Zhu Chen wins a gruelling battle

ARVIND AARON

AFTER an all-decisive eight-game final against local favourite Alexandra Kosteniuk, Zhu Chen became the second player from China and the ninth ever to be crowned the women's World chess champion at the end of the 20-day event in Moscow's most prestigious venue.

The result meant that China, also the Olympic gold medal winner, retained its supremacy in women's chess by keeping the individual title for a two-year term. For Zhu Chen, who had previously won the World under-12 girls' championship once and the World under-20 girls' title twice, it was her fourth world title. By winning the most prestigious women's title, Zhu Chen, a professional from China has fulfilled her desire of the last five years.

With plenty of experience, being in the world top 10 for almost a decade, and an ability to mix classical chess and rapid chess when the situation required, Zhu Chen was able to blend these factors to win the title. Fatigue was her rival and she had to spend some sleepless nights before reaching another important milestone in her career.

Zhu Chen was assisted by various Chinese players as acting trainers and her chief trainer was GM Xu Jun. Success couldn't have come at a better time to her since she married her fiance GM Mohammad Al-Modiahki of Qatar last year and she now has stability in her thought and a lot of patience in handling difficult moments.

The women's World championship was held alongside the men's event from November 25 to December 14 at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow. The 64-player knock-out contest had a prize fund of half a million dollars with the winner Zhu Chen picking up $100,000.

Even as early as November 1, when the pairings were known, a new women's World champion became a certainty. This was because Xie Jun, the defending champion from China did not compete and so was last year's finalist Qin Kanying. There was no official reason stated by Xie Jun but the Chinese officials who made it to Moscow said she considered the format 'boring'. Qin Kanying was pregnant and could not make it.

The four-game final between the 17-year-old model-cum-chess player Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia and Zhu Chen was one of the most interesting and fascinating finals ever contested in women's chess. The result of the four classical games was 2-2 with both players in lead at least once. All the four games were decisive.

Kosteniuk snatched the lead in game one taming a tired Zhu Chen. In the next two games, the 25-year-old Chinese fought back showing great resilience to win and take a 2-1 lead. Kosteniuk, who was the darling of the spectators, won game four through a combination to level the scores at 2-2.

The local spectators had something to cheer about after Anatoly Karpov's exit in round one in the men's section. After Kosteniuk took the lead in game one, the Chinese camp felt that the Russian was good at open positions. It paid them good dividends as Zhu Chen played to her potential and started winning. In the tie-break, the players continued their decisive spell, showing no fear, whatsoever. After white won the three games, Zhu Chen, who was leading 2-1, won the game with the black pieces to clinch the issue and join the elite company of women's World champions.

Speaking about the eight decisive games in this match, commentator GM Yuri Razuvaev of Russia termed it as 'boxing'. It was a very close match and could have gone either way. The only factor which mattered was how much more the players could afford to get tired. The older Zhu Chen was able to stretch herself a bit more in the end and it mattered the most as she won her first World title match with a result of 2-2 in classical chess and 3-1 in rapid tie-break. For the first time in history, all games in a title match were decisive.

Undoubtedly, the losing finalist, Kosteniuk, was the find of the tournament. Her play evoked sharp battles and she accepted positive challenges. She doesn't compromise on any count and her style of play will be the one FIDE will be looking forward to, to promote knock-out competitions in the future.

One can make out from her results as the 17-year-old drew only two games out of the 20 she played. Formally dressed for each game, the elegant model was the cynosure with the Anand-Ivanchuk and Ponomariov-Svidler men's semifinal games happening as side shows.

Kosteniuk was more efficient than Zhu Chen, playing just 12 games to reach the finals. Zhu Chen slogged 19 games and even scored one blitz victory over Khurtsidze to move into the last four. Kosteniuk bounced back more often losing six games in the event to Zhu Chen's five.

Zhu Chen took home $50,000, with FIDE taking a 20 per cent cut on the $100,000 prize money and the Chinese Government taking away another 30 per cent. Kosteniuk who received $50,000 in prize money would have to give away a similar amount to FIDE but not to the Russian Government.

