 The ninth round of Women's Grand Prix produced some surprises.
Ushenina pushed 10.e5 too early in this game and on move 13 could simply resign.
White has no satisfactory defense against Nc2+. 13.Qa4+ Kf8 14.h3 Nc2+ 15.Ke2 a6! a very nice move.Now white's queen is in trouble.16.Qc4 b5 17.Q:c5 Rc8 18.Qa7 N:a1 (18...Rc7 19.Qa6 R:c3 20.bc Q:d5 was a shorter route) and white resigned on move 26.
Girya sacrificed a pawn in the opening against Stefanova and had enough compensation for it, but Stefanova was playing very well and soon traded all active pieces of white, centralized her queen and started to push the passed pawns on the queen side. The only moment that white made an inaccuracy was on move 46
46.Rd3?! and Girya could make her opponents job more complicated.46...Qg1+ 47.Kg3 Qc5!. Black played 46...Ra1.47. Re3 Qc5 48.Re8+ Kh7 49 Qe4+ f5 50.Qe3 Q:e3 51.R:e3 R:a4 52.Rb3 Ra7 black's rook was forced to a very passive position on b7.Stefanova won on move 62.
Batchimeg Tuvshintugs continues to prove that she is a very tough opponent. She chose the Berlin variation of Ruy Lopez against Anna Muzychuk and never had a problem during the whole game.Draw was agreed with threefold repetition on move 56.
Another draw with threefold repetition took place in Kosintseva-Danielyan game,but this game was more exciting. Kosintseva missed her chance right out of the opening.
White could play 16.Qa4+ Qd7 17.Qb3 Qc7 18.Qb5+ Qc6 19.Q:c6 N:c6 20.Ne5 , but they chose 16.Bf4 Qa5 17.Rb1 Rc8 .18.Nd2 Bb6 19.Nb3 Qa6 (19...Qa4!)20.c5 Bc7 21.Bd6?! (21.Nd4!B:f4 22.Bb7) B:d6 (21...Rd8!) 22.cd. White is still better but few moves later they blunderd.
29 Nc5? Qd6? ( 29...Qc6 30.Nb3 N:b1)30 Ne4 Qd4 31.Qh6+ Qg7 32.Q:g7 K:g7 33.N:c3 R:c3 with draw.
Khotenashvili had a completely winning position against Dronavalli.She missed several winning continuations, last time on move 43
43.R1e7+? (43 d6 Rd2 44.R8e7+ Kg8 45.g5 Ng4 46.Ra1 Rg7 47.g6+-)43...Kh6 44.R:h7+ K:h7 45 Re7 Kg8 and black survived.
Koneru-Dzagnidze game was very important for both players. Dzagnidze needed a win to stay in race for the first prize.She solved the opening problems and was aiming for more, but Koneru's position was holding a lot of defending potential and on move 67 Dzagnidze had to agree to a draw.
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