The Wild Bunch

居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) – 彭肇勤 (Péng Zhàoqín)
43rd Women’s Chess Olympiad; Batumi, October 1, 2018
Sicilian Defence B51

Not only China and Ukraine, but also Armenia, Romania, United States, India, Azerbaijan, and even Italy — not to mention many others — can still win gold at the 43rd Women’s Olympiads. The Chinese had things quite easy yesterday against the Netherlands, but very likely the easiness won’t last long. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. 0-0 Bd7 5. Re1 a6 6. Bf1 Bg4 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 Nf6 9. d3 g6 10. c3 Bg7 11. Be3 0-0 12. Nd2 Nd7 13. Qd1. It may be interesting to note that 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) herself, playing with Black against a well known theoretician, did not succeed in achieving more than a laborious draw by perpetual check after 13. Qe2 b5 14. a3 e5 15. f4 f5 16. g3 Qc7 17. Bg2 Rae8 18. Rf1 Kh8 19. Qf3 Ne7 20. a4 fxe4 21. dxe4 exf4 22. gxf4 d5 23. exd5 Nxd5 24. Qxd5 Rxe3 25. axb5 axb5 26. Ne4 Re2 27. Rad1 Nf6 28. Qxc5 Qb7 29. Nf2 Qb8 30. Nd3 Nh5 31. Bf3 Nxf4 32. Nxf4 Qxf4 33. Bxe2 Qg3+ 34. Kh1 Qxh3+ 35. Kg1 Qg3+ ½ : ½ Lane – 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn), 8th Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2011. 13. ... b5 14. Nf3 Nb6 15. d4 cxd4. This might well be the cause of all Black’s trouble. More convincing seems to be 15. ... Na4 16. Re2 Qa5 17. Rc1 Rad8 18. Rec2 Qc7 19. b3 Nb6 20. a4 bxa4 21. bxa4 c4 22. a5 Nxa5 23. Ra1 Nb3 24. Rxa6 d5 25. exd5 Nxd5 26. Qe2 Na5 27. Bd2 Ra8 28. Rxa8 Rxa8 29. Ra2 Rc8 30. Ng5 Nb3= 31. Qxc4! Nxd2? (after 31. ... Qb7! Black is at least equal) 32. Qxd5 Nxf1 33. Nxf7 e6 34. Qxe6 Rf8 35. Ne5+ Kh8 36. Kxf1 1 : 0 Ponomariov – Caruana, 40th Sparkassen Chess Meeting, Dortmund 2012. 16. cxd4 d5. No better is 16. ... Rc8 17. b3 Nb4 18. Rc1 Nxa2 19. Rxc8 Qxc8 20. Qa1 Nc3 21. Qa5 Na8 22. Bd2 with great advantage to White, Zubarev – Kuzubov, 83rd Ukrainian Chess Championship, Lviv 2014. 17. e5 Qd7 18. b3 Rfc8. An uninfluential novelty. The three-time Chinese Women’s Champion and fourteen-time Dutch Women’s Champion got entangled into a serialised data stream which ends badly for Black: 18. ... Nd8 19. Qd2 a5 20. h4 Ne6 21. h5 Rfc8 22. g3 b4 23. Rec1 Rxc1 24. Rxc1 Rc8 25. Bh3 Rxc1+ 26. Qxc1 Qc7 27. Bxe6 Qxc1+ 28. Bxc1 fxe6 29. hxg6 hxg6 30. Kf1 Na8 31. a3 Nc7 32. axb4 axb4 33. Bd2 Na6 34. Ke2 Bf8 35. Kd3 Nc7 36. Bxb4 Kf7 37. Ba5 1 : 0 A. Kovačević – Vujačić, International Chess Open, Cetinje 2016. These are things that often happen in classical chess. 19. Qd2 Nd8 20. Rec1 Rxc1 21. Rxc1 Rc8 22. h4 Rxc1 23. Qxc1 Qc6 24. Qd2 Na8 25. h5 Nc7 26. g3 Nce6 27. Bg2 f6 28. exf6 exf6 29. Nh4 Kf7 30. Qd3 Nf8 31. Qd1 Nde6 32. Qf3 Nc7 33. Bf1 Nfe6? Black didn’t manage to get out of the “written script”, and 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn)’s finish comes energetically and naturally:

34. hxg6+ hxg6 35. Bd3 Nf8 36. Nxg6! Nxg6 37. Qh5 f5 38. Qxf5+ 1 : 0.

居文君 (Jū Wénjūn). Photo: batumi2018.fide.com.