And everybody welcome, this is round number nine of Battle of the Sexes. Live from the Garrison Library in Gibraltar, this is the penultimate round of this wonderful new format. Ten men, ten women who have been having a real fight over the past, well, over a week now to determine who is the stronger sex, is it the men, is it the women, and it's coming down to the wire. So far the story is as follows, it's the men with a decent advantage, a five point lead with two rounds to go, today round nine, tomorrow round ten, and that means the situation is very simple. The women who have white today have to put in a big performance, get a big positive score so that tomorrow the match is competitive and we have a very climactic finish. I'm here with Irina as always, Irina, it's been an interesting spectacle so far because the women got off to an amazing start and then actually they've not won a round since round two. Yeah, it's been a tough few days, even a week for the ladies team and I believe the situation has come to the moment when they should try for an all-in today. It might be an all-in situation because they can't play too solid because what do you think, what score do you think they need to get today in order for them to have a realistic chance at saving this match? I think they should try to win it with a big margin today so I believe it should be at least plus four for them. At least plus four. Yeah, because then they will have all blacks tomorrow and if they win plus four the men will be leading still with one point with a plus one and then with all blacks even if the men play solid maybe they can try to win one game with the black pieces or maybe even two so I guess we'll see a lot of interesting chess today and I'm very curious how that will go. Yeah, I tend to agree with you. Round plus four, minimum plus three I think for the women is necessary. I think anything under that to then ask for a seven, three or eight to win is going to be really, really tough and what we're going to do is we're going to have a quick look at the pairings so let's get those pairings for today up on screen. What we've got to start is round, sorry board one, we've got Gunai Mamadzad against Sabino Brunello. Now this has been a, well this is a very interesting pairing. Gunai who started off so well and she showed so much promise has really faded in the middle part of this tournament unfortunately her talent is unquestionable and her future also in this game is unquestionable but it just hasn't worked for her this tournament. She should have lost in the last round to Eric Rosen so she saved half a point but now with white in round nine she really needs to refine that form that she had at the beginning of the tournament. Meanwhile Sabino Brunello is very much on the ascent after a slow style Sabino put together a few wins, beat Pierre Kramling as well and he's feeling good about his chess and Sabino is a very solid guy so this is a very interesting clash of styles and I think that Gunai is going to have to really try and Sabino is going to be looking to expose Gunai if she over presses. The second board we have is Irene against Balash Chonka. Balash had the most disappointing day yesterday I would say of anybody because Balash had just the most winning beautiful I mean he played just a beautiful game perhaps even the best game so far of this tournament against Shansaya. Wonderful opening I suggest everybody goes back and looks unfortunately I don't know if it was nerves or time or whatever it was Balash was unable to convert this extremely easy well I have to say easy for his standard winning position and only drew and I just hope that that doesn't derail him too much going in today. Black against Irene, Irene is dangerous this could be a tricky match for Balash. Yeah I believe I believe we're going to see a very interesting game here and I'm wondering if we could get confirmation whether Balash still has a chance to get the GM norm out of the last two rounds. He must have because he's on a plus score if he wins today I think it's six and a half out of nine and that might already be enough actually because if the average rating of the women is 24-50 I think it's 50 points per half point I think he gets it with the win today but we'll get confirmation from the Arbiter's so big game there Balash with Black against Irene. Olga Giri against Leandro Krisser well two solid two very solid players aren't they? Definitely I think I think this one might be a draw actually because Olga might not be in mood for trying to hard after yesterday's loss against Bilal and actually Bilal playing today with the Black pieces against Maria Muzichuk. I believe this is a game from two players who are the top scorers right? They are the top scorers yes both the best performers of both teams Maria just is a class player she's on I believe five and a half or she might be on more actually but she's on plus three. Plus three yeah so she's on six out of nine perhaps then yeah I think so sorry five and a half out of eight you're right five and a half out of eight this is round nine correct yeah so she's had a great tournament and as Bilal has as well after losing his first two games yeah he scored five and a half out of six unbelievable wow and playing this wild modern inspiring Morozovic like chess G4 moves everywhere I'm wondering will he play a G5 with the Black pieces at some point well he might not play G5 with Black but certainly his G4 ideas have been inspirational and that's gonna be actually that's a really big game and I think Maria is I think I think this is a dangerous game for Bilal actually I don't think this is a great game at all for his style and it wouldn't surprise me it's all if Maria is one of the key victors for the women today yeah definitely we'll have to see that if it's gonna come or not and we have Yovanka Huska in the next game versus Joseph Gallagher what do you think about this matchup thing this is a very very bad matchup for the women Yovanka is on a really bad streak she it's been a really frustrating tournament for Yovanka Huska followers and fans and I'm one of them she can play really good chess and she is playing really good chess but she's only playing really good chess for four hours after the fourth hour she's starting to collapse and you know having spoken to Joe it's absolutely clear that Joe's strategy today is I'm gonna make the game as long as possible try and keep some pieces on the board if I don't win them fine but I'm not going to yeah you know I'm not gonna try and mate Yovanka or do something crazy yeah or dry things up quickly he wants to keep the position fluid going into the fourth and fifth hour and I really hope that Yovanka manages to find a way to actually see her on the screen right now getting getting ready for for the game yeah wow let's look yeah it's gonna be I think this is an app actually I think this particular pairing is a key pairing for the result of today if Yovanka manages to win this game which I don't have her winning but if she wins then then the ladies team can actually count on that plus four score I think then the plus four score is much more a reasonable aim let's look at the second half of the pairings now Antonetta Stefan over the hero the talisman you can say of this women's team she comes back yesterday after a bout of COVID comes back wins with black against Carissa in a tough game where she was in trouble at some point will will that give her the confidence to beat Ravi Haria I think there is a big chance Antonetta will try to win this game and I actually liked what she said yesterday in the interview that well if you want to win with black you should be taking risks and that's exactly what she did yesterday and it actually paid out so yeah let's see if today Ravi will be taking any risks with no chance zero chance Ravi Ravi stylistically is not gonna take chances he's gonna say to Antonetta look if you want to come and beat me fine I will play solid and if you find a way good luck otherwise I'm not gonna risk anything he understands that this is a critical half point for the men so he will not be risking now for me another critical pairing the next game Pia Kramling against Jillian Boilea Jillian has struggled the most of all the men he's only on one point Pia has had a terrible past three games she's lost the last three low on a bit of confidence but she's an experienced warrior she has white she is playing Jillian this is her moment to keep this especially as a team captain I believe she wants to set up the bar high today and try to bring the point absolutely no no other result is acceptable for Pia today she knows this is a must win game for the team the same goes for Jean-Claire Abdu Malik with white against Eric Rosen I have this down as a very bad pairing for the men I think this is a clear positive spot for the women and actually Jean Sayer yesterday was very lucky to save the game yeah she was in big trouble against Baloch and I think that when you get those lucky moments you just want to ride the moment and to try to to get lucky again yeah well she might not need to get lucky she's white she's 150 points higher than Eric she is you know on paper a better player than Eric she's got the white pieces she needs to win this game and no other result for her will be acceptable I'm sure so they're already you know the Pia game Jean Sayer game those are those are two games where I see two points going for white and it's big and yeah yeah I believe that the last two main chaps Marissa Bug versus Aziz Hussein and Efraimski Marcel against Bobby Chang are you know between players who have been really solid or at least tried to play very solid chess so far and I believe that these two games might actually be very how to say balanced and