Today it was Ladies’ Day. Although they were placed high in the rankings, our female participants scored 2.5 points in the Open. Hungarian Anna Rudolf, who had won the day prize for the most beautiful game in round 4, got no more than a draw against grandmaster Malaniuk, but of course she wasn’t dissatisfied with this. Belgian Olympiad player Hanne Goossens lost to Jan Boersma. But Sopiko Guramishvili, who’s been playing right below the top in the entire tournament so far, won convincingly.
Guramishvili - Hambleton
With some pushing and pulling, Guramishvili has gained a pawn. Now Hambleton starts a counterattack, which at first sight looks sufficient to draw.
41.e5 Be4 42.Bxe4 Nxe4 43.e6! fxe6 44.dxe6 Nd2
Setting up a drawing mechanism. But Sopiko has seen a little further.
45.Ra8+!
Not the only win, but the most elegant.
45...Kh7 46.e7 Nf3+ 47.Kf1 Rd2
48.Nd4!
Again the most attractive move. 48.Ra3 would also have won. The Canadian resigned.
In this round, Raghavi Nagarajan (Nagarajan is her ‘father’s name’ – what we call the surname, which is put in front in India) defeated an IM with an even more beautiful name: Joaquin Miguel Antoli Royo. The WIM from India hadn’t thought so much about this. It was however, surprising that she’d rounded up a player with 200 Elo points more. ‘But all Indians are underrated’, she claimed. ‘This is because many 2400-2500 players only play in their own country. They are tactically strong, and they don’t blunder very often.’ She told us that the opening went well for the Spaniard. ‘But after that things quickly went wrong for him. I don’t even know exactly how.’
Antoli Royo - Nagarajan
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 c5 4.Bd3 Be7 5.0–0 b6 6.c4 cxd4 7.exd4 d5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Ne5 0–0 10.Qh5 f5 11.Bc4!?
Raghavi said that White should have thought about his development here: 11.Nc3.
11...Ba6 12.Qe2 Bxc4 13.Nxc4 Qd7!? 14.Re1?
This cannot be called a developing move either, especially after Black’s reply:
14...Nc6! 15.Ne5 Nxe5 16.dxe5
16.Qxe5 Bf6! 17.Qxe6+ Qxe6 18.Rxe6 Bxd4 also favours Black.
16...Rac8
Black already has a terrific position.
17.a3 Qa4! 18.Bd2 Rc2 19.Qd1 Qb3 20.Bc1 Bc5 21.Rf1
21...Rxf2!
An attractive finish. That’s how fast it can go! White resigned, and we don’t have to tell you why.
