Humpy Koneru won her second game in the Atatürk Women GP against Elina Danielian. Hou Yifan won against Zeinab Mamedyarova while Pia Cramling bounced back after her first round loss, against Betül Cemre Yıldız. Xue Zhao-Maia Chiburdanidze and Marie Sebag-Shan Yang were quietly drawn. Antoaneta Stefanova was close to win but had to settle with a draw in the end against Martha Fierro. Detailed report below.
Humpy Koneru won her second consecutive game in İstanbul
against Elina Danielian. White placed her queen on h4 somewhat misplaced as
Humpy explained after the game to the spectators and black played an ambitious
exchange sacrifice with bc4 which did not work out well and white returned the
exchange favourably with an extra pawn and won position and Bc5 only brought
the immediate disaster.
White seemed to have a big center
and space advantage in the game between Maia Chiburdanidze and Zhao Xue but the
Georgian grandmaster played the e5 early maybe even prematurely with the idea
of taking the opponent under pressure as she mentioned in the post game press
conference but after black played e5 there was not much to play for and not
even much to contemplate upon as both players agreed in the post-game press
conference.
Zeinab Mamedyarova had the better
position against Hou Yifan a typical Benoni middle game. White had everything
in order until Na2 but after that taking on g7 brought the quick end for the
Azerbaijani player. Though both players agreed that the result came after
drastic changes in the objective evaluation in the position.
,
In a well-known Slav Meran played
between Shen Yang and Marie Sebag, the game was balanced most of the time but
black had a chance to hold the upper hand where she played Nf4, Rbe8 is a
better option according to the silicon monsters. However, after the text the
game gradually melted down to a draw.
Stefanova was close to the
victory against Martha Fierro after the seventeenth move where white was able
to destroy the king's side of black. However, the opening of the black's
position backfired after the inexact play of white and black was able to bring
her major pieces to the king's side. However, the position did not have any further
drastic change in terms of evaluation and the long fight ended as a draw.
Stefanova told "It should be ojectively winning for white but I could not find
the exact moves. My opponent was able to create a very strong counter play on f
and g files." during the press conference after the game.