Zhu Chen started as the sixth seed behind Galliamova, Chiburdanidze, Kovalevskaya, Wang Pin and Xu Yuhua. Kosteniuk was the 17th seed but used the advantage of being a Moscow resident unlike Karpov in the men's section.

On her course to the title, Zhu Chen eliminated Elisa Maggiolo 1.5-0.5, Svetlana Petrenko 1.5-0.5, Alisa Maric 1-1, 2-0, Nino Khurtsidze 1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-0, Maya Chiburdanidze 1-1, 1.5-0.5, and Alexandra Kosteniuk 2-2, 3-1.

Alexandra Kosteniuk did well to deserve the runner-up prize as she beat Jennifer Shahade 2-0, Hoang Thanh Trang 1.5-0.5, Alisa Galliamova 2-0, Almira Lautier 1.5-0.5 and Xu Yuhua 1-1, 2-0.

The format for the championship was a best of two classical games till the semi-finals and a best of four in the final. Although the tie-breaks should be a pair of rapid games, on request from the two players, the chief arbiter, Yuri Averbakh of Russia, agreed to make the tie-break a best of four, adding length to the tie-break day.

The World championship for women is being held since 1923. This event in Moscow is the second in a series of knock-out events held for women. The World No. 1 ranked Judit Polgar of Hungary continues to stay away from competitions exclusively for women. The absence of former champion Zsuzsa Polgar, forming one of the three Polgar sisters from Hungary, continues to weaken women's contests and tends to take the importance away from such contests.

The Indian challenge lasted till the second round when Kolkata's Nisha Mohota lost to Cristina Foisor of Romania. Except for India's best player, S. Vijayalakshmi, all others were expected to lose in round one itself as they faced tougher opponents. But Vijayalakshmi failed to click once again in knock-out chess as she lost another world championship match in the first round to lower-ranked Joanna Dworakowska of Poland.

With the exception of Nisha Mohota, all the Indian girls made their exits in the first round. Vijayalakshmi's defeat was particularly hard to digest. Competing in friendly matches or knock-out tournaments should help her if she aims to make it big in these competitions. Though the zonal champion Pallavi Shah had a tough pairing, she offered a draw in an equal position with white against Stefanova. Any other player would have tried but Pallavi justified her stand, saying that she wanted to save Elo points.

India's hopes in this event should be high next time with the way Koneru Humpy is marching ahead. It was a pity that FIDE turned down her request for a wildcard. She is seeded for the 2003 event at London, since she is the reigning world junior girls' champion.

Aarthie Ramaswamy was also in the same boat as Pallavi Shah but in a worse situation when she got a draw from Nino Khurtsidze of Georgia in the second game. She finally bowed out 0.5-1.5.

Nevertheless, all the Indians received career best prize money cheques, equivalent to Rs. 1 lakh. Nisha Mohota received more than Rs. 2 lakhs after the 20 per cent FIDE deduction and tie-break deductions on her $6,000 prize money. This is the bright side of the new knock-out which guarantees good money.

The women players felt like second class citizens with the prize money offered to them being only a percentage of what their male counterparts get. But for all of them, without any exception, the prize money offered here is the largest since women tournaments are very few and they are active by competing with men in open tournaments.

Although Judit Polgar and Xie Jun did not compete, former women's champions Nona Gaprindashvili and Maya Chiburdanidze added colour with their participation, the latter reaching the semi-finals. The other Georgian, Nino Khurtsidze, lasted till the quarter-finals before losing to Zhu Chen in the tie-breaker.

The results:

Quarter-finals: Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) beat Almira Lautier (Mda) 1.5-0.5; Maya Chiburdanidze (Geo) beat Zhaoqin Peng (Ned) 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5; Zhu Chen (Chn) beat Nino Khurtsidze (Geo) 1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-0; Xu Yuhua (Chn) beat Cristina Foisor (Rom) 1-1, 1-1, 2-0.

