women's World championship deserves the Fide Grandmaster Title. She really won't have done enough in my eyes.

So winning the most prestigious tournament in the women's game which contains many GMs already and where the players are mostly at least 2400 strength isn't enough to earn the GM title?

Maybe you being blind drunk is the problem rather than the Women's champion's level of play...

As I said to Nick, I think the winner of a single gender tournament shouldn't get a mixed gender title.

Joshua, you're of course entitled to your views but I think a better way of looking at the IM/GM titles etc is universal rather than mixed gender. By your rules does it mean that unless closed events, like say the First Saturday tournaments, were mixed then no GM norms should be available for male players - or is it just that you feel women need to have competed against a man (or had the opportunity to be paired against one) to prove themselves worthy of a universal title?
As other have said, the strength of the WWC speaks for itself.

Blitz under way. Harika is defending with Bologan's pseudo-Pirc

Tim Harding wrote:Incredibly brave Harika to take must-win game after blundering her queen for R+B!!.

Amazing stuff

First blitz drawn after Harika unaccountably didn't grab the c3-pawn at move 40. First draw in the match.
Now Harika has White in the second game at 5/3.
If that is drawn it goes to Armageddon.

EDIT: Armageddon it will be! But online coverage incorrectly shows 5 mins v 5 mins.
Harika is White so must win.

Time corrected now: 4 v 5

And Harika won a pawn but then missed a win (at least one) and eventually lost on time.

So on Monday it will be Tan v Muzychuk.

Excellent ChessBase report on the Tan-Harika match which I missed yesterday. That Armageddon game must have been heart breaking for Harika as no doubt afterwards everyone was rushing up to tell her all about the wins she missed. http://en.chessbase.com/post/womens-wor ... -the-final

Sympathy for Harika - I think she just missed out last time as well.

Game 1 drawn in 42 moves, Muzychuk was white.

Game 2 and Tan continues to surprise, by winning against Muzychuk, who was so deadly in the previous standard games and is now 1.5 - 0.5 up with 2 games left.

Game 3 and Muzychuk crushed Tan to level up the scores 1.5-1.5. Tan has White in the final standard game.

Chris Rice wrote:Game 3 and Muzychuk crushed Tan to level up the scores 1.5-1.5. Tan has White in the final standard game.

Just looked at Game 3, you are right it was an absolute crush, with Muzychuk sacrificing pieces left right and centre.

Anyone unfortunate enough to have missed the Greek Gift from Persia can see the game in this ChessBase article. http://en.chessbase.com/post/women-worl ... game-three

This tournament is the first time I have seen Tan Zhongyi and it is noticeable that she generally plays really quickly even in the most complicated positions. Yesterday the Chess24 commentator, Evgenij Miroshnichenko, kept making statements along the lines that Tan was doing this because she could not bear the tension. His contention was that the tournament has been so gruelling for her that she is emotionally spent and simply can't concentrate too hard on any position. This is the reason why some of her games have been awful losses.

I'm not sure how true this is but it could explain why Tan allowed the obvious Bxh7+ idea. Her choice of opening was also curious. Given that she had been so solid with the Fort Knox in Game 1, one might have expected the same again or perhaps a Berlin or Petroff as a draw would have meant Muzychuk winning as Black in the final game just to force a tie-break.

For all its faults the women's world championship has been a lot more interesting than either Sharjah or the Aeroflot.

Game 4 was a nervous affair with not a great deal going on and drawn pretty quickly, so 2-2. The tie breaks will decide the contest tomorrow.