In the contest to see who will face Ju Wenjun in the next Women's World Championship match, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Nana Dzagnidze are the early leaders.
Goryachkina had nothing special against Valentina Gunina, and if Gunina had swapped on e3 on move 35 the game probably would have been drawn in a few moves. Instead, she did something else, allowing Goryachkina to keep the minor pieces on the board, with a serious advantage. She didn't make the most of that edge, but when Gunina got cute with 69...Kxg4?? instead of the routine, drawing 69...Kg6, she found the nice shot 72.Nh4!!, winning. Generally it's Gunina who finds these tactical tricks, as she did yesterday, but this time she's the one who slipped on the banana peel.
Dzagnidze's win, by contrast, came a bit at a time. Anna Muzychuk enjoyed a positional advantage after the opening, but allowed Dzagnidze to create a dynamic position that favored the latter's bishop pair. Muzychuk played almost as if she was sleepwalking, allowing Dzagnidze to build a crushing attacking position which she converted with ease.
The other two games were drawn, though not without incident. Had Kateryna Lagno played either 19.Bxd4 or 28.h4 against Alexandra Kosteniuk, she would have had excellent winning chances, while Mariya Muzychuk might have had a meaningful plus against Tan Zhongyi with 26...g6.
All the round 1 games were drawn, so Goryachkina and Dzagnidze have 1.5/2, Gunina and Anna Muzychuk have half a point, and everyone else has 1. Twelve rounds remain in this double round-robin.
The round 2 games are here, with my brief comments.