might end up in draws actually I have to disagree with you on one of those games I do like Efraimski Chang as a potential draw spot but I actually think Marissa Bug white against Hussein is a really great spot for the women I think this is a dangerous pairing for the men Hussein has he is solid but he's black Murray is very well prepared I'm I'm a bit worried about the men here and I'll also say that I think this is a dangerous spot for Efraimski as well she has white though but Bobby I'm not so sure he's just going to settle for a draw today I'm not completely clear I spoke with him yesterday and he I didn't get the impression that he just wants to make a draw at any cost so maybe we'll get some some unexpected turns and twists in this round the games are kicking off as always of course you can contact us we are looking at the YouTube chat predominantly I know this is on Twitch and in other places please keep the chat nice and friendly this is a family show and please yesterday I saw comments on politics and whatever this is not a politics stream if you want to talk politics go elsewhere we are here to talk about the chess we're here to talk about the format and everything else we can talk about Gibraltar but we're not interested in politics I mean I'm interested in politics but not now so the game while we've seen the game started and actually the first move was made by our tournament director we might see him in a bit here in the studio and let's have a look do we have a lot of moves there in any of the games well let's just well the games have literally just kicked off so we've got wow I have a nice one okay let's check the game between Yovanka and Joe because I believe it has been a Kings Indian yes is Joe a Kings Indian player well is the Pope a Catholic the answer is yes I mean Joe Gallagher is one of the most important Kings Indian players of all time he wrote books at least one book probably to he even has a variation in the Kings Indian named after him the Gallagher variation which is actually if I try and remember oh let me see if I yeah so it's actually in this variation here in a fiancato so we have a fiancato Kings Indian let me see if I can remember the Gallagher variation this is kind of the main line e5 e4 and now the move a6 is the Gallagher variation with the idea that after h3 you can sometimes sacrifice the pawn with b5 yeah and this is his variation that he created that would be fun to witness this one today at the board and actually I seem to recall a game of mine against Yovanka where I played actually the Kings Indian myself as black but it was quite quite of us to draw I have to say because she went for a very quiet line and then we traded pieces and I think with this b3 move with the double fiancato she actually tries to keep it as solid as possible right yes she does and I don't think Joe is gonna mind this move too much I don't know if Joe is expected it does she smile I think she might be aware of the books just return on it well absolutely no I mean remember Joe even though he's under the Swiss flag he's an Englishman he's born in London Joe and Yovanka know each other very very well I'm sure they've played on various occasions as well and of course Yovanka knows like most English people that Joe is Mr. Kings Indian in England so you know but I think this particular move b3 might come as a small surprise for for Joe and it be and now he has a real actual choice I believe I recall that the main line should be something with E5 if I'm not mistaken yeah but it's a very solid line for white because you go E5 and we immediately will see an endgame here after d takes d takes no or isn't it here no bishop a free and rookie 8 something no normally what black does is black plays to move knight g4 here so now you cannot really take on d6 because of the rook on a1 and white should play something like bishop b2 right yeah only then you know and then black continues with the move knight c6 this is the main line and then white tends to play c4 and says okay you can take back and black tends to take back with the knight and we get a position like this after knight c3 so black takes with the knight on e5 it's taking with with upon there a bad option well it looks a little bit funny I don't know let's say if I probably take take h3 so the knight should go it's unclear if knight f6 probably doesn't work because the rook is on d8 and then after taking on e5 the knight on c6 is hanging and then the rook on d8 so knight h6 and then the placement of black species is not ideal yeah it's it's it might still be okay for black somehow but it looks a little bit weird I mean white can always cover that d4 square with e3 as well and I mean in general black just doesn't doesn't play like this in these lines also you but you don't have to play with e5 here there are lots of different ways to play I think a5 is an option I think I even played it myself actually I've played this move lots of different ideas it really depends on what Joe feels like then you can also try to play with b6 I know it looks crazy because the knight move looks like it wins here but where are you actually gonna move that knight because if you play let's say knight f to d2 that's a very clumsy move and now black can just play d5 or even c6 followed by d5 and it's okay knight e5 I guess is the only try and even here now here I think you do have to go d5 and it that's probably the reason why b6 isn't played immediately. You cannot take on e5? Maybe you can Bishop takes a8 and then take on d4 maybe? It's probably okay but is it more than okay I don't know yeah it looks like an interesting exchange sacrifice yeah we're gonna see what what is Joe gonna choose and let's move on to another game for now this one will be a very interesting one to keep the eye on. Okay where should we go? Let's try Jhansi versus Eric let's see. The dragon? Wow it is the dragon now my only hope is that Eric has really done some work because I'm very curious to see how this unfolds. The Sicilian? Okay we saw Eric play this weird move order previously and I think we had d take c5 if I remember correctly in a previous game. Do you remember where it went like Eric played this weird move order but okay today we got a mainline Sicilian takes takes and Eric goes for the dragon another English classic. True if you think about who's written the books on the dragon variation Chris Ward Eddie Deering Gawain Jones this is the opening that English juniors played when I was in the English junior team we all played the dragon. But why? Why is that so especially interesting for the English players? I don't know because for some reason we just had a had a tradition we had great games and I remember the games of Eddie Deering, Karl Ma, you know all of these legends and I'm very curious to see what happens so we have the Yugoslav attack, Bishop E3, Bishop G7, F3 now. And A6, you know what this is called? The Dragadorf. Dragadorf because it's a mix between the dragon and the nightorf. It's interesting but what's the idea after say a move like Queen to D2 just a normal developing move? So you have two ideas here as black firstly you can go for a very quick B5 or what tends to be a neat idea of this Dragadorf is you play the move H5. Not allowing White to go for G4 right? And stopping Bishop H6. Now it's been a long time since I've done any work on this variation Simon Williams the ginger GM has had some classic games in this line some battles against Shirov some other players have played it and for sure Jens Sajja has not looked at this for a long time. I have to say that somebody surprised me recently by playing this line with the black pieces against me and you know it wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be to navigate through these lines because it tends to be you know not so move by move you could actually try a positional approach here as well and I recall I played something with Qd2 and after H5 I believe I played something like a4 actually yeah exactly to stop black from playing B5 and then I tried to make a5 happen and try to go for those dark squares then I developed the bishop on c4 yeah White could try different kind of systems here and different setups so it all depends how does Jens Sajja feel here does she want to go for a complex tactical battle does she want to have a more positional approach we're gonna see yeah and you gotta be I mean that as you're absolutely right with everything you said the only problem with playing a4 is it means it's very difficult to cast a queen side definitely so it's gonna be really interesting there are all kinds of ideas in this Dragodorf so I'm very curious to see how that game develops let's go to another game and I see that well Olga Giriya against Leandra Kriss now what's funny about this game well it's actually very funny because we saw Leandro on the other side of the board exactly in this position yesterday against Antoinette Stefanova and yeah it's gonna be very interesting because I believe all the players check their teammates games and I'm curious does he want to repeat what Antoinette do as he have a novelty or an improvement in mind does Olga know how to try and make an improvement for White well it's it's fantastic what we see today on the board here there's only one slight difference well actually in in that game yesterday Leandro actually played 95 first and here Antoinette's a plate a6 so we have a slightly different move order because White has gone a4 Bishop b7 and now 95 so it's not exactly the same position and I reason the reason why I think this is probably a clever move order from Olga is that now if you play the move Queen b6 apart from the standard ideas of b3 trying to undermine this whole structure I wonder if a5 is ever a move here I'm not convinced