Lausanne GP R1: Zhansaya Abdumalik holds Ju Wenjun to a draw
The Olympic Capital - Lausanne, Switzerland hosts the third leg of FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2019-20. The GP leader Humpy Koneru, Kateryna Lagno, Elisabeth Paehtz and Valentina Gunina skip this event as all GP participants are allowed to choose only three out of four events. 20-year old young Kazakh IM Zhansaya Abdumalik was a last minute replacement for Chinese GM Zhao Xue, she made the most out of her opportunity by holding the reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun to a draw in the very first round of the event. All other games also ended up in draw in round 1. The tournament will have a total of eleven rounds in a Round-Robin format. Photo: FIDE
FIDE Lausanne GP starts with all draws
The third leg of FIDE Women's GP takes place at Olympic Capital, Lausanne, Switzerland. The first round witnessed all games ending up in draws. However there were a few fighting draws.
The first game to finish in the round was between Anna and Mariya Muzychuk as they made a quick draw in just 16 moves out of Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence.
20-year old IM Zhansaya Abdumalik held reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun to a draw. "Well I have nothing to lose, I want to have some interesting games to show them good ideas. I don't know, we will see." - Zhansaya on how it is for her to step-in to a tournament like this without preparation. She made a solid draw in just 33 moves.
Zhansaya - Wenjun
When IM Alina Kashlinskaya was asked if she was surprised by Goryachkina's choice of Samisch variation in the King's Indian Defence, she said, "No, actually her last game in the King's Indian was against me in the Skolkovo GP. I think there I surprised her with this choice because this is not my main opening with black. She played there 5.Be2 0-0 6.Be3 line and I think that that was something she decided to play over the board because before that all her last six games were played with Samisch variation. So I was prepared against Samisch at that time and of course this time also I expected Samisch as the main line."
Goryachkina - Kaslinskaya
Nana Dzagnidze tried to create some chances but Alexandra Kosteniuk being a gritty defender, she did not allow anything and the game eventually liquidated into a drawn Rook endgame.
Former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova played aggressively against French no.1 woman GM Marie Sebag. However Stefanova was unable to generate enough threat and the game reached to a seemingly equal Rook and Opposite Color Bishop endgame where draw seemed to be the obvious result.
Harika had space advantage for the majority of the game against the legendary Pia Cramling but that was not enough to create any chances. Both players repeated moves and a draw was agreed after move 37.
The eleven round, Round-Robin event will go on till 13th March 2020 with 8th March being the rest day. All rounds starts at 3 p.m. local time, 7:30 p.m. IST. Only the last round will start at 11:30 a.m. local time, 4 p.m. IST
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Round 1 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 1 | 2579 | GM | Goryachkina Aleksandra | ½ - ½ | IM | Kashlinskaya Alina | 2485 | 12 |
| 2 | 2 | 2482 | GM | Kosteniuk Alexandra | ½ - ½ | GM | Dzagnidze Nana | 2509 | 11 |
| 3 | 3 | 2461 | IM | Abdumalik Zhansaya | ½ - ½ | GM | Ju Wenjun | 2583 | 10 |
| 4 | 4 | 2453 | GM | Stefanova Antoaneta | ½ - ½ | GM | Sebag Marie | 2443 | 9 |
| 5 | 5 | 2517 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | ½ - ½ | GM | Cramling Pia | 2475 | 8 |
| 6 | 6 | 2535 | GM | Muzychuk Anna | ½ - ½ | GM | Muzychuk Mariya | 2551 | 7 |
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 12 | 2485 | IM | Kashlinskaya Alina | GM | Muzychuk Mariya | 2551 | 7 | |
| 2 | 8 | 2475 | GM | Cramling Pia | GM | Muzychuk Anna | 2535 | 6 | |
| 3 | 9 | 2443 | GM | Sebag Marie | GM | Harika Dronavalli | 2517 | 5 | |
| 4 | 10 | 2583 | GM | Ju Wenjun | GM | Stefanova Antoaneta | 2453 | 4 | |
| 5 | 11 | 2509 | GM | Dzagnidze Nana | IM | Abdumalik Zhansaya | 2461 | 3 | |
| 6 | 1 | 2579 | GM | Goryachkina Aleksandra | GM | Kosteniuk Alexandra | 2482 | 2 |
