2017 FIDE Women's World Championship (Tehran)

[Tim Harding]

The results are on the site which has a helpful pairing tree if you click on Crosstable

I tried that just now at 1700 GMT, some hours after the playoffs ended, and they still have not entered the names of the winners progressing to round 2.

[NickFaulks]

My guess is that the CIA / Mossad have brought down the site with an updated version of Stuxnet.

[Tim Harding]

Pairings are up now. I blame Trump for the delay.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Highlight of the playoffs was probably Sopiko beating Sara. Which is unlikely to please the locals.

[Joshua Gibbs]

The results are on the site which has a helpful pairing tree if you click on Crosstable

I tried that just now at 1700 GMT, some hours after the playoffs ended, and they still have not entered the names of the winners progressing to round 2.

Wikipedia and chessbomb are quicker incase anyone is wondering

[Chris Rice]

We have discussed on this forum the problems over the Iranian law concerning women wearing the hijab. Therefore it was interesting to note that Sweden's "feminist" government have been heavily criticised for wearing headscarves during a trip to Iran. It was clear from the Iranians that if there were no headscarves there would be no trade deals and the Swedes gave in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38956212

[Chris Rice]

ChessBase report on the Rd 1 tie-breaks with the results at the end. I did wonder whether, Sopiko Guramishvili, Anish Giri's wife, after losing the second game of the match and following her disastrous Wijk aan Zee might collapse but she showed a lot of determination to win both tie-break games.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/tehran-wwc ... not-enough

Jovanka has a report on chess.com which is really excellent. She discusses the heartbreak for Iranian hope Mitra Hejazipour whose high-tension match against Anastasia Bodnaruk went all the way down to the Armageddon and whose hopes were dashed by the clock and not the board.

https://www.chess.com/news/womens-world ... und-1-1014

[NickFaulks]

Zhu Chen played 9.g4?? and lost horribly. Someone suggested she was protesting against having too many female opponents.

[Chris Rice]

Rd 2 Game 1 results:

GM Zhu, Chen 2419 0 - 1 GM Ju, Wenjun 2583 (appalling performance by Zhu Chen an ex-World Champion)
IM Bodnaruk, A. 2463 0 - 1 WGM Girya, Olga 2458
GM Zhao, Xue 2505 ½ - ½ IM Padmini, Rout 2387
GM Ushenina, A. 2444 1 - 0 WGM Tan, Zhongyi 2502
GM Harika, D. 2539 ½ - ½ WGM Saduakassova 2428
IM Guramishvili 2370 1 - 0 WGM Buksa, N. 2300
IM Zimina, Olga 2406 0 - 1 GM Dzagnidze, N. 2525
IM Shen, Yang 2479 1 - 0 IM Savina, A. 2372
GM Muzychuk, A. 2558 1 - 0 IM Kashlinskaya 2418
IM Pham, L. T. 2351 ½ - ½ WGM Goryachkina 2466
IM Melia, Salome 2394 ½ - ½ GM Stefanova, A. 2512
IM Batsiashvili 2492 ½ - ½ IM Khurtsidze 2383
IM Gaponenko, I. 2407 ½ - ½ GM Kosteniuk, A. 2549
IM Paehtz, E. 2468 ½ - ½ GM Cramling, Pia 2454
GM Gunina, V. 2524 0 - 1 WGM Ni, Shiqun 2399
WGM Huang, Qian 2451 ½ - ½ WGM Pogonina, N. 2487

[Chris Rice]

Combined Rd 2 results for the standard games. Seven players going directly through to Rd 3 (highlighted in bold). No less than 9 tie breakers scheduled for tomorrow:

