The second round of the women Top10 tournament was at least as exciting as the first round. None of the games finished before move 40. When the smoke had cleared three players had managed to retain the perfect score. With 2 out of 2 the leaders in Eindhoven are: Marta Garcia Martin, Josefine Heinemann and Anastasia Avramidou.
Robin Duson and Petra Papp were the first to finish their game with a threefold repetition after a very exciting Grunfeld. Robin correctly followed the modern recipe in nearly all openings: just march with the h-pawn! In this case it was already known to be the correct procedure in a main line Exchange Variation with 7.Bc4. Robin played well and managed to bury the Grunfeld-bishop on h8 for a serious advantage. This also means that taking the f-pawn on move 20 en passant was a serious mistake that not only led the bishop but also Petra back into the game. Be sure to play through the remainder of the game though. Both players played well in a very dynamic situation and the draw was certainly the correct result.
In a Najdorf with 6.Bd3 both Alicja Sliwicka and Josefine Heinemann knew very well what they were doing. In fact they were following a Karjakin-Svidler game for quite some time. A very principled struggle arose with White boasting a pair of bishops and a queenside majority. Black could hope to get play on the darks squares and in the centre. Alicja could have obtained an appreciable edge with 22.Bg1 (when her queenside majority might become quite effective and her king is safe. Instead she embarked on an ambitious but faulty strategy with 22.Bxe5 and 29.c5. With opposite-coloured bishops on the board Josefine had all the chances as White’s king remains unsafe for the remainder of the game. In the end Alicja sportingly allowed the mate.
Laura Unuk has been a bit unlucky so far. Just like yesterday her Caro-Kann was met by the Advance Variation. Anastasia Avramidou played the opening very well and Laura was in trouble almost from the start. Eventually a single rook ending ensued where White can create two passed pawns on the kingside. Black’s passed a-pawn is no match as endgame theory confirms in such situations. All serious students of the endgame might like to study this game though, for on move 46 there was a single (and difficult) chance to hold the draw with 46…f6!.
Marta Garcia Martin managed to defeat Trisha Kanyamarala with Black in a fine game. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 the Spanish player went for 2…b6, a move that was favoured by World Champion Alekhine well over 100 years ago. Black equalized easily and played dynamically to obtain an initiative. 21…Ne4 was well calculated and evaluated as was demonstrated by the subsequent 25…Bc4. Trisha was lost until she obtained a second lease of life following 40…Bxb5? (the eternal 40th move). Still, practically things remained tough for her. 49.Nxb6 would have resulted in a theoretically drawn ending (a bishop versus three pawns), something you then have to demonstrate of course in a practical game. The decisive mistake was 52.Kg4, as Marta convincingly demonstrated.
Last to leave the tournament hall were Machteld van Foreest and Marsel Efroimski. A draw but not for lack of trying on Marsel’s part. She was comfortable after a Sicilian Taimanov in a queenless middlegame. On move 20 moving the bishop to c6 with the idea of playing for …a5 and …b4 might have led to a serious advantage. Marsel went for an equally logical (and very Sicilian) solution by sacrificing an exchange on c3. An equal but very interesting ending (due to the unbalanced material) was the result. After move 40 Machteld had to do some serious defending, but she passed her test with flying colours. First by returning the exchange on move 44, and then by very accurately offering the trade of bishops. A well-played game from both sides!
In round 3 Josefine and Anastasia will meet. Obviously they can’t both retain a perfect score. The other leader – Marta – has White against Robin Duson.
