In the final round, Hou Yifan made a draw the secure the first place and she won the first edition of ?? Bank Atatürk International Women Masters Chess Tournament with 7 points out of 9 without a single loss. Anna Ushenina and Pia Cramling drew their last round game while after playing for some time Harika Dronavalli and Irina Krush also repeated moves and settled with a draw. Zhu Chen outplayed the Turkish youngster Betül Cemre Y?ld?z in the endgame. The last game of the round and the tournament between Xue Zhao and Ekaterina Atal?k ended as a dramatic loss for the Turkish player. Atalýk sacrificed a piece early in the middlegame in a better position but later on white seemed to remain a piece up against some pawns in the endgame. It finally ended as a dramatic loss for the home side and Zhao leaped to the sole third place. The full report is available now.

 

SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
5	WIM	YILDIZ Betul Cemre	2207	0  -  1	GM	CHEN Zhu	2548	10
6	GM	CRAMLING Pia	2524	½  -  ½	IM	USHENINA Anna	2484	4
7	WGM	YIFAN Hou	2527	½  -  ½	IM	JAVAKHISHVILI Lela	2470	3
8	WGM	XUE Zhao	2517	1  -  0	IM	ATALIK Ekaterina	2408	2
9	IM	DRONAVALLI Harika	2455	½  -  ½	IM	KRUSH Irina	2473	1

Hou Yifan made an early draw against Lela Javakhishvili after the opening to secure the first place with 7 points out of 9 without a single loss and with a commanding performance. Not bad for a 14-year old to play against world's top 100 GMs in Corus, then scoring GM norm in Aeroflot 2008 and winning a top women's event!

 

Left: Pia Cramling and Anna Ushenina Right: Pia Cramling , the runner-up after Yifan

Pia Cramling and Anna Ushenina also drew their games which enabled a shared second place at minimum for the Swedish grandmaster.

Former world champion played against the local youngster Betül Cemre Y?ld?z and won her final game of the tournament. White chose a quiet opening but black had a very slight edge due to more active pieces after the early exchange of queens. Zhu Chen, outplayed her young Turkish opponent and won in the queenless position with bishop, knight and the two rooks are on the board.

Harika Dronavalli and Irina Krush tried for a while to get a win in the end of the first super tournament in Turkey but the game ended peacefully at move 30 after both sides had to repeat the queen moves. White tried to create some danger for the opponent king but her pieces are never active enought to pose big problems around the enemy king. Black seemd to resolve her problem but the attempt to get relief with f6 against white's pressure might not be the safest way to do that since white might have better options but in the end white settled with a draw.
Black tried f6 in this position and this is one of the critical positios since after 22... f6 23.ef6 Nf6 24.Rad1 Kg8 25.Bf6 Qf6 26.Qe5 Qg6 white seems to have some advantage.

Ekaterina Atal?k and Lela Javakhishvili kibitzing


The most tense game of the round, the last game of the tournament ending with a big drama

The most tense and critical game of the round was the game between Xue Zhao and Ekaterina Atal?k. The Turkish player had a chance to share the second place and Chinese player had the chance to surpass her opponent to take the sole third place. The position got exciting right after the opening since white made a typical sacrifice of the g5 bishop with protecting it with h4 pawn after black threatened it with h6.

 
The position where white played 12.h4 hg5 14.hg5 Re8 15.Qh3 Kf8 15.gf6 Qf6 was played...

As expected white had an attack on h fil but the arising position might have been better for black when white offered a piece due to better development. Black gave the piece back in order to escape her king from white battery of heavy pieces and had to give her second piece before move 20!

 

After black was a piece down as a result of the early tactical skirmishes, black had three pawns for the material. Later on black rook was able to infiltrate into white's camp and collect all of her opponent's pawns to enter an endgame with two pawns+rook against rook+bishop. However, the thriller was not over yet.

 

This was where black captured b5 pawn and the position looks like a draw.

 

The last but not definitely not least drama happened here when black played c3 since Rh6 might have held to a draw. After 78...c4 79.Kf6 Rh6 80.Kf7 and now white threatens mate on c8 and black is lost. This win enabled the Chinese player to secure the third place.

These are some impressions from the Second Quarter Presidential Board Meeting in Sheraton Maslak Hotel where the players also stayed.