GM-elect Hou (2557) – GM Kosteniuk (2510) [C88]
WWC – Nalchik, 14.09.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.a3 d6 9.c3 Bg4 10.d3 Na5 11.Bc2 c5 12.h3 Bd7 13.d4 Qc7 14.d5 c4 15.Nbd2 Nb7 16.Nf1 Nc5 17.g4 h5 18.N3h2 hxg4 19.hxg4 Qc8 20.f3 Nh7 21.Ng3 Bg5 22.Nf5 Qd8 23.Kg2 g6 24.Ng3 Kg7 25.Rh1 Rh8 26.Nhf1 Qf6 27.Be3 Bxe3 28.Nxe3 Ng5 29.Qe2 Rag8 30.Raf1 Qf4 31.Rxh8 Rxh8 32.Rh1 Rxh1 33.Nxh1 Nd3 34.Bxd3 cxd3 35.Qf2 d2 36.Ng3 Nxf3 37.Qxf3 Bxg4 38.Qf2 d1Q 39.Nxd1 Bxd1 40.Qe1 Bf3+ 41.Kg1 f5 42.exf5 gxf5 43.Qf2 Kg6 44.b3 e4 45.c4 bxc4 46.bxc4 Qg5 47.c5 f4 48.cxd6 fxg3 Black wins 0–1
Click here to replay the game.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
33… Nd3! was the key, while changing rooks brought only misery!
Tomorrow there’s more, so we’ll see…
Rui leprechaun
(…who shall cheer the victory! :))
Very well played by Kosteniuk.
17.g4 looks suspicious. Optimism of youth?
great game by Kosteniuk
Go Alexandra!
Dunno, I thought Hou was lost several moves before Nd3.
Hou lacks experience in the Ruy Lopez. Methinks she’s usually too eager to release the pressure with d5, and she certainly mishandled the kingside play. All her dark squares became weak, the knights and queen infiltrated, and that was it.
Gee, Susan. Isn’t the story “Kosteniuk won game 1 with Black”?
I have never heard of this Kosteniuk.
Hou is the higher rated player and she lost with White. That’s the story. Susan got it right on.
Yifan Hou is the superstar in this tournament along with Koneru. She’s the top billing. If she loses, that’s an upset.
Humpy up against Chinese prodigy
9 Sep 2008, 2321 hrs IST , TNN
PUNE: With due respect to other semifinalists – Pia Cramling of Sweden and Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk – it’s China’s Hou Yifan who stands between Koneru Humpy and the women’s world chess title at Nalchik in Russia.
This is Alexandra’s second time playing in the world title match. She has been at or near the very top for many years now.
Until people saw Topalov win Bilbao this week, some had begun to forget that he could still dominate. Topalov has been around awhile, and Carlsen is the exciting new player.
I think the same perceptual mistake occurred with Alexandra. Just like Topalov did, she is reminding everyone of her prowess by her excellent play.
Congratulations to the worlds #1 chess promoter for winning with black.
Hou could it have cost an yuk?
Well, did we read Humpy lost against Hou where she was the one with higher rating?
Anyway … a g4-setup in Spanish is nothing strange! I agree Nd3 is the killing move and therefore probably the exchange of all rooks was the error. However, although not winning till the last moves, black was comfortable all the game, so white’s opening was not success in posing problems.
The 14-year-old Chinese prodigy, quite easily, is the most dangerous opponent in the draw. She had had memorable wins over Smeets, Short, Sutovsky and Sargissian in her short career.
‘S’s are not important. ‘K’s – that’s the real problem.
I have a feelin this is going to be a rollover. Alexandra is vicious!
On an earlier thread I mentioned getting Hou into positions she isn’t experienced in, and this game seems like another example.
Hou:
1. Didn’t know how to attack on the kingside. Almost immediately Black took control of the kingside, which is supposed to be white’s area of strength in such Ruy Lopez positions.
2. Hou simply didn’t sense the passivity of the Nh2, f3 approach which left her dark squares fatally weak. She retained false hope of a crushing kingside attack, probably.
These are blindspots I also had early on before the lessons were bashed into me.
As an additional comment, Hou seems most dangerous in fluid, tactical positions. She seems to handle them particularly well.
I think you don’t have to tell Hou about black squares. Black’s Bg5 is so thematic that any 2000+ player knows and has seen this manouvre many times in his carreer.
She probably underestimated the timing of it all in her setup. ‘Blind spots’ are hughely exaggerated terms.
Don’t count Hou out yet, she’s refreshing and ominous. Even if she fails in this final she has proven her point for near future,
“17.g4 looks suspicious. Optimism of youth?”
Think so. This attempt is often refuted in exactly the way Kosteniuk showed today.
“17.g4 looks suspicious. Optimism of youth?”
“Think so. This attempt is often refuted in exactly the way Kosteniuk showed today.”
Aftermath of wannabees?
Think so.
now here we have a perfect example of a completely empty “what do you know of life?”-type question.
“Aftermath of wannabees?”
that’s the type of rhetoric question obnoxious people, who deem themselves very intelligent but usually are quite mediocre characters, like to ask
back to chess: of course kosteniuk’s h5 was a response that can be seen in a number of different openings against attacking attempts based on g4.
after removing the king from 8th rank and putting the rook on h8, black took the initiative.
now paying credit to hou: it is often very difficult to find a sound attacking plan in such spanish positions.
‘now paying credit to hou: it is often very difficult to find a sound attacking plan in such spanish positions.’
No credit for Hou. She finaly got an opponent who plays chess, not washes dishes. Alexandra will rule the world of womans chess next 10 years. Mark my words!!
Good luck Kosteniuk….i think is better than hou you fan. is my opinion.