not sure I'm not so familiar with this kind of structures but it feels like White should be rather challenging those pawns and trying to attack them so the only the only reason I mention is because let's say you did go a5 Queen c7 and let's say b3 like we saw Leandro play yesterday the problem Black has one problem is when you go 90 b7 now a6 becomes a serious problem but what if I spend a tempion playing a6 myself sure absolutely you can play a6 and then I see your idea you want to to get a grip over the dark squares exactly I don't know something like this would be nice to have a knight on b3 rather than the Queen maybe no yeah I mean for sure it would it would be but with the move a4 it's well it again I don't know the theory but it just looks like an interesting idea and as I say the the most you know classic move here to me probably is the move b3 once again we're never worried about something like this because Bishop b2 and you fall behind in development and the game yesterday was was just this very special game so I'm very curious and actually after 95 Leandro plays a6 and I actually see in the chat that there was another difference in the game we saw yesterday of Leandro versus Antoinetta the knight was also on c3 but the knight might still be coming there if we are still in for a transposition I believe it we could be it but maybe the game yesterday when 95 a6 and here what happened knight to c3 was it immediately we would have to check on that I believe Bishop to b7 b3 and I believe here Antoinetta took and Leandro took yeah and then there was the that Queen d4 option yeah definitely and that was the case I think in chat chess lines are saying what if b4 well I can tell you you're ready for this one yeah the move b takes c4 is possible wow what about b takes a check my notes b takes e3 and rook b1 don't worry it's all in the book and now your idea is that after rook takes a7 a7 sorry I was see you know looking already at the next move white could do and I was thinking if rook takes b7 was an option actually well rook a7 the idea is you can go d5 here special notes nobody knows wow and I want to go Bishop e3 next don't worry it's still equal for black but you got to know what you're doing there you go guys I'm seriously impressed here don't be impressed it's just this is what you get with me okay now it's a it's very interesting it's a very interesting line and we'll see but yeah in the game it went a4 a6 and indeed here Olga doesn't surprise me by playing the move b3 yeah so it's not it's not the same line it's different the knight is still on b1 and I guess it's it should be quite a significant difference right yeah it's it has to be a significance and wait he took on b3 now Queen b3 followed yeah I mean the way the position looks it reminds me a lot about Landros yesterday's game absolutely does and well the question is is he gonna take here I would bet a huge no I think this looks suicidal to take this pawn so is he gonna go Bishop e7 simply or knight d7 I think bishop e7 looks very logical because if we remember again yesterday Antonetta was struggling to finish her development and castle so here you could try to do that immediately actually no yeah and now why does God a number of ideas one idea is to where are we gonna put this Bishop here here here here even chief I mean they all look like reasonable moves b3 looks perhaps the worst of all but we are protecting the pawn I wonder if she just wants to go here castles and rook c1 this looks like a very logical continuation putting huge pressure here and the problem is yeah and when knight d5 comes the problem black has now is that why can play moves like knight to d2 and then try to come in via e4 ding leer and plays a lot like this so for example after knight d7 you can take and go knight e4 you can also play knight d3 just dropping back and then you have two knights here and the problem is if black ever just to illustrate just to play some random moves here to to illustrates that if a knight ever lands here black never really wants to take twice because this particular construction with the bishop now on b2 exactly and this bishop gets locked out so if you check out the games of ding and dubov they all play like this with white and it's very very unpleasant and it'd be interesting to see how once again you know what I'm thinking that as I was saying yesterday about Leandro being a player who usually likes to play more positionally I think it's the same case for Olga so is she really feeling herself you know fine with the initiative I think she would prefer something else I think Leandro strategy is to try and make her take risks and I'm very curious how this one will unfold I'd agree another game I'm very curious of is what's happening in Maria Muzichuk against Bilal Bilacin because I have to say just looking at the position I have an idea and I'll come with that idea in a moment but the game was a Bishop b5 Rosalimo e6 castles in 97 I've had dozens of games with white in this in this line especially the move rookie one and here Bilal plays one of the most unusual moves in the position yeah that's not the main move the main move here for black is to kick this bishop after which white has got an important choice you can either retreat to f1 after which the move d5 is very popular or you can take take and now play d4 I've had a lot of games in this but it shouldn't be particularly harmful for black with standard Sicilian positions b6 I know is gonna be dubious it's just a bit too funky I don't like actually what Bilal is doing because now the c3 d4 plan comes even right even more dangerously and that's basically what happened it went c3 a6 and now you can gain time so Bishop takes c6 Knight takes c6 and d4 now to compare this if you go a6 here after Bishop takes c6 Knight takes c6 c3 you would never go b6 in this position so this is a justification from Maria's side saying this is just not very good I'm gonna use the extra tempo and after d4 d5 I immediately see my eyes are lighting up here I see the rook opposite the king and I don't like it so I take here Queen takes d5 and now I just play c4 yeah this was exactly what crossed my mind as well what about Queen takes c4 do we go for d5 that's the natural follow-up isn't it d5 but I'm not entirely sure of this one okay I'm thinking whether to put my knight on b4 or on d4 yep they're both let's try knight b4 first okay so knight b4 my instinct is to play knight c3 oh and can it this looks tough the problem is if you come into d3 I have rookie 4 and I just win the Queen wait can I trade Queen's after Queen to d3 Queen to d3 can you avoid that because if you go and be free then knight c2 might be well I can take on b6 how is that one looks good for white I have this I will have King date wait wait wait where should I take now it's it's it's a very interesting position I have to say now the point is that after knight e1 yeah it probably doesn't work because of Queen c6 check and now you might have knight takes e1 actually as an intermediate move because I don't have a way to attack that knight with the Queen right right I can play knight takes e1 exactly and this is just lost for black and if taking on a1 that can actually be good yeah this position is just losing for black and just give the check take on a8 and take an a you can play 95 if you want it looks terrible all right so yeah I cannot go for this but wait what about the move c4 yeah but now I can yeah this is this is what I was thinking I think c4 is good actually because now after Queen a4 I've got Bishop d7 exactly exactly and this is this is bad for white yeah originally I thought after Queen d3 I've also got Bishop d2 I shouldn't we shouldn't forget that Bishop d2 exists here and I was also thinking what if I yeah it looks like white is really ahead with their development I can also take take on a6 yeah but here even after Queen takes d1 you can you can taking f7 rook takes yeah this is probably 5 for black because I've got the pair of bishops and it should be enough compensation for the pawn and actually we see Maria taking on d5 and we might have all of these lines on the board or at least one of them this is just one one subline so let's look so c4 Queen takes c4 d5 what about 9d4 yeah 9d4 is also very legitimate and here again my instinct just tells me the move knight c3 feels correct but what if I take on a3 here and after Queen a3 I try something like Bishop to b7 oh am I getting my Queen trapped what with rook e4 again wow look at this variation rook e4 Bishop takes d5 I will yeah you can take on c4 but let's have Knight takes d5 on the board Queen takes and rook takes e6 but it's not working yeah nearly nearly nearly I'm not as good as you no no no no no but I mean you're absolutely right you're on the right part but yeah here as you you can just win a piece yeah so that looks already dead so after Knight c3 and the problem is if black tries to go let's say move like Bishop b7 once again I'm very concerned about this Queen after 95 Queen b4 only move let's say a3 Queen a5 Queen b3 exists nice spot sorry I have Queen b3 exists then then it's not maybe knight e5 isn't the right way because then the knight on d4 is very strong maybe we could try something else what about a move like Bishop to e3 could it work or is it too slow I think 95 probably is right 95 so we just need a good move here because that knight on d4 does a very fine job protecting e6 covering all sorts of light squares okay trap the Queen or you don't so let's say we try Bishop d2 this is an attempt you're gonna take on b2 yeah I'm afraid or do you know what we could do how ridiculous okay you take on b2 I go d6 so your idea is that I cannot really take on d6 as after Knight c4 you win a piece right yeah instead I