Tehran WWCh: Second games of the Semifinals

In the return game of the semi-final clash, Alexandra Kosteniuk lost against Anna Muzychuk and was eliminated from the Women’s World Championship. Harika Dronavalli made a comeback by winning an epic battle against Tan Zhongyi.
It seems Alexandra Kosteniuk didn’t manage to recover after yesterday’s loss. In a must-win situation she decided not to exchange queens after 7…dc and ended up in a worse position after 8.e5 Ng8. Anna Muzychuk increased her advantage and won the game to become the first finalist of the World Championship.

In what turned to be the longest game of the tournament, Harika Dronavalli had many chances to finish the game more than 100 moves earlier.

She missed the opportunity to give a force mate in 5 after 57.Qe7! Kc8 58.Bd3!

It’s hard to explain why Harika decided to change the queens a few moves later but instead of completely winning position she transferred the game into an ending with drawish chances for Black. Nevertheless, with a precise play Indian player managed to get a position with Knight and Bishop vs King. It was clear that Harika had problems to remember the winning plan after 6 hours of play and her opponent decided to check her technique. After 45 moves White finally managed to create a mating net.

The matches is tied, and the outcome will be determined on tie-breaks on 25th of February.

See also:

• Official website
• All the games with computer analysis on chess24

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