| Apr-19-14 | | dehanne: What a whitewash. |
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| Apr-19-14 | | haydn20: She is relentless, and maybe remorseless, isn't she? A draw gives poor Olga her GM norm and all but clinches first for Hou, yet Hou crushes her anywayl |
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| Apr-19-14 | | SirRuthless: I am really enjoying Hou's games in this event. Consider the chances not taken, sort of like Anand in Candidates, Hou is simply playing on another plane from her competitors. Reminds me of Aronian in Tata Steel 2014. Hou is in god-mode. |
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| Apr-19-14 | | Eduardo Leon: <haydn20: She is relentless, and maybe remorseless, isn't she? A draw gives poor Olga her GM norm and all but clinches first for Hou, yet Hou crushes her anyway> Well, this is what competition is about, is it not? In any case, Girya will now face the two tail-enders, Tuvshintugs and Kosintseva. If she can defeat them both, she should get her norm. |
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| Apr-19-14 | | Eduardo Leon: I wonder if Girya could have played 19...♗b5 instead of the aimless 19...♘h5. White's bishop pair is too dangerous, so exchanging one of them could help black get some time to develop her own initiative in the queenside. |
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| Apr-19-14 | | Ed Frank: Yifan Hou is awesome. Simply awesome. |
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| Apr-19-14 | | Nerwal: <I wonder if Girya could have played 19...Bb5 instead of the aimless 19...Nh5.> 19... ♘h5 is still theory (Shirov vs Movsesian, 2000). Hou's 20. ♕g4 might be a novelty. 19... ♗b5 is certainly possible. It's not clear how exactly black is doing after 20. ♖b1 (assessed as  by Ftacnik) or 20. ♘g4, though. Possibly white keeps some initiative. Hou Yifan called 21... ♗d7 a good defensive idea. Still the position after 25... ♗xa3, which is reached by force, looks very difficult for black to defend in practice. Maybe it was a better chance to risk the principled 21... ♘xf4 or 21... f5. 33... ♖e8 was an attempt at concrete play in an unpleasant position (after ♕g7 the ♙e5 is under attack on a dark square), but it didn't work tactically, and the dubious weakening of f7 got immediately punished. |
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| Apr-19-14 | | mrbasso: 19...Bb5 would be a novelty. It's interesting but it requires very precise play from black after 20.Ng4 Ne8. 19...Nh5 was played from Sergey Movsesian a couple of times with success.
21...Bd7 is hardly good. 21...f5 might hold. |
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| Apr-19-14 | | 1971: So nasty, what a beast. One of the most aesthetic styles in chess male or female. She mentioned before that Fischer is her favorite player, and his influence is evident in her play. |
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| Apr-20-14 | | Caissanist: <In any case, Girya will now face the two tail-enders, Tuvshintugs and Kosintseva. If she can defeat them both, she should get her norm.> They are certainly the tailenders in this particular tournament, but interestingly enough Girya has never beaten either one of them (at least in the CG database). Against Kosintseva she is +0 -6 =1. |
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| Apr-20-14 | | Eduardo Leon: <1971: So nasty, what a beast. One of the most aesthetic styles in chess male or female. She mentioned before that Fischer is her favorite player, and his influence is evident in her play.> Indeed. Just like Fischer in his time, here Hou went straight for the yugular. No grandiose conceptions like Alekhine (or Kasparov's opening prep), no sacrificial messes like Tal, no subtle attempts to outmaneuver the opponent like Petrosian or Karpov. Just a straightforward, direct attack that her opponent could perfectly see coming, but nevertheless could not stop. |
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| Apr-21-14 | | hoodrobin: <Yifan Hou> aka <Ms Tiger>. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 29.Rxh5
