This could have been severely punished by Zhao Xue, which "felt there is something more to the position but just couldn't see it; perhaps I am still suffering from jet lag".

The jackpot could have been taken with:
21.Nxe4! Bxe4 22.Bd6 where 22...Nc2 doesn't save the house from fire: 23.Bxf8 Nxa1 24.Ba3 and Nd6 will follow too...

After missing this opportunity, the game liquidated into an opposite colour bishop endgame, which we all know: a draw had to be agreed.

Nana Dzagnidze - Alexandra kosteniuk 1/2

The Georgian GM opened the game with her c-pawn against Alexandra Kosteniuk, making us believe we will be soon walking into English territories. It was not to be, we got even better! The game actually witnessed a reversed Sicilian, which has the reputation of being extremely sharp, and indeed, it was fire on board rather early; after Alexandra's long castle 12...0-0-0, her position started to go downhill.

"I didn't like this move but I couldn't find something better; I was really worried at this point" (Alexandra Kosteniuk). The game could have ended as early move 15, where Nana had a beautiful blow after Black's uninspired 14...Nd3:

With her last move, Alexandra Kosteniuk managed to post a knight deep in her opponent's camp but Nana had here the amazing 15.Bd4! at her disposal. Good advise is hard to give because 15...exd4 16.Qxd3 leaves White with a positionally winning advantage.



Instead, the Georgian player chose for the interesting exchange-sacrifice:
15.Rfc1 but that almost didn't unsettle Alexandra who eventually forced her opponent to give perpetual check on move 25. And yet, there was still a scary moment for her, when Nana could have taken on c5 with the queen, instead of the natural 21.Nxc5 that she played, allowing her opponent to grab the chance and go home with half a point.

Koneru Humpy - Antoaneta Stefanova 1-0

Handling the black pieces against Koneru, Antoaneta decided to go for the modern defence. Commentators Maia Lomineishvili and Daniel Alsina were fond of Koneru's position throughout, given her domination in the centre and possibilities to play on both sides of the board.
However, on move 23, the Bulgarian GM had the possibility to free herself with the neat trick:

23...Nb5!? the idea being 24.axb5 Nxc4 25.Bxc4 axb5 and Black wins back the sacrificed material. Instead, the game continued:
23...Nxa4 24.Rxb8 Rxb8 25.Ne5 Be8



And here Koneru used the fact the black's pieces are overloaded by playing:
26.Ngxf7!. Stefanova continued to defend well but her position proved beyond repair and on move 43 she had to resign.

There are rumours that Humpy's recent engagement is giving her extra strength...

It was Harika who seemed to have orchestrated the game against Anna Muzychuk (who is back, playing for Ukraine, after many 10 years of being the top board of the Slovenian team!) in an English Opening. Using the relatively rare 9.Na4 introduced by Vladimir Kramnik last year, she looked well prepared:



Since Anna didn't expect this to happen, she considered the main line 9...Qd8 but after a second thought she opted for the interesting alternative:
9...Qd8 The game continuation faced an unbalanced struggle, where White sacrificed a pawn for the bishop pair and better coordination, of which Emil Sutovsky, Anna's trainer, was not worried at all.

   

Fairly quickly, the game headed for an endgame where Harika was a (doubled) pawn up. In the rather generous drawish margins of rook endgames, Anna Muzychuk calculated well the risks involved, gave up a second pawn in order to activate her rook and, indeed, this was the best way to steer for a draw.



It is difficult for White to make progress here, with a cut king. After 59.Kg2 Re3! 60.Rc5 Rxe4 61.b5 Rxe5! the pawn endgame turned out to be drawn in the surgical hands of the now Ukrainian GM.

Ju Wenjun - Elina Danielian 1-0

The Chinese WGM (during the press conference we found out that, despite having the rating and all the GM norms, one of them is missing the signature of the arbiter..."I will make another norm, no problem" said Ju Wenjun) went for a more quiet line in the Ragozin. It was a good choice, as Elina was burning a lot of time on her clock and soon had to defend a difficult position with her seconds painfully ticking away.




White's stable middlegame advantage increased during Elina's time trouble, but the Armenian could have saved the day in two different occasions: 


The first opportunity was far from obvious though and very difficult to play over the board. Perhaps 45...Nxf3+ 46.Rxf3 Rxe4 was a better attempt to fight for a draw, as White's passed pawns are still far from queening and Black may be able to create counterplay on the king-side by pushing the g and h pawns. 
Such a drastic decision was discarded by both players, who, understandably so, believed the a and b pawns are simply too dangerous.

Elina's sufference continued after 45...Nc4 but the stubborness she displayed in defending a tough game is certainly to be admired. And this could have even brought her half a point, had she made use of the big opportunity landed on her side right before the end of the game:



69...Kf3 and White cannot make progress; for example 70.h4 Kg4 71.h5 Nf5!, where Black will wait for half a point with Nf5-h6-f5...
But the Armenian GM erred with the less fortunate 69...f3 and after 70.Ra2+ Ke1 71.Rf2 had no other option but to resign.

This relatively stormy round was greeted by a torrential rain, following the torrid heat of yesterday. For the second round we could only hope for some moderation of the meteorological conditions at the same time of a further intensification of the spectacle on the chess board. And, why not, for Black's revenge?!


By Alina l'Ami