will have to play Bishop f6 I suppose yeah yeah this has gone very very wrong I believe very wrong for white no for black oh for black well I don't know because I mean look at the very worst I go knight c4 yeah Queen c2 and at the very worst I take right like this definitely and this probably isn't that bad for white in the worst case no I think actually white is doing perfectly fine in all these positions well I am not sure rook b8 and I don't I just don't know you could go maybe for d7 takes 97 okay take oh no sorry to check I take here maybe some 94 okay what's the score here I'm two pawns down it's a lot of pawns yeah yeah it's a lot of pawns two points then black is alright but I think there is definitely an improvement like there is it feels like there's an improvement along the way I'm curious to see Bilal on one hour 30 minutes is it something that he has prepared for today because yesterday I was saying that he was bluffing with his very quick reaction after g4 and c5 and I met him in the elevator at some point and he was unhappy about me saying that he was bluffing he said I prepared so much for so many hours he definitely did yes today as well today I'm not so certain that he's bluffing to be honest I'm sorry that he's in book but this this this moves c4 Queen c4 d5 I just it just screams for it to be played yeah and if the knight has to go somewhere passive let's say d8 no that is definitely then you're running into bad comfort black yeah so I want to see that by Maria I want to see her to try and rip the heart out of Bilal's chest today I think she will go for I think so I think so too let's go to the Cheng game against Marcel Efroimski because this is also well this is one of those French is where the the situation is very clear we'll see in a moment but effectively we have an advanced French mainline of this has been this this line with Bishop takes H6 Queen takes B2 has been heavily analyzed for years and years and years of course with the exchange of the seaport so the big con the big question in these French is when should black take on d4 so does it make a difference if black plays 9h6 here or 9g7 here before taking on d4 now general theory says that if you take on d4 too quickly the problem is you allow white to develop the knight to see that we see on the screen that both of the players are not at their ports yeah actually reminds me of the match between Carlson and Neppo you know yeah yeah but you know that they're both playing reasonably quickly and after 9h6 Bishop takes H6 the point is that black theoretically can play this very important vision suck in between move hitting the rook but isn't it risky to go for all those pawns it's only risky so black has won a pawn here it's only risky if you don't know what you're doing now but can I just take on b7 here yeah but how do you castle after that one because the Bishop on d7 is do you go for a long cast I don't know if you do I don't believe you that cannot be right it's probably not right but it's nice to play but okay you can do lots of things here is black you could go for maybe knight d8 knight a5 what about the move like Bishop is 7 are you afraid of Bishop be 5 or why don't you play that one Bishop be 7 yeah I mean it's a move I just don't so feels a bit slow I don't know yeah it should be 5 might actually be already an option for white yeah because at times I could even consider taking on d7 and then that knight on c6 is a tactical weakness yeah I don't know the theory here but I know we are in a theoretical oh yeah she's gonna repeat no yeah I'm telling you because I think there's some problem with rook takes be 7 but this is a terrible opening outcome for Marcel it's a disaster actually no it's not it is I mean when you have the white pieces you are in all in situation you are done by five points in the match this is not the way to play with the white pieces but she can't do anything she he probably tricked her he probably tricked her in the opening she probably wasn't expecting this line of the French and there's just nothing to be done this just has to be on repeat and this this has been played before and the problem let's let's have a look at rook queen a2 rook takes be 7 let's have a quick look I'm really disappointed I mean I'm disappointed in so far as you know and here yet saying rook b8 is one of the main lines no but I mean come on you have to try this one out but you can't do anything after rook b8 it's just it's just it's just equals anyway Bobby has been taking some time as well he he doesn't have one hour 35 on the clock is it like a trick or no he yeah he maybe he tried to trick her slightly earlier I think he tried to trick her here because it's not the main move because like night G7 night H6 has played more often and then I think he tried to trick her here but she's too smart to know that look you're not 25 50 and you play this line I mean he knows wait what about a move after queen b2 I'm just wondering I know nothing about this line but is bishop d2 a try after queen takes b2 you probably know about it what are bishop d2 here trying to know you have bishop b4 at the end oh I see but even queen a2 whatever I see so you cannot really drop that queen on a1 no this has just been played in loads of games this is just really well known as this will be I believe oh he played on oh now I'm happy no way he didn't sorry sorry that's my didn't sorry sorry I was gonna say wow he played on which looks crazy no you have to go queen a2 no Bobby understands a drawer is a good not a bad result so draw is a good result with the black pieces but yeah he should he should play queen a2 here if it was an individual match it's a different story but it's not so but I'm really surprised and perhaps if this game ends in a draw I would be interested to to try and get Marcel here for her to tell us yeah what was going on in in the game it would be very curious also she had was it yesterday no two days ago she had that disappointing game against Ravi yesterday was actually a quiet draw right against Joe she made yeah yesterday no no wait sorry no Marcel didn't have a quiet draw she was slightly worse she was suffering with black against Joe against Joe but I thought that you were saying that it was some kind of long preparation she said but I'm not I'm not I don't completely buy that that position was just okay to hold but she's very well prepared and Bobby just has to repeat I mean you maybe Queen A3 is playable but what is the big difference between Queen A3 and Queen A2 I'm I have to say that I don't see it immediately what is the point of having the queen I think maybe if you go Queen A3 Rook takes B7 and Rook B8 now you can take take and maybe go Queen B1 and gain a little bit of time on the night what about the Queen B4 you probably Queen B4 now yeah Queen B4 now you can play for example I don't know some Queen move Queen A1 all right and your fret is to go for Rook B1 and then that knight on B8 is hanging uh-huh so the Queen on A2 is actually doing a very important job protecting the B1 square yes I see and Bobby's gonna take a little bit of time but he will play Queen A2 because I already sense how Bobby is a very smart player he understands the tournament situation and there is judging by the tournament situation a draw is a completely fine result with the black pieces it means that the girls will have to try and go for a plus four from nine games not from five and that's gonna be a much more difficult task yep absolutely absolutely all right let's see what happens let's go to another game let's see the game between what about Antoinette against Ravi let's see okay okay let's have a look we have Catalan mainline oh well I have never seen it before I think I saw it before actually some Queen to see to actually and I'm wondering what is the big difference well actually now I realize that the difference is that when white will play knight to see free going for those plans with E4 the point on C4 will be protected by the Queen compared to the lines where the Queen is on C2 exactly that must be the difference but I like how Ravi's played it because he plays like so against the move Queen C2 the correct way is to play C5 and after castles to go takes takes and now night a six this is look at Ravi's expression is he is he disappointed look he's shaking his head no no he's just thinking no no he's fine he can't be disappointed it's just a position it's fine he's just thinking he's just thinking what the differences are anyway this move night a six I believe was one of Igor Kurnosov's yeah who really very sadly passed away he was a Russian grandmaster right and a very strong one yeah unfortunately he passed away very at a very young age yeah and it was his idea you are I think I remember some game and the point is the night comes to here and if you take you can just play this intermediate night before I vaguely remember some games of his and I vaguely remember this line that after Queen C2 you should react with a very quick C5 so Queen D3 he does the same Ravi and after castles he actually plays the same way so he takes D4 night takes D4 night a six so I'm not sure it's really Queen D3 an improvement compared to the line with Queen C2 in this particular variation because perhaps when the Queen was on C2 you could try something like group D1 looking to the Queen on D8 and here it's actually not that big of a threat well the point White has in all these Catalan's is that White wants Black to take on C4 and then after taking to claim that White has a little advantage thanks to that bishop on G2 which is looking on B7 and then the bishop from C8 will struggle a bit to develop but Black is not forced to take on C4 yet yeah absolutely and I don't think Black does want to take on C4 in a lot of these