Women's World Championship, Game 2: Hou Wins With White in an Open Ruy
It's so far, so good for the favorite in the 2016 Women's World Chess Championship, as Hou Yifan dispatched Mariya Muzychuk pretty convincingly on the white side of an Open Ruy. Hou's 14.Bf4 was a rare move, allowing Muzychuk to damage her (White's) kingside pawn structure in return for the bishop pair and some kingside attacking possibilities (notably f3-f4-f5).
The idea may have been for one game only, but in this case it proved effective. Hou also wisely avoided any immediate commitments to a kingside attack, and moves like 16.Rfd1 and 19.a4 forced Muzychuk to burn a lot of time worrying about White's queenside possibilities as well. Muzychuk's decision to play 19...Nd8 was ill-advised, and although Hou's inaccurate 26th move gave Muzychuk one chance to save the game, Black was overwhelmed from that point on. Muzychuk managed but a single cheapo at the end of the game, which came after Hou's 32nd move won a piece. (My analysis of the game is here.)
The players have Friday off, and resume on Saturday and Sunday.
Reader Comments (2)
Well, the first intangible (taking an early lead) didn't go Muzychuk's way. It would behoove her to win with White on Saturday, since Hou has two consecutive games with White in games 4 and 5.
Muzychuk was asked in the post-game press conference about the possibility of 17...Na5! when she said she started to dislike her position after 17.Qe3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9v7JmJwqE&t=3m41s). She said she didn't like 18.b3 (preventing Nc4, I suppose) 18...c5 19.a4 Nc6 20.axb5 axb5 21.Ra6 (when 21...Ra8 fails to 22.Qd3! g6 23.Rxa8 Rxa8 24.Qxd5) – missing the strong 19...c4! (e.g., 20.axb5 cxb3 or 20.b4 Nc6 21.axb5 axb5 22.Ra6 Ra8 and now Black is perfectly fine – no Qd3, and 23.Rda1 can be met by 23…Nxb4!).
She was also asked about 19…b4 and said she didn’t know how to react to 20.a5 with the idea of Ba4, and her rook is clearly misplaced on d7.
[DM: Thanks - comments like this are very helpful!]