Round by round results
| Rd. | Bo. | SNo | Name | Rtg | FED | Pts. | Res. | |
| 1 | 25 | 93 | FM | Schiendorfer Emanuel | 2354 | SUI | 5.0 | w 1 |
| 2 | 21 | 61 | IM | Hunt Adam C | 2462 | ENG | 4.5 | s 1 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | GM | Almasi Zoltan | 2717 | HUN | 6.0 | w 1 |
| 4 | 1 | 3 | GM | Adams Michael | 2724 | ENG | 6.5 | w ½ |
| 5 | 5 | 11 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2700 | IND | 6.0 | s 0 |
| 6 | 18 | 57 | IM | Muzychuk Mariya | 2483 | UKR | 4.5 | s 1 |
| 7 | 7 | 6 | GM | Polgar Judit | 2710 | HUN | 5.5 | w 1 |
| 8 | 3 | 5 | GM | Le Quang Liem | 2714 | VIE | 5.5 | w 1 |
| 9 | 2 | 7 | GM | Shirov Alexei | 2710 | LAT | 6.0 | s 1 |
Going into the final round, Hou Yifan is leading Gibraltar with 7.5 points / 9, with wins over four 2700+ players!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I think she is just lucky.
I am impressed!! I’m sure a few players are surprised that they were beat by a 17 year old girl.
whoa…this is phenomena indeed…she even beat legendary polgar and shirov…what else can i say…another genius born…still young and she is asian woman…whoaaa…
Yifan is becoming the strongest female player ever….I believe she can do it!
I give Hou Yifan a lot of credit and courage to duke it out with the greats!She is a extremely talented and a force to be reckoned with! No doubt she has cemented her place in the history books as one of the strongest female chess players.
With that said, looking at the games (and I am by no means her strength), it is nothing like what Judit did in the past; her brilliant wins against Anand, Topalov and many other elite GMs is truly remarkable. In this tournament, yes she beat Polgar, but I do not believe Judit unleashed her genius on the young phenom. Look at Judit’s game against Koneru; she got nothing from the opening.
I am prepared to say that JUDIT SIMPLY PLAYS BETTER AGAINST MEN THAN WOMEN. JUDIT HAD MUCH MORE TO LOSE THAN THE TWO WOMEN SHE PLAYED AND THIS FACT ALONE CAN BREAK DOWN NERVES.
Now that this is out of the way, Lie Quang had a good game going against Hou and of course gave her a gift with Bc5. Almasi, well… he deserved his loss and got outplayed. Shirov? For crying out loud, this was not a position to lose at all. But another gift to the young phenom who never let go of this golden opportunity. Judit, the great attacking genius who plays till the very last pawn, was probably too focused on the “historic nature of their encounter” and lost her way in a dead even position.
I won’t use the word lucky here but… it is not yet what the great Judit Polgar has done in her career. I will say this, it was painful to read the news about Hou beating Polgar. I LOVE Judit sooo much!
Ptionvlloi: good comments, although the game against Le was extremely complicated, and “gifts” tend to happen when a player puts another player in a difficult and complex situation.
But I agree with your overall point. Yifan is not yet Judit. But she is only 17. It is my hope that she gets the right kind of coaching and training and one day becomes one of the top players in the world. I think she has the potential.
On a related note, the fact that Judit played against so many women in this tournament is an indication of how much women’s chess has improved in the last few years. Six women have 6 points or more going into the last round. I hope that Susan Polgar is very proud of the trail she helped to blaze.
“I think she is just lucky.”
Really? She has played 6 2700+ so far, more than any other player in this tournament. The record so far is 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.
Sasikiran exploited Hou’s weakness. He was not over awed by her beauty
Thank you for the comment. The Polgar sisters have in fact elevated, so to speak, the level of play among women who aspire to be one of the next Polgar sisters.
I agree that errors are prone under duress. Think for a moment Carlsen vs Vallejo Pons (Paco)in a very recent tournament. Certainly, Carlsen committed an outright blunder he doesn’t usually make. Aronian was not awarded what I think was a brilliancy against Giri at Tata Steel because “he was helped somewhat by Giri” (according to those who allocate the prize money for best game)who commited some unforced errors that hastened his demise. Yes, a win is a win. And I don’t wish to take anything from this worthy champion that is Hou Yifan. BC5 by Le (without any serious time pressure I believe) and with that, a swift end of the game is hardly a worthy game.But it is a win…
Having said that, it is a bit puzzling the level of chess the elite GMs are making against the young prodigy. I think of all the 2700 club, Almasi was the one who clearly was outplayed. And that does say a lot of Hou’s strength and potential.
In contrast, the battles between Anand vs Judit, Topalov vs Judit and many other swashbuckling attacks by the chess prodigy Judit Polgar attest to who is still queen of chess at the highest level. Your point is well taken however.
Ptionvilloi – Le never considered that Bc5 was a mistake simply because Yifan’s strong plans leading up to that position took the rest of his time to consider. In mutual time trouble, they were both playing extremely well, so to say Bc5 was a gift, does injustice to chess.