lines Black is basically saying to White well how do you how do you intend to get your pieces out here so it's actually quite difficult right because if White plays Knight C3 you can just attack the Queen in any way probably Knight to B4 and then I can probably just take Queen D1 yeah and I seem to now like actually the Queen C2 move more because then after Knight B4 you could go for Queen B3 precisely and here where will the Queen be going I actually really like this set up by Ravi and I'm curious to see what Antonetta what about to move like A3 does it have the right to leave because after Knight C5 I wanted to go to C2 and still try to get Black playing D take C4 and then maybe I will be able to take on C4 with the Queen and hope for some B4 I think White is still a bit better here because A5 isn't a move you want to play then the light squares are weak you could try something what about E5 I'm a bit I'm a bit worried about White because the bishop is coming on E6 with the tempi right yeah and B3 is very weak so if you move the knight I go Bishop E6 and perhaps I should not move it could I try something like B4 or is it already too risky already looks like Black Black has to be fine yeah perhaps you could even take Queen takes D4 actually yeah Queen takes D4 wins upon yeah exactly yeah so A3 isn't the right way and I believe Antonetta played something else yeah she took on D5 and I think this is probably correct and after Knight to B4 I think she wants to go Queen to B3 and then put the rook on D1 so if Knight takes D5 rook D1 and White is doing just fine right oops so I think that's what we're gonna see and I like Antonetta's choice here I will have to calm some of our viewers and to tell them that there is nothing wrong with us disagreeing from time to time there is actually a very nice expression in Russian yeah if to translate it at literally it will mean something like the truth is born in disagreement I like it yeah I think that's exactly what we are trying to do to find the truth right well I mean we're just discussing chess variations so sometimes Irina comes up with brilliant ideas that I haven't seen and sometimes I see some ideas that perhaps she doesn't see but we're here to analyze the game so I don't really see definitely what what's we're just enjoying the chess the players play and yeah I have to say there is I see only positive things in our and also remember there are a lot of broadcasts out there that will have the engine switched on 24 hours a day we do not use an engine except in exceptional circumstances so they always say when we switch it on for a moment just to see if our lines or evaluation was right when the position is completely messy so we will let you know when we switch it on and if we do so because I actually liked yesterday how we were trying to figure out the Andrews game against Antonetta Janssajas game so let's move on to another one yeah and I see a really interesting game between who have we got here maybe it's Gunai Mama is it good no it's not Gunai's game whose game is it is it Irene against Balash yes it's Irene against Balash Chonka oh it's a very fashionable Rui Lopez early night if it's not an early night a five actually I thought it was here night a five you know after after Bishop be free because I seem not to recall that even Magnus played this line at some point right here I don't think it's possible was it here no I think that the night a five you're thinking about is to go b5 Bishop b3 and now night a five this line I'm not sure actually here no it's here sorry I beg your pardon the line you're thinking of is Bishop a4 b5 Bishop b3 is it night a 5 here we're gonna need some help from our viewers actually let's find out where is that night a 5 because it has become a popular line and many of the top players did play it I'm pretty sure it's here with the idea that if you play night takes e5 probably I can just take take and at least win my pawn back with Queen e7 but maybe even Queen g5 winning this pawn on g2 is is actually a problem for white think Vallejo Pondens played this a bit and instead white tends to play something else you win the Bishop pair but what like white can play d4 you get the Bishop pair but positions are slightly better for white I don't think it's losing for black ironically I think the move Bishop takes f7 here is also a move yeah definitely because with the night going to a marginal line away from the center it definitely makes sense to try and go for the King here yeah I do believe this isn't winning for white but it's been a long time since I've looked at it in any case yeah we have a different night a 5 right yeah we have a main line Spanish and we have the h3 oops sorry the h3 anti-marshal right which we saw in a World Championship match we've seen it in two World Championship matches actually in the kayaking Carlson match from 2016 we also saw it and here Balash plays the move Bishop b7 and pawn to a4 which is fairly standard but it's actually not that standard because Bishop to b7 puts a little radar here and white tends to play the move pawns d3 here with because the argument in these systems is that if white has not committed with c3 then you can you could actually develop the night to c3 and try to go for that d5 square at some point right so you can go for that and in general this is seen as a way to play against an early fianceto of this bishop and you don't compare to for example let's just say we had this position this structure here is a lot weaker than this one c3 black could consider playing for like in the martial style with d5 right well this is the main line actually c3 d5 e d5 knight d5 you can absolutely play like this there were a number of games so compared with those lines if the point is on d3 rather than on c3 then it's not that weak so black cannot easily attack it and also the knight has an additional idea of developing to c3 so d5 here I believe is isn't isn't the way even though it's still a theoretical line right yeah it's it's it I think it still might be the main move and after takes takes white wins a pawn and now black has got two options is it somewhere here where I saw that idea with a5 and rook a6 yes yes it is so one idea is I can't remember the exact move order but arenas right that sometimes you can get I'm gonna put a line on the board I think bishop d6 is a mistake here maybe it's just to play is it I can't remember exactly how it goes but arenas right where a5 comes at the right moment and this route runs to the king side yeah and I believe I actually saw this move maybe even in a previous edition of the Gibraltar open could be yeah lots lots of different lines but of course this doesn't really matter because here Irene played a4 which is slightly less unusual she spent six minutes here but she tries to go I mean if I saw a4 on the board I would think Irene wanted a positional approach but seeing the later moves I'm no longer sure of that actually because she she played bishop to a2 well logical right yeah bishop to a2 keeping the bishop and now both pawns e4 well it makes perfect sense but I actually really like Irene's approach because after d3 knight f6 and knight takes e5 but isn't it just a better version of those martial ideas where black has not sacrificed the pawn or you're saying that the pawn on d7 isn't exactly doing great there well I don't really know I've just never seen this position but I expect that Balash is just gonna go d6 I really like that bishop on b7 which black has and I'm not sure if the bishop on a2 does the same job you know I mean it feels like the f7 square is somehow not that valuable as the g2 one I don't know I have this feeling yeah I think it's just a very interesting position as I say I don't know if this is theory or some kind of preparation but I think there are chances here for both sides for sure so we'll keep an eye on that and I actually see a question in the chat if we know if there will be more of these events or is this a one-time thing actually we will be having later today the tournament director joining us on the stream and I believe it will be a good moment to ask him this question and he could perhaps enlighten us on those matters yeah let's just put it this way there's been a lot of positive feedback so far and it wouldn't surprise me if we get some kind of an announcement or some kind of indication perhaps so we'll we'll see Harry H says time for Lawrence make his third GM norm it is on the way sir don't worry about that I'm gonna be playing again this year at some point thank you very much to me hi as well and to everybody else with their positive comments we do try to do the best obviously for you guys and break it down the way we see fit so appreciate all the kind words right let's move on out to another game yeah which one should we check let's look at peer cramming against Julian because this is a for me I mentioned before the round I think there are three or four absolutely must-win games for the women those being peer cramling with white Jean-Claire Abdul Malik with white and I think that Maria's game yeah so Maria I think I didn't have it as a must-win but a win is kind of definitely an expected result and another must-win game I have not must win but game I expect is Marisa bag with white against Hussein Aziz those are where I see the four points coming from okay so one of those game be against Julian here and peer plays in a style and Julian actually plays a tarash which is a very decent opening and we have a tarash mainline and a peer goes for an early d-take C5 the absolute tarash mainline goes 93 castles and now bishop g5 or at least the old tarash let's call it she goes for this d-take C5 and bishop takes C5 and we have one of those classic isolated Queen's pawn positions where