GM Zhu, Chen 2419 0.5 - 1.5 GM Ju, Wenjun 2583
IM Bodnaruk, A. 2463 0 - 2 WGM Girya, Olga 2458
GM Zhao, Xue 2505 1 - 1 IM Padmini, Rout 2387
GM Ushenina, A. 2444 1 - 1 WGM Tan, Zhongyi 2502
GM Harika, D. 2539 1 - 1 WGM Saduakassova 2428
IM Guramishvili 2370 1 - 1 WGM Buksa, N. 2300
IM Zimina, Olga 2406 0 - 2 GM Dzagnidze, N. 2525
IM Shen, Yang 2479 1.5 - 0.5 IM Savina, A. 2372
GM Muzychuk, A. 2558 1.5 - 0.5 IM Kashlinskaya 2418
IM Pham, L. T. 2351 1.5 - 0.5 WGM Goryachkina 2466
IM Melia, Salome 2394 1 - 1 GM Stefanova, A. 2512
IM Batsiashvili 2492 1 - 1 IM Khurtsidze 2383
IM Gaponenko, I. 2407 1 - 1 GM Kosteniuk, A. 2549
IM Paehtz, E. 2468 1 - 1 GM Cramling, Pia 2454
GM Gunina, V. 2524 0 - 2 WGM Ni, Shiqun 2399
WGM Huang, Qian 2451 1 - 1 WGM Pogonina, N. 2487

[Chris Rice]

ChessBase report on Round 2 game 2 http://en.chessbase.com/post/tehran-wwc ... erves-luck

There's some interesting discussion on how to handle must-win games from both sides. I remember something from the Psychology of Chess by Krogius, though I no longer have this anymore, that he didn't think much of wild attacks and throwing all your pawns forward in a death or glory attempt. He advocated playing a solid opening with a small edge putting the pressure all on your opponent to keep coming up with the right moves. This is what Tan did impressively against Ushenina. She built up a nice position and but it was only move 27 that she decided to put the boot in with g4 and shortly afterwards it was all over.

PS Another report from Chess24 with a picture of 18-year-old Aleksandra Goryachkina looking disturbingly like the oil painting by 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring. https://chess24.com/en/read/news/tehran ... for-russia

[Chris Rice]

Another 5 players through (in bold) after the two Round 2 rapid games. 4 games going to the blitz:

GM Zhao, Xue 2505 1½ - 2½ IM Padmini, Rout 2387
GM Ushenina, A. 2444 2-2 WGM Tan, Zhongyi 2502
GM Harika, D. 2539 2½ - 1½ WGM Saduakassova 2428
IM Guramishvili 2370 2 - 2 WGM Buksa, N. 2300
IM Melia, Salome 2394 1½ - 2½ GM Stefanova, A. 2512
IM Batsiashvili 2492 2 - 2 IM Khurtsidze 2383
IM Gaponenko, I. 2407 1½ - 2½ GM Kosteniuk, A. 2549
IM Paehtz, E. 2468 1 - 3 GM Cramling, Pia 2454
WGM Huang, Qian 2451 2 - 2 WGM Pogonina, N. 2487

[Chris Rice]

We have some controversy, Harika Dronavalli was being interviewed after her second round victory. She was still upset about an incident that happened after the first tie break game in the first round. As I understand it, though the signal kept breaking up during the interview, her opponent, WIM Akter Liza Shamima, suddenly realised she had only three seconds left and pressed the clock without making a move, this was ruled an illegal move but she didn't lose the game because of it. Harika was annoyed about this because in the Olympiad she has a couple of seconds left to move in one game but couldn't make a move (we all know how that feels I'm sure) and lost on time. She said if she had realised that you just had to press the clock without making a move, which would be ruled illegal, but would buy you some time, she would have done it. Therefore she wanted this clarified and it's been referred to the rules commission (or somewhere appropriate I couldn't catch all of the conversation).

[Chris Rice]

Pogonina through after Round 2 games 7 & 8. 3 games going to the 3 game blitz finish including Guramishvili - Buksa after Sopiko managed to win with R & N against R. Buksa looked absolutely gutted:

GM Ushenina, A. 2444 3-3 WGM Tan, Zhongyi 2502
IM Guramishvili 2370 3 - 3 WGM Buksa, N. 2300
IM Batsiashvili 2492 3 - 3 IM Khurtsidze 2383
WGM Huang, Qian 2451 2½ - 3½ WGM Pogonina, N. 2487

[LawrenceCooper]

3 games going to the 3 game blitz finish including Guramishvili - Buksa after Sopiko managed to win with R & N against R. Buksa looked absolutely gutted

Hardly surprising as if she'd played 126 Ke1 black can't take the rook because it's stalemate!