Lausanne GP R3: Harika outplays Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun
Harika Dronavalli outplayed the reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun in Round 3 of FIDE Lausanne GP. After an incorrect Queen exchange offer by Ju, Harika seized her opportunity and correctly played the Same Color Bishop ending to be one of the five leaders. Anna Muzychuk crushed Marie Sebag with a beautiful attacking game to take the shared lead. Alina Kashlinskaya survived an early attack and turned things around to beat her compatriot Alexandra Kosteniuk. Nana Dzagnidze had an exciting draw with Antoaneta Stefanova in Modern Benoni. Goryachkina made a quick draw to maintain her lead. Anna, Harika, Nana, Kashlinskaya and Goryachkina lead with 2.0/3. Photo: FIDE
Five-way lead at the conclusion of Round 3
Round 3 of Lausanne GP had three decisive games. Harika Dronavalli beat reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, IM Alina Kashlinskaya beat former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and Anna Muzychuk crushed French no.1 woman Marie Sebag. Aleksandra Goryachkina made a quick draw in 15 moves against IM Zhansaya Abdumalik and Georgia no.1 woman Nana Dzagnidze held former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova.
According to Harika, "The opening was a little dull. I wanted to play strategically."
Harika - Ju Wenjun
Harika said about the above position, "It might look equal but Black has a very bad bishop on d6 and I have better bishop because all my pawns are on white squares. All I have to do is somehow get rid of these doubled pawns (g2-g3). Then I will have a kind of extra pawn."
Harika thought instead of 15.b3, maybe 15.Rf3 and keeping the two rooks was a better idea.
The India no.2 did not like Black's idea of Rd8 and Bf6 after 19...Be7 as she felt it to be tricky. Thus she exchanged off the rooks with 20.Rxf8+
Harika shared, "Here I thought for a while that I could play 24.Bxg5 hxg5 25.Qf3 but g6 gives nothing for white."
"I realized that 25...Qd2 could be her idea. So I just had one trick in this position. After 25.h4 Qd2 26.Qxd2 Bxd2 27. Bg3 Bc3 is forced as 26...Bf4 is losing as I will exchange and get my majority here." Harika chimed about the most critical moment of the game.
"On the queenside she can never do anything, so that's easier for me. I am always safe and I can just keep trying. I think the main point is this trick which she might have missed 28.h5 and 29.Bh4. She cannot stop and now she is already into passive position. I won't say winning but this is like really passive and tricky than the position with queens. There might be it would have been a draw, but here I think definitely I had real chances.
Over the board I was thinking instead of doing 28...Kf7 if she can do something like 28...c5 but it doesn't look right. I cannot play c4, she can try to play c6, b5 and c4 and get some passed pawn but still I think I am faster e.g. 28...c5 29.Kh3 c6 30.g5 and Kg4. I can always come back with my king to d1." Harika analyzed.
The first step to create a passed pawn on the kingside is getting rid of the double g-pawn with the move 30.g5
"I always have the trick of g4-g5. So she has to keep her position clear on the kingside. She has an extra pawn on the queenside but it's nothing. Kind of like a pawn up with a better bishop. I think here it is already quite difficult for black to defend."
Harika continued with 33.Kg4, however there was a quicker way to win here for white. Can you find it?
"I had only one idea. I have to break this position on the queenside and try to penetrate with the king and keep this g5 chance."
Harika continued with 50.g6 but 50.gxh6 is also winning.
Anna Muzychuk played a beautiful attacking game to beat French no.1 woman Marie Sebag.
Anna Muzychuk - Sebag
Anna said, "7.h4 is a trying line. There are not so many games. There are some Dubov games."
Here black continued with 14...Bb7. What was the relatively better continuation instead?
Black is making one last attempt to stir up trouble, how should white respond?
Kosteniuk got an opportunity to launch an early attack, however there wasn't any real danger as her opponent Kaslinskaya handled the position very well.
Kosteniuk - Kashlinskaya
At a first glance, the position might look scary for black but if you look deep enough, one can easily find the correct continuation for black.
Kashlinskaya considered 19.Bh6 but after 19...Rf7 20.gxh5 g5 21.Qg4 Rh7, white is unable to generate any real threat.
White retreating with 22.Qg2 allowed black to bounce back with 22...Qf5 and black is out of any kind of danger.
The most interesting draw of the round was between Nana Dzagnidze and Antoaneta Stefanova. After Dzagnidze's exchange sacrifice in Modern Benoni, evaluation changed back and forth but in the end the game reached to a Queen-Knight vs Queen-Bishop endgame where the Georgian decided to go for the perpetual check draw to maintain her lead.
Mariya Muzychuk drew with Pia Cramling in 45 moves in Sicilian Scheveningen: Keres Attack. Pieces got exchanged in regular intervals and the game reached to an equal King-Pawn ending where draw was the obvious result.
Aleksandra Goryachkina uncharacteristically made a quick draw in just 15 moves against IM Zhansaya Abdumalik arising out of Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence.
The eleven round, Round-Robin event will go on till 13th March 2020 with 8th March being the rest day. All round 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 3 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 2 | 2482 | GM | Kosteniuk Alexandra | 0 - 1 | IM | Kashlinskaya Alina | 2485 | 12 |
| 2 | 3 | 2461 | IM | Abdumalik Zhansaya | ½ - ½ | GM | Goryachkina Aleksandra | 2579 | 1 |
| 3 | 4 | 2453 | GM | Stefanova Antoaneta | ½ - ½ | GM | Dzagnidze Nana | 2509 | 11 |
| 4 | 5 | 2517 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | 1 - 0 | GM | Ju Wenjun | 2583 | 10 |
| 5 | 6 | 2535 | GM | Muzychuk Anna | 1 - 0 | GM | Sebag Marie | 2443 | 9 |
| 6 | 7 | 2551 | GM | Muzychuk Mariya | ½ - ½ | GM | Cramling Pia | 2475 | 8 |
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 12 | 2485 | IM | Kashlinskaya Alina | GM | Cramling Pia | 2475 | 8 | |
| 2 | 9 | 2443 | GM | Sebag Marie | GM | Muzychuk Mariya | 2551 | 7 | |
| 3 | 10 | 2583 | GM | Ju Wenjun | GM | Muzychuk Anna | 2535 | 6 | |
| 4 | 11 | 2509 | GM | Dzagnidze Nana | GM | Harika Dronavalli | 2517 | 5 | |
| 5 | 1 | 2579 | GM | Goryachkina Aleksandra | GM | Stefanova Antoaneta | 2453 | 4 | |
| 6 | 2 | 2482 | GM | Kosteniuk Alexandra | IM | Abdumalik Zhansaya | 2461 | 3 |
