妈祖 (Māzǔ)

居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) – 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí)
Women’s World Chess Championship match game 10; 重庆 (Chóngqìng), May 18, 2018
Modern Defence B06

1. d4 g6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. e4 d6 4. Bc4 e6 5. 0-0 Ne7 6. a4 Nd7. For her (possibly) last parade as Women’s World Champion, 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí) retorts to the Hippopotamus formation, which consists in placing her Pawns along the third (sixth) rank. It may offer no targets for White (in the best of hypothesis), but also zero winning prospects for Black. Probably 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí) was already resigned to her fate. 7. c3 a5 8. Re1 b6 9. Na3 h6 10. Bd3!? On her (possibly) last apparition as a challenger, 上海 (Shànghǎi)’s girl plays very confidently, without erring into digressive theory: 10. h3 Bb7 11. Bf4 g5 12. Bg3 Ng6 13. Qd2 Nf6 14. Bd3 Nh5 15. Bh2 Nhf4 16. Bb5+ Kf8 17. Bf1 Qf6 which seemed like the best Black could hope for, Huss – Romanov, 6th Zürich Chess Challenge (Kortschnoi Open), Zürich 2017. 10. ... Bb7 11. Nc4 0-0 12. Qe2 e5 13. dxe5 dxe5 14. b3 Qb8 15. Ba3 c5 16. Rad1 Rd8 17. Bc1 Bc6 18. Bc2 Qc7 19. Na3

19. ... g5? Quite curiously, it’s the g-Pawn that marks the doom of the last game of the Women’s World Championship match. Objectively speaking, however, 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí) had to invent something in order to turn a situation that hadn’t gone well. In the position of the diagram, indeed, White already enjoyed a crystal clear spatial and positional advantage, and probably there was no longer a way up for Black. 20. h4! g4 21. Nh2 h5 22. f3 gxf3 23. Qxf3 Ng6 24. Bg5 f6 25. Qxh5 Ndf8 26. Be3 Be8 27. Qg4 Bd7 28. Qh5. 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn), although being in a totally won position, is happy to nobly concede her opponent a draw by repetition. 28. ... Be6. No, 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí) says. 29. Nb5 Qe7 30. Ng4 Rxd1 31. Rxd1 Rd8 32. Rxd8 Qxd8 33. Nh6+ Bxh6 34. Bxh6 Bf7 35. Qg4 Be6 36. Qg3 Kh7 37. Be3 Qd7 38. Qf2 Qe7 39. g3 Bg4 40. Qd2 Ne6 41. Kh2 Ng7 42. Nd6 Qd7 43. Nc4 Qf7 44. Nd6 Qg8 45. Qf2 Qd8 46. Qd2 Nh5 47. Nf5 Qg8 48. Qd5 Qf8 49. Bh6 Qe8 50. Qb7+ Kg8 51. Ng7. 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) just doesn’t want to win (after 51. Qxb6 White simply gobbles up all of Black’s Pawns on the Queenside), and, indeed, she will succeed in composing a draw position which will be unrefusable even for the proud 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí). 51. ... Qe7 52. Qxe7 Nxe7 53. Nxh5 Bxh5 54. Kg2 Kf7 55. Kf2 Nc8 56. Bd2 Nd6 57. b4 Ke7 58. bxa5 bxa5 59. Be3 Nb7 60. Bb3 Kd6 61. Bc4 Nd8 62. Be2 Be8 63. Bd1 Bg6 64. Kf3 Ne6 65. g4 Bf7 66. Bc2 Kc6 67. Kg3 c4 68. h5 Ng5 69. Bxg5 fxg5 70. Kf3 ½ : ½

居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) (left) vs. 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí) (right). Photo: cca.imsa.cn.

居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) is the 17th Women’s World Champion in chess history and China’s sixth Women’s World Champion. Photo: cca.imsa.cn.