white tries to attack this pawn and black says I'm very active and I can compensate my structural defect there is quite a difference here with the bishop on G2 being fiancated though because normally we tend to see these positions with bishop somewhere on e2 the pawn on e3 and then it's maybe slightly easier for white to try and attack the pawn on d5 here the problem and the challenge will actually be that that pawn could move at times to d4 right and then it might be more difficult to attack it and we actually see something like that in a few moves in the game so bishop to g5 bishop e6 and 9 c3 all very logical the pin putting on maximum pressure on the d5 and Gillian goes for an early d4 now this move might be okay but it has a lot of downside to it as well because white can now play knight to e4 exploiting the pin the bishop can come back to e7 and white now has got a variety of ways of playing here but I think that taking on f6 everything isn't perhaps the right way because then the rook will come to d8 and that pawn on d4 is just protected too well I believe there's no way it can be really weak yeah so I believe one of one idea here for peers thinking of is to take take a now play this move knight to c5 I believe this is what she's analyzing and because sometimes black could sacrifice that pawn on b7 so perhaps not here but no I think here is it here well it's a weird one because after bishop d5 knight takes b7 you cannot really play queen b6 because of 96 check yeah probably not I mean maybe you can I don't know but knight f5 is coming it looks like the king isn't so happy to stay in the center but you do have queen e7 you do have queen e7 so it's the knight already trapped because here you should definitely consider moves like e4 yeah exactly and it takes e3 isn't probably an option as the bishop is hanging on d5 and on the other hand taking on e4 with the bishop runs into rook e1 and it's trouble so what to play here yeah I believe there is a lot of calculation here at least it should be yeah b4 maybe Bishop b4 and now I would be like desperate to go queen c2 as white lining these guys up right or even e5 might be a move to consider yeah or even e5 and in fact against bishop e6 the first move you look at here is e5 trying to clear the way things get very messy very very quickly I do believe that might work out for white yeah it could be one of those situations where black did not manage to bring the king to safety first and then you could try all of these tactical ideas you could even after here here no that's but I have to ask something yeah let's let's admit that bishop d5 is working yeah what if I play a move an ugly move a very ugly move bishop c8 well it makes a lot of sense this move because now my point was that I will castle on the next move yeah and still my d4 pawn is protected quite well will you go for sorts of queen d2 rook d1 I'd be free ideas or what should be white's approach because I have the pair of bishops sure and you know actually an interesting idea when having the isolated pawn is that when white attacks it for too many times you could play let's say at some point if the knight is on b3 let's imagine I could go at some point for d3 and actually sacrifice it and we saw a very similar idea in one of Eric's games versus Maria where he did exactly that thing and it should have been a draw if he would play it correctly and then you actually get rid of your isolated pawn and create an isolated pawn for your opponent definitely an idea and you also open up this bishop in this I think you're absolutely right with what you say I think in this position I would be very interested in the move knight e1 that feels like the move to me do you try to to block the pattern yeah so like if you short castles and I play knight e2 d3 but then what will be your idea because it's very nice to block that one but you actually want to win it at some point right I don't think here I want to win it I think now my idea is to play rook c1 and put some pressure on this knight with knight takes b7 and claim that it's a little bit awkward for you to develop your pieces what about queen b6 though okay queen b6 let's say I go rook c1 all right it looks actually very interesting because now for example if I go for bishop g4 you already have knight takes b7 right I have knight takes b7 I also have h3 simply and then when my bishop goes away knight d7 oh that's even a better one but I could go on f5 yeah you could go well I don't know I don't know if I continue with g4 but I have options and this as you said knight takes b7 already might just be good I have ideas of also just going queen a4 and the pieces are flowing here for white yeah that's that's an interesting idea to try and play against that pawn on b7 even though I'm not entirely convinced because I could play just maybe something like rook to d8 let's say and then even when you achieve everything you want let's say I go for okay knight b7 might be a threat interesting I think white has got quite decent pressure here I mean he has the ultimate knight on d3 protecting here blockading the pawn this bishop is bad this bishop is struggling to have ideas with bishop g4 here now that the pawn on e2 is no longer protected um did you play knight b7 already and you are claiming that after the exchange sacrifice I don't have enough compensation right I mean I doubt it I mean again it's just something I'm looking at very for the first time but I just know I've been on the black side of this and I it's it's a bit unpleasant and it it's very interesting I never expected this to be so difficult to deal to deal with as black and actually I'm struggling to see a good setup here after 91 actually yeah yeah all right so some decisions to make there for uh for peer cramling let's move on to another game and we are going to take a look at the game well we've got a pretty theoretical looking position in gunai mamadzada against Sabino Brunello yeah let's check this one because it seems like Sabino has sensed the weakness in gunai's repertoire and has chosen the carocan actually his teammate won a very nice game earlier in the tournament with this line against gunai and I believe that Sabino chose slightly a different approach he played bishop of five instead of those lines with knight of six I'm not sure if to call them old or modern might be both I think they're I think they're still just very in in fashion basically I mean this is just a theoretical position what we have here this has just been played before it's one of those where black is extremely solid safe king white has got a little bit of a space advantage but this suits Sabino's style so gunai is going to have to be patient today um to find holes and there is a serious actually challenge when playing this line with black because many end games look like they are very close to a draw but because white could take a lot of space there on the king side by advancing the pawns it might be the case that many rook and games are not drawn actually and I recall losing a few of them with the black pieces absolutely so yeah it's gonna be interesting if gunai will be able to play a slower game a more positional one yeah we'll see just a quick comment David Reinhart says show computer evaluation he says appreciates our comments but show the computer evaluation you can see that on the small board in the middle of the live board don't debate the line so deep well it's our job to do so unfortunately we've got a very large community of chess players of all different levels including master level and above this is not a beginner's stream we do of course embrace the entire chess community but it's important that we go into some depth of the ideas because it will help you guys improve even more and we really care about who's winning the next movement drama well we do provide that as well if you've been watching the stream from the beginning we are emphasizing the uh the critical nature of each games and the drama when we get to a crescendo point in the game which is normally not right here but rather towards move 40 definitely if you've been following the tournament you'll see that we do try to do that so this is a you know a very very unique tournament and I have to say that I've been enjoying to watch it a lot you know at the beginning I was thinking that well perhaps I will feel a bit I don't want to say bitter but something like that because you know I'm more of a player and I would have enjoyed I fought more to play the event but actually following the games was really very interesting I didn't I didn't expect that actually to be you know no difference at all for me I mean the excitement level for me is the same both playing and just commentating and trying to trying to highlight the most interesting moments um yeah I mean commentating is I mean I'm extremely honored I'm having a great time with you Irina as well looking at the games I find commentating much less stressful than playing I have to say enjoy commentating to a certain extent more than playing but this tournament has inspired me a little bit to get back to playing yeah I saw that you know I've caught those lines you had when you said ah I'm still in great shape I should be playing you know yeah you know I said to the boys look if you really desperately need me if three of you get corona and you need me to step in I'll happily do that but unfortunately the rules don't allow for it all right so I believe we have one more game which we have not covered it's Marie versus Hussein one of those where you believed that white will be pressing hard yeah and we had a berlin and the anti-berlin and this very popular early exchange on t6 and the positional line with knight b to d2 bishop to e6 and queen to e2 all fairly well known stuff did