Semi-finals: Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) beat Xu Yuhua (Chn) 1-1, 2-0; Zhu Chen (Chn) beat Maya Chiburdanidze (Geo) 1-1, 1.5-0.5. Final: Zhu Chen (Chn) beat Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) 2-2, 3-1.

Indian results: Round one: S. Vijayalakshmi lost to J. Dworakowska (Pol) 0.5-1.5; Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) lost to Nino Khurtsidze (Geo) 0.5-1.5; Pallavi Shah lost to Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) 0.5-1.5; Nisha Mohota bt Tatiana Stepovaia (Rus) 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5.

Round two: Nisha Mohota lost to Cristina Foisor (Rom) 0.5-1.5.

Some decisive games by the two finalists: WGM Alisa Maric (Yug)-WGM Zhu Chen (Chn), round three, game two, Slav defence, D10: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.Qc2 g6 6.Nf3 Bg7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 Bg4 9.Ne5 Be6 10.Bd2 Nfd7 11.Nxd7 Nxd7 12.c5 b5 13.Ne2 Re8 14.a4 Nf6 15.Ra3 Qb8 16.Rfa1 Qb7 17.b4 Bd7 18.f4 Rab8 19.axb5 axb5 20.Ra7 Qc8 21.Ng3 Rb7 22.R7a6 Qc7 23.R1a3 Bc8 24.Nf1 Rb8 25.Ra7 Bb7 26.Qa2 Qc8 27.Be1 Qe6 28.f5 gxf5 29.Bg3 Ng4 30.Bxb8 Rxb8 31.Rxb7 Rxb7 32.Ra8+ Bf8 33.Rxf8+ Kxf8 34.Qa8+ Kg7 35.Qxb7 Nxe3 36.Qc7 Ng4 37.Qf4 Qf6 38.Ng3 1-0.

WGM Alisa Galliamova (Rus)-IM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus), round three, game two, Sicilian Rauser, B66: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 h6 9.Bf4 Bd7 10.Nxc6 Bxc6 11.Qe1 Qa5 12.Bc4 Be7 13.Bb3 Rd8 14.f3 b5 15.Bd2 b4 16.Ne2 d5 17.e5 Nd7 18.Qg3 Qc7 19.Nd4 Kf8 20.f4 Bc5 21.Nxc6 Qxc6 22.f5 exf5 23.Rhf1 Qe6 24.Qh4 Qe7 25.Qh3 g6 26.e6 fxe6 27.g4 Nf6 28.gxf5 exf5 29.Rde1 Qd7 30.Qh4 Kf7 31.Re5 a5 32.Rd1 Rhe8 33.Rxe8 Rxe8 34.Bxh6 Re4 35.Qh3 a4 36.Bg5 axb3 37.Qxb3 Qe6 38.a3 Be7 39.Bxf6 Kxf6 40.axb4 Rxb4 41.Qc3+ Qe5 42.Qc6+ Kg7 43.c3 Bg5+ 44.Kb1 Qe4+ 45.Ka2 Rxb2+ 46.Ka3 Qc2 0-1.

IM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus)-WGM Zhu Chen (Chn), final, game eight, rapid chess, Sicilian Najdorf, B90: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Be3 Be7 9.Qd2 h5 10.Be2 Nbd7 11.a4 Rc8 12.a5 g6 13.0-0 h4 14.Nd5 Bxd5 15.exd5 Nh5 16.c4 f5 17.Rfd1 f4 18.Bf2 h3 19.c5 dxc5 20.d6 Bh4 21.Bc4 Bxf2+ 22.Qxf2 Qg5 23.Rd2 Nhf6 24.Qe1 Kf8 25.Re2 e4 26.fxe4 Ne5 27.Qc3 Nxe4 28.Qc2 Nf3+ 29.Kf1 Nxh2+ 30.Ke1 Nf3+ 31.Kd1 hxg2 32.Qxe4 g1Q+ 33.Kc2 Nd4+ 34.Nxd4 Qxd4 35.Rf1 Qxe4+ 36.Rxe4 Qg2+ 0-1.