Women's World Championship, Game 1: Hou Draws Easily With Black
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 11:09PM
Dennis Monokroussos in 2016 Women's World Championship, Hou Yifan, Mariya Muzychuk

One game down, (up to) 11 to go. The first one was a bit of a snoozer, which is common in the early games of a world championship match. The players are settling in, seeing what openings the other player has prepared, and are checking their own form before taking any serious risks. Thus today's easy draw was a good result for the player with Black - Hou Yifan - but as both she and the defending champion (and underdog) Mariya Muzychuk played very cautiously there's probably no broader lesson to be learned just yet.

My annotations to game 1 of the match are here. Game 2 is tomorrow/today (Thursday).

Article originally appeared on The Chess Mind (http://www.thechessmind.net/).
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