Two months after her 39th birthday, Alexandra Kosteniuk is heading for a success comparable to that she signed when she was world champion (2008-2010). The Russian with the International Chess Federation (FIDE) flag as she hopes to play the Swiss soon, defeated Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk today after drawing with her sister Mariya yesterday to lead the women’s Grand Prix in Munich with a 1.5 point lead over the Indian on Humpy Koneru. In theory, however, his schedule for the last three rounds is very tough.
The special situation of Kosteniuk, who has had dual citizenship since 2009 (she was the absolute champion of Switzerland in 2013), takes a lot of iron out of her confrontations with the Ukrainian sisters (resident in Valencia), with whom she also has more than just correct personal relationships . In any case, both games were very tough fights: Kosteniuk was close to defeat yesterday before drawing with former champion Mariya Muzychuk and today it took a demanding five-hour technical work to defeat Anna.
Kosteniuk has amassed 22.2 Elo points in this tournament so far, he’s moved up to 7th in the world and can move up to 6th if he wins one and draws the other two remaining games. That goal is far from easy, however, as on Saturday the Blacks meet third-placed Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia; on Sunday with white to the 2nd Koneru and on Monday again with black to the up-and-coming Chinese Jiner Zhu, 20 years old, irregular but with enormous talent.
Despite the fact that all games in the 6th round ended in a draw, as well as all but one in the 7th round, the willingness to fight is very high, as is the number of interesting games because of their educational value or their beauty. The negative surprise of the tournament is the poor performance of Kazakh Zhansaya Abdumalik, 23, who explained it to EL PAÍS in Munich on Tuesday: “I am a councilor in the Almaty city council and I also head the local chess federation. Almost every day I have to take care of an urgent matter in addition to preparing and running the games. So it’s very difficult to do well.”
Sixth round: Wagner – Koneru, draw; Zhu – Dzagnidze, draw; Kashlinskaya – A. Muzychuk, draws; Paethz – M. Muzychuk, draws; Kosteniuk – Abdumalik, draw; Tan – Harika, tables.
Seventh round: Harika-Wagner, draw; Abdumalik – Tan, tables; M. Muzychuk – Kosteniuk, draw; A. Muzychuk – E. Paethz, pulls; Dzagnidze-Kashlinskaya, 1-0; Koneru-zhu, draw.
Eighth round: Wagner-Zhu, 0-1; Kashlinskaya-Koneru, 0-1; Paethz-Dzagnidze, 1-0; Kosteniuk – A. Muzychuk, 1:0; Tan – M. Muzychuk, boards; Harika – Abdumalik, draw.
Classification: 1st Cost Iuk 6.5 points; 2. Koneru 5; 3rd-4th Paehtz and Dzagnidze 4.5; 5th-8th Harika, M. Muzychuk, Tan and Zhu 4; 9. A. Muzychuk 3.5; 10th-11th Kashlinskaya and Abdumalik 3; 12 Wagner 2.
Ninth round (Saturday, 3:00 p.m.): Abdumalik-Wagner; M. Muzychuk-Harika; A. Muzychuk – Z. Tan; Dzagnidze-Kosteniuk; Koneru-Paethz; Zhu-Kashlinskaya.
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