Keti in Women's World Championship

[andyburnett]

Keti Arakhamia-Grant is taking part in this 64-player knockout event starting today in Sochi.

Live games, pairings, results, etc can be found here

http://sochi2015.fide.com/en/component/c...live-games

Her 1st round opponent is GM Hoang Thanh Trang, rated 2475, from Hungary.

Good luck Keti!

[andyburnett]

It's interesting - though not necessarily good for your chess improvement! - watching the game with 3 engines 'commenting' on the position as it unfolds.

After 14...Qc5 I simply couldn't work out why Houdini didn't have the most natural move (15.Ne2, which Keti played) in its sights (first 4 choices) at all?

The current position at move 24 seems to favour Keti slightly (Houdini has it at 0.00, Komodo at +0.19 and Stockfish at +0.26) although I personally can't see a way to make progress.

I take it no-one else has the day off from work? Never mind, I'll keep you all updated!

[andyburnett]

Almost a dream ending now (move 33) for Keti; active pieces, static weaknesses to aim at, better king - only slight problem is the clock but I think she can push for the win from here if she reaches the time control ok.

[andyburnett]

and... Keti wins An excellent victory, taking advantage of her opponent's attempt to make something out of nothing in the endgame.

Keti will be Black tomorrow in the mini-match - a draw (or another win obviously) would see her through to the last 32.

[Hugh Brechin]

Excellent stuff - cheers for highlighting this Andy!

[andyburnett]

Game 2 is live just now and Keti, only needing a draw to proceed to the next round, has eschewed her favourite King's Indian Defence for the safer climes of a Queen's Gambit Declined.

The Carlsbad structure which has arisen is generally considered slightly easier for white, but Keti has met white's queenside minority attack with aggression on the king-side and is holding the balance at the moment (move 23).

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://sochi2015.fide.com/en/component/content/article/133-live-games">http://sochi2015.fide.com/en/component/ ... live-games</a><!-- m -->

[andyburnett]

After a long hard-fought endgame, Keti secured the draw she needed to advance to the last 32. Well done!

[andyburnett]

Despite the apparently almost total lack of interest on here (Hugh Brechin's contribution notwithstanding-thanks Hugh) I'll carry on bringing Keti's World Championship (!) progress to you all!

Her 'round of 32' mini-match against Sweden's Pia Cramling began today. A very solid draw ensued, although in the final (drawish) position Keti could have played on a bit, if only to tire out her older opponent!

Tomorrow sees Keti playing with the Black pieces. A win puts her through to the last 16, a loss sees her out of the competition, and another draw would invoke a day of rapid-play, blitz and possibly Armageddon play-offs! To see the disaster's which can strike in the play-offs take a look at today's ChessBase report :O

[Alex Gillies]

Loss for keti !!

Andy this forum is not ideal for these kind of updates - I think there is a demand for decent scottish chess updates via Twitter or facebook - even links to here - but we would need an open forum section

[George Neave]

Loss for keti !!

Andy this forum is not ideal for these kind of updates - I think there is a demand for decent scottish chess updates via Twitter or facebook - even links to here - but we would need an open forum section

I enjoyed the updates. Thanks Andy. Shame it's over.

It continues to be a mystery to me how a seemingly microscopic edge in these symmetric QGD positions can feel so unpleasant for the defender. The engine was saying it was just small edge but by move 21 I would have wanted to resign as it's just so depressing to defend this sort of position.