|
Tan Zhongyi wins the second game of the final |
The second game of the Women's World Chess Championship final match was played in the Espinas Palace Hotel in Tehran on 28th of February.
It was also 27th birthday of one of the participants of the match - Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine. Unlike Magnus Carlsen, who won the title of the World Champion on his birthday 3 months ago, Anna lost for the first time in the World Championship and in the final match. The match score is now 1.5-0.5 in Tan’s favor.
After 10 moves of play queens have already left the board and in the following ending Black had to find a precise way to equalize. According to Tan Zhongyi, after dubious 12...Ng4 she thought White’s position was better. Chinese player was increasing her positional advantage using the activity of her pieces and the bad position of the Black’s knight, which had to make a long way to get back into the game. On 24th move Anna decided to sacrifice a pawn in order to activate her pieces but later on failed to put up the most tenacious resistance when she got a chance.
Instead of last move 28.h4, White could have played 28.Ke4 protecting a pawn on e5 and after Rf8 29.Nd6 Rf4 30.Ke3.
But after h4 Anna didn't take a pawn (instead of 28...Rf8) 28...Nxh4 29.Rh1 Ng2+ 30.Kf2 Ke7 31.Nd6 Nf4 32.Rxh7 Nd3+ 33.Kg3 Nxe5 34.Ne4 with chances to survive.
The third game is played on March 1 at 3 pm local time. Anna Muzychuk has White.
The final match consists of four games. If the score after four games is tied, the winner is determined on tie-break with quicker time controls. |
