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侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – Kacper Piorun
7th Chess World Cup; match game 2; Tbilisi, September 4, 2017
French Defence C11

After Anish Giri eliminated Nana Dzagnidze, only one woman eventually remains in the running for the World Cup: four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), who today defeated Polish Grandmaster Kacper Piorun after a tense fight. 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Be7 7. Be3 0-0 8. Qd2 b6 9. Nd1 a5 10. c3 a4 11. Bd3 Ba6 12. Bxa6 Rxa6 13. 0-0 Nc6 14. Bf2! This might be a significant theoretical improvement on 14. f5 as after 14. ... b5 15. fxe6 fxe6 16. Qe2 Qb6 17. Nf2 a3 18. b3 b4 White got literally pythonised: 19. dxc5 Bxc5 20. Bxc5 Nxc5 21. c4 Ne4 22. cxd5 exd5 23. e6 Ne7 24. Kh1 Nc3 25. Qd3 h6 26. Nd1 Qb5 27. Qxb5 Nxb5 28. Nf2 Rxe6 29. Nd3 Nc6 30. Rfc1 Nc3 31. Nxb4 Nxb4 32. Rxc3 Re2 33. Rc7 Ra8 34. Nd4 Rxa2 35. Rf1 Rd2 36. h3 a2 0 : 1 Giri – Harikrishna, 4th Norway Chess, Stavanger 2016. 14. ... b5 15. f5 Kh8 16. Qe2 Qb6 17. Ne3 cxd4 18. cxd4 Nxd4 19. Nxd4 Qxd4 20. Qxb5 Nb8 21. Nc2 Qxe5 22. fxe6 Qxe6 23. Rad1 Rd8 24. Nd4 Qg6 25. Rfe1 Qf6. Both are struggling hard to jump into the next round, but their time ran down to only a couple of minutes each. It is not enough to have certainties about the outcome. 26. Qb7 Bf8 27. Nf3 Qf5 28. Re5 Qc8 29. Qxf7 Rf6 30. Qh5 Nc6 31. Rexd5 Rxd5 32. Rxd5 Nb4 33. Rd1 Qc2. Not yet 33. ... Nxa2? because 34. Bd4! Qf5 35. Qe8! would give White a very powerful attack. 34. Rf1 Nxa2 35. Bd4 Rf5 36. Qe8 Nb4? With about fifty seconds left, Piorun forgiveably did not guess his lucky number: 36. ... Nc1! 37. Kh1! Qc4 with a very unclear game.

37. g4! Surely Piorun must have overlooked this terrific blow, which, unfortunately for him, wins neatly and instantly. On the other hand, it should be noted that White played it with only forty seconds left on her clock. 37. ... Rf4 38. Bxg7+! Kxg7 39. Qe5+ Rf6. Had the Black Knight have been on c1, he would now have played 39. ... Kg8 as White could not have taken the Rook because of the Knight fork on e2. 40. Nd4 Qg6 41. g5 Bc5. It seems Black was still hoping to win the last trick, but... 42. Kh1! 1 : 0. For after 42. ... Bxd4 43. gxf6+ Qxf6 44. Qc7+ it’s all over.

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán). Photo: Anastasia Karlovich.