Women's World Championship, Game 7: Hou Yifan Leads 4.5-2.5 After A Draw
There had been four prior draws in the Women's World Championship Match between Hou Yifan, the women's #1 and a heavy favorite, and Mariya Muzychuk, the defending champion (she won the title in a knockout competition last year; Hou Yifan was the defending champion but didn't play in the event), and all four had been short and fairly uneventful. The draw in game 7 (Hou had won the two decisive games) at least went a long time: 81 moves. Hou had White, and in the first half of the game she did the pressing - even if there wasn't very much to press for. At some point she slightly overextended, and then it was Muzychuk's turn to pose problems for her opponent. These weren't trivial, but Hou did a nice job of defending in the rook ending and managed to split the point.
With a 4.5-2.5 lead Hou is in a great position to win the best-of-ten game match; in fact, if she can win the next game with Black, the match will be over, and a draw will be almost as good, as she'll only need a single draw in the two remaining games. Stranger things have happened, but it seems that Muzychuk will have to take some serious risks in game eight if she hopes to have a (non-trivial) chance to retain her title.
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