Sports
World Women's Chess: Harika draws against Mariya, duel enters tie-breaker
By
Venkatachari Jagannathan Chennai, March 30
Indian chess Grandmaster
Harika Dronavalli on Monday drew against Ukraine Women GM (WGM) Mariya
Muzychuk in 78 moves in the World Women's Chess Championship 2015
semi-final at Sochi in Russia.
In the other return semi-final
game, Russian WGM Natalija Pogonina took sweet revenge for her loss on
Sunday by defeating Swedish GM Pia Cramling in 38 moves.
The contests between the semi-finalists now enters the tie-breaker. The two finalists will emerge in the play-offs on Tuesday.
Playing
white pieces, Dronavalli -- with FIDE Elo rating 2492 and ranked 16th
in the world -- opened the game by putting her knight at f3 square.
The Ukraine opted for Dutch defence and pushed her 'f' pawn two squares forward.
"In the Dutch defence, Muzychuk has chosen a sideline variation and not the mainline," WGM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman told IANS.
According to Subbaraman, both the players have contrasting styles.
"While
Mariya is more open and aggressive, as could be seen from the choice of
defence, Harika is a positional player," Subbaraman said.
"To
win in the knockout format, players need to play smart and steady chess.
Gambling may yield short-term dividends but will not work overall,"
Susan Polgar, a four-time women's world chess champion, told IANS.
"Harika
has played steady chess so far and that is why she is still in it. In
this game, she is playing solidly for results. I like her choice of
opening. She is controlling the pace of this game. If her opponent does
not play accurately, she (Harika) will take advantage of that," Polgar
added.
On the 7th move, both took their kings to safety by castling.
Both players also fianchettoed all their bishops.
However, Dronavalli started lagging on time unlike on Sunday when she had the time advantage during the first half of the game.
Soon Mariya started pushing her queen-side pawns thereby opening up the space.
On the 30th move, the Ukrainian went for exchange of queens and seven moves later the players traded one of their rooks.
At this position, each player had a rook. Dronavalli had four connected pawns to Muzychuk's three.
"Though Harika had a slender advantage throughout the game, it was not enough to win," Subbaraman said.
The
semi-final contests consist of two games. If the score after two games
remains equal, the match is continued in the tie-break.