Sharjah: Chinese Grandmasters Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan drew with their respective 10th round opponents to maintain their top two positions after the penultimate round of the Fide Women’s Grand Prix at the Sharjah Chess Club in Sharjah on Friday.
Ju could not break the Queen’s Indian defence of Koneru Humpy of India and the two players agreed to split point on the 45th move after nearly five hours of play.
The draw gave Ju eight points, a half-point advantage over reigning women’s world champion Hou Yifan, who drew with Batchimeg Tuvshintugs of Mongolia. Batchimeg essayed the Queen’s Gambit Declined and parried the threats of Hou Yifan to force a repetition of position on the 39th move for the draw. The Mongolian is in the third spot with six-and-a-half points.
Former women’s world champion Anna Ushenina of Ukraine drew with Zhao Xue of China to take her tally to six points. Ushenina is in fourth spot.
Zhao used the Queen’s Gambit Accepted and got her Queen trapped after a pawn grab and was forced to repeat position for a draw on the 18th move after one and a half hours of play. Zhao Xue is in a tie with Harika Dronavalli of India on five-and-a-half points.
Dronavalli used the King’s Indian Defence against Elina Danielan of Armenia and got a better pawn structure in the minor piece endgame with connected centre pawns. In the ensuing King and pawn endgame, both players promoted pawns but Dronavalli had an extra pawn to force a win in a marathon 89 moves after nearly six hours of play. Danielan took her tally to five points.
Humpy is in eighth spot with four-and-a-half points, followed by Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia with four points. Zhu Chen of Qatar and Nafisa Muminova of Uzbekistan are next in a tie with three points each. Zhu Chen scored her only win against Kosintseva’s Bogo-Indian defence threatening mate after 35 moves.
Muminova drew with Alina L’Ami of Romania, who is winless with one-and-a-half points at the bottom of the ladder. Hou Yifan has an easy assignment in the last round while Ju Wenjun faces Kosintseva.