we see a very similar line in a game I replayed previously versus who was it versus bobby or somebody else I don't remember because I think it was do you remember it was some sort of short castle and maybe it was against Ravi actually maybe maybe and they agreed a quick draw didn't they I think yeah I seem to recall something like that but I believe that we saw a very early knight to d7 in that case and it's a different line here so basically Hussein went for bishop is six quite fast right and after queen to e2 bishop d6 now the move b3 appeared on the board quite logical to develop the bishop on b2 and put pressure on the e5 pawn now I'm wondering isn't knight d7 a move which black usually makes here in order to play f6 and to build that that pawn chain against white's bishop on b2 hundred percent yeah it is knight d7 is is one of the main moves queen is seven though looks also all right sure and a4 played here a standard move trying to gain some space on the queen side and make sure that knight c4 won't be met by b5 at any point on our short castle 97 knight c4 and bishop takes c4 this is a move I'm definitely not sure about it's a very committal move to give up this bishop definitely it's probably okay though it's it's very solid and it's very passive the problem is the argument is which which piece is better knight or the bishop the knight from here let's say black plays a move like f6 there are two ways of playing for white in this position in my experience firstly you try and focus your attention around the f5 square so sometimes this knight can come here this knight can come here and you can try and come into f5 which causes a bit of grief for this queen but then we tend to see this plan more after black's short castle right because if black has not castled short yet perhaps it's not so dangerous when white plays f4 perhaps black could castled on the other side let's say you play knight h4 white g6 oh you want to go g6 first yeah oh well now i'm not going to go knight h4 yeah because now i could castle long and then the f4 plan is no longer no longer here i might just return right yeah and and then try and organize f4 and in fact that's the other idea is actually if you don't take if you go f6 believe it or not taking early is not not a stupid idea what about c takes yeah c takes d4 and now to play either d4 or c4 i don't know let's say d4 first here you might have bishop no i definitely agree about d4 but c4 looks very strange to me well c4 assuming that c5 isn't a move but c4 follow yeah c4 c5 is probably a problem so following up with d4 is very logical and there are a lot of games in this particular with this particular idea of taking on d6 and d4 also the idea is sometimes the bishop comes to a3 and the rook comes to d1 and there's a fairly weak point here on d6 so that's why hussain took it's it's not actually i mean i've seen mcshane play this move a lot in these systems but now after b takes c4 the problem is that i don't see black coming up with the counterplay on the queen side so perhaps black will just have to to be solid and to to basically wait yeah so black tends to wait one idea black does have sometimes is actually to play an ugly looking move which is c5 and then to try to bring the knight to c6 yeah exactly and then let's just say for example white plays a move like white played king h1 in order to play i i believe let's say let's say c5 and now the move knight to g1 with ideas of preparing f4 i wonder if you know something like this would be possible and as easy as saying i want to come in here then you commit white to sometimes playing c3 and then you have a weak pawn created on on d3 the only thing i'm worried here in blacks position is actually that bishop on d6 which looks like a very passive piece oh for sure it's an extreme passive piece but it's not locked in there it also you know for example a lot so basically black will wait for white to play f4 and then claim that that bishop can be traded exactly and then if you don't play f4 the question is what do you actually do here with white and the answer is not very much black can just wait and it's you know this structure is very solid there are no pawn breaks only this one here but again you would make this bishop alive so but perhaps black could even try some interesting plans with h6 and g5 at some point because here you could actually cast a long for black and try to do something on the king side i hate it i hate it yeah i hate it because all the light squares will be weak right i really hate it but i've got a knight to cover them because i could play something like okay let's just try to make some moves let's say h6 here okay let's say i mean i've gone c3 let's say i go bishop e3 oh long castle no okay i don't know let's say i just give you your move now queen to e6 oh you want to prepare it yeah okay i'm just giving okay i know i want actually to play g5 because then my knight is ready to come to e7 but then i will have to take count of those possibilities of d4 right yeah like i might have to come back here or maybe i should go f4 here actually yeah i like the move f4 all right what if i try to play instead of queen e6 g5 immediately trying not to allow you play f4 what's the idea i'm curious what do you want okay so if i have an ideal situation and you allow me to make a few moves in a row i would go for queen e6 97 h6 knight f4 this is what i want okay but that's a lot of moves yeah definitely that's that's a lot of but i hope that it's a static position but of course i hate my bishop on d6 but i'm trying to get a grip on the dark squares here yeah as i say i'm not in love with it for example let's say i go queen h5 or something queen h5 what about queen e6 now yeah and now i can just try and dance around on the light squares like f3 knight e7 yeah let's say knight f2 okay knight g6 i don't know something like g3 i'm a bit concerned that i have this pawn here but at least my knight is protecting d3 i'm actually ah but you want to trade queens that's your point i cannot allow trading queens so i will play king b8 let's say i mean i could have traded queens on the last move right after knight g6 i can always just go here because then i will have to play first king b8 and not allow the queen trade because then the the weakness of the squares will be much worse what are you gonna do when i land here that's my only problem i have with your idea if you go knight g6 let's wait wait wait i have an interesting idea here maybe i could try something like but i'm not in love i was thinking about queen g6 queen g6 i guess i have to take and now i wanted to take with with the pawn actually with the pawn yeah claiming that i have time to play h5 and i'm covering the f5 square yeah it's it looks it looks so strange yeah i in in general i have to say i don't love the idea of h6 g5 here i it doesn't feel like again just having commons not really even playing having just commensated on dozens of games in these structures i don't think that's one of the common ideas with the light squared bishops off the board definitely in fact i think it's an aggressive one because if you would try to find an aggressive plan i believe you don't have any other options with black here yeah but that but that's the point is that you can't be aggressive with black blacks entire setup here it says i don't really have any plans to press i want you to press and if you achieve something with white great but i believe i'm just so solid that you can't achieve something and if you get a bit out of line it can backfire i'm worried that white will be able to make f4 appear on the board then i will have a difficult task deciding if to take one f4 and allow those pawns move forward or play f6 and then the e5 pawn might be potentially a weakness yeah i think in general allowing f4 is never a problem for black for example the game is actually king h1 knight c5 let's say you organize f4 here as as as white let's say let's say i castle on the long side knight h3 f6 and f4 yeah in general you can take bishop takes yeah and you can just play like with 96 and these sorts of positions are just fine for black because you still dominate the dark squares you can play c5 the structure is actually a bit uh i would say uh what's the word static it's actually not that bad for black here at all that's yeah yeah you just you just take this guy i think allowing i think you're right though allowing f takes e5 is sometimes a problem but what about preparing f4 with the move like g3 because ah right i would love to take one f4 with a pawn oh sorry knight c5 knight g1 castles and g3 well now you you could go for an h5 yeah now now you do give me the the justification right and now if i play h4 then you can consider coming up with f6 and g5 well now f4 is just out of the question right well yeah we could get super super aggressive here or we just say well this this transformation has been beneficial for me so very interesting all together but i believe it suits hussain's style of play this type of position because he has been playing quite positional and he wants to play solid chess so perhaps this is a good outcome for him um this opening line yeah i think he's just happy to be slightly passive and suffer against marie i'm not sure it's the best opponent to do it against actually but yeah because marie will enjoy playing risk-free right yeah exactly all right so that means we have uh at least had a little look at all the games so far we did get a result by the way infromeski bobby chained that did it in a repetition yeah so that's a great result for the boys in my opinion and uh as i say they just need to make a few few results today and it's going to be really tough so the key game is still ongoing for me pier cramling white marie must he took