Women's World Championship, Game 2: Another Draw
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 1:07PM
Dennis Monokroussos in Hou Yifan, Humpy Koneru, Women's World Championship

And again, one where challenger Humpy Koneru had the better chances, despite playing Black. Or maybe because of it, thanks to a very interesting novelty. Hou Yifan played the 5.Nc3 line against the Petroff, and after 5...Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Be3 0-0 8.Qd2, Humpy uncorked the excellent 8...Qe8! After 9.0-0-0 Qa4 (the point!) Black's attacking possibilities at least as strong as White's, and just a few moves later the champion swapped queens and headed for a draw. There was some danger she wouldn't succeed, but after sweating it out to move 42 she saved her half point. 1-1.

Match site here, the game (with my brief comments) here.

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