First sensation of the “North Urals Cup 2008”

The Second Round: All Games were Resulting (Decisive)!

In the second round all participants of the super tournament satisfied our expectations. All four matches were resulting.

Marie Sebag was the first to win. She magnificently outplayed Humpy Koneru. The Indian player is not so lucky in the tournament. She has the highest rating in the table and it was expected that she would be one of the obvious favourites. But at the first press conference Hupmy confessed that she doesn’t consider herself to be the favourite. She said, “The opponents are strong and it is difficult to predict who will be the leader”. Now after two defeats the holder of the second rating of the world is the last in the list. It is the first sensation of the “North Urals Cup 2008”!

The second match to finish was the one between Antoaneta Stefanova and Russian player Natalya Pogonina. Natalya playing black in response to d4 chose Volzhsky gambit. In the previous match of Bulgarian player and Pogonina Stefanova playing white took the sacrifice and won. At this time she decided to surprise the opponent and prepared rare but quite “poisonous” move Fс2. White did not have a spare Pawn in this variant but on the other hand black were not so active as usually in Volzhsky gambit. So white had insignificant but stable advantage. It was probably unexpected for the Russian player and she spent much time thinking when appeared in an unfamiliar position. Natalya tried to counterplay on the Queen field but Antoaneta managed to break the centre and a weak black Pawn d6 crushed. Stefanova confidently led the match to the victory and thus became the leader of the tournament with hundred-percent result.
Fans had no time to be bored because two remaining games finished unexpectedly.

Pia Cramling was pressing the world champion Xu Yuhua during the whole match. The position of white in the middle game looked as overwhelming. Xu Yuhua playing black had to defense her opened King. And though white “monarch” was in the centre of the board it was in quite a confident position. Pia opened the lines on the King`s field and attacked. Xu Yuhua had to demonstrate her imagination and persistent defense and the patience brought a positive result to her. Cramling began to make mistakes and world champion on the contrary used all chances that appeared. The balance turned to the opposite side and the Chinese player gained her first victory. Nobody could think that this match would end in such a way.

The matches are commented for fans every day at 17.00 in the cultural centre. The grandmaster Vladimir Georgiev (Antoaneta Stefanova`s coach) explains participants` plans and answers all questions. Almost after every move made by Cramling in the middle of the match he exclaimed “Bravo!” But sometimes chess are unpredictable. As they say it is necessary not only to climb the mountain but also to hold the position.

But it was not the only game that ended not the way it was expected after the opening.

The predicted Karo-Kann appeared in the match of two namesakes and compatriots Anna Muzychuk and Anna Ushenina. Muzychuk playing white got the advantage in the opening and was expanding it till the catastrophe suddenly happened. In two moves Anna (now representing Slovenia) lost the piece. She missed the moment when enemy Pawn attacked the Queen which was the only defendant of the Bishop on с4. All the rest was the matter of technique and Ushenina showed it. The only thing we can do now is to hope that this chess “incident” will not affect other matches of the tournament youngest player.

Hence now we have the leader and the outsider of the tournament. Only two rounds have passed. What can we expect? Stefanova`s advantage only half point from her nearest pursuers. So as the Koneru`s backlog. Everything can be changed.

Translation: Olesya Aleynikova
Anna Burtasova,
Press-attache of the “North Urals Cup 2008”
Anna_burtasova(at)hotmail.com