whites zhansaya abdu malik white if they win those three games there and avoid disaster elsewhere the match is still alive that's where i'm putting my eggs and i think there are another few games where white will try to play um a very long game you know and just keep the possibilities opened and i believe we're gonna see a very exciting round today absolutely all right guys we'll be back after a short break with continued coverage of the penultimate round of this battle of the sexes chevening and tournament don't go anywhere we've got all the action coming up in just a moment but everybody welcome back to penultimate round round nine of battle of the sexes and we're delighted to be joined by uh the man who has orchestrated everything the conductor of this opera and this uh this group of people it is lauren fey the tournament director lauren thanks obviously for joining us um and thank you for uh everything you've done obviously your tournament director this year you've tried to make this work as smoothly as possible we're gonna talk about that now so uh i think you deserve a big congratulations for all of your good work hello lauren hello thanks for the invitation it's indeed a great pleasure to be with you here you are the visible part of the iceberg if we can say it this way and i think from the audience it's always a pleasure to follow you with your enthusiasm and passion uh you were interviewed recently and you you shared the passion and we can feel it and so this is something really really great yeah um there are plenty of other people involved as you mentioned it and uh without all of them it wouldn't be the same success so i think it's also uh a good time now that we are reaching the end of the event to give them attributes people from hammers were in this room the arbiters the people from the organization in general were supporting not only today but also during the the whole preparation phase so that's it's a very convenient environment to work on the challenges to make this tournament happen these days with the pandemic ongoing and traveling being quite difficult did you have any particular challenges and who helped you to to make it a great event as it is indeed so yeah we had a few challenges due to the pandemic also with the visas and so on so we had a great support from the different authorities the border and coast guards the health authorities as well just as a as a kind of example two days before the the actual start of the event i finally was happy to have all of the players having a plane ticket to join so it's like you are inside not in the in the game you know you see the clock running and finally everybody's ready to start to start their games locally during the event as well it's very important for us to be as safe as possible against the covid so you participate yourself every night every night to our testing parties we can call it this way fortunately we mainly have some negative results and this is really positive because for us it's key that we enjoy chess but in a safe way for the tournament for the Gibraltarians as well i mean we don't want to a super spreader to give you we want to spread the passion for chess and not the one for covid right absolutely yeah all right so we have a very interesting question from our viewers they were asking what are the plans for for the next years is the event going to be in the same format or what are the plans generally so the plans are in brainstorming mode at the moment so we have different possibilities so far nothing is decided but what is sure is that we are going to continue the jib chess story especially next year is number 20 because the tournament was born in 2003 so it's important for us to continue to welcome chess players women chess players as well as it's always been the case when we started the game today we we chose to start on Antoineta's game as we already started the other day with with pia who was present at every edition since the creation Antoineta is actually number two in in the number of times participated exactly she came 16 times and pia 18 times really this is also something which is very important and and it's a great let's say reward to see the players enjoying and coming back year after year and yeah actually also I think with Jovanka they are accumulated so pia Antoineta Jovanka they are accumulating I think almost 50 but they are the top three participants in the in the event from the start fantastic yeah I mean what can I say there's a reason why they've come back year after year after year this year it's a bit different but still you've managed to create some kind of social element to this tournament okay the excursions have been a bit difficult to organize for obvious reasons but even in the hotel lobby every night there's a there's a group of people the girls enjoying playing some other games whatever it is that's an important element of this entire tournament isn't it the social side absolutely we enjoy great fights on the board but it's also important as I said during the technical meeting we had on the left the boys on the right the girls but at the end we said we are one team together and that's something which shines in the evening when we when we finish the games of course you would sometimes see the ladies in a group the man in a group and preparing the strategy somehow for the for the next day but yeah globally there is a great atmosphere and this is really important as well for the tournament well I know that for many years the main focus in Gibraltar was women's chess and also the 2022 year is the women women in chess year in FIDE and I know you have some extra information for us about that will there be any special events for for women in chess for actually not only women players but also for the arbiters because we have also our very lovely female arbiters so tell us a bit more about it yeah absolutely so as you said we always emphasize the fact that women should be included in tournaments and this year there is a special initiative in FIDE 22 the year of women in chess so in various sectors there will be some support to participate in tournaments some conferences led by by women supports for arbiters which is the sector I better know we will have some seminars to train make sure that we make as attractive as possible the the world of chess for women in various sector arbiters coaches trainers encourage them to organize as well to celebrate really the the concepts and I would say that this tournament is a good way to start the year about this absolutely as well 50 percent women 50 percent men the tournament is also led by an arbiter Anna Slebonich top level arbiter who is a woman of course and so this is a good tribute to to this world initiative in FIDE oh I'm very glad to hear about it and I hope to also be able to enjoy this and I hope to see as many women as possible interested in our beautiful game actually I can only back what you just said um yeah I mean I what can I say thanks again so much unless you have any other questions for Laurent is there anything else you want to say additionally well I actually have a question okay what are your thoughts about the situation in the match right now yeah let's talk about do you think are the ladies chances will they be able to level the score today or I know that you have agreed to moving the round with one hour if the ladies are gonna win with plus eight do you still believe in that happening or well it will be difficult indeed but as you mentioned it we have quite a challenging atmosphere in between the rounds so indeed yesterday everybody as you know is not a fan of starting the games early right so we had a kind of negotiation with the team captains like especially with the women's team if they make plus eight today then we postpone by one hour okay it will be indeed quite difficult especially as we had already two games finished and they they would have to score 100% if we speak about technique just two seconds there is a rating difference between the men's team and the women's team so technically speaking if the men finish with plus four it would be like the exact expectation of the of the a low rating system okay so they should not just increase the gap I'd see otherwise we are just statistically at the expectation right so plus four because they have a 15 points elo average and plus four is the expected so we are pretty much on the expected value line of yes of this of this tournament so does it mean that you expected women to overperform was was it what you hoped for yes somehow I mean it's always I kind of I would say a human reflex to to think okay then you you root for the the one who is in in lower position to to try to make a specific performance so yeah it would mean they they perform better than the theory yeah well look I mean I know I've been in general there have been some very impressive individual performances as well they are a team but there have been some specific individual we actually do have one more question for you because we were wondering if any of the players have chances for a GM normally right now what is the situation with that yes I think if I'm correct the only one who still has a chance is bolage yeah so it should score seven out of 10 and now is that five and a half right can he score six and a half out of nine for a nine round norm I think that the new regulations which were published in January about scoring norms on the one hand they included this possibility of scoring norms in a schreveningen system like we have here yeah but the counterpart is that they should play all rounds contrary to a Swiss tournament where you can say okay I scored very well in the first nine I skipped the last one like we could have in the previous editions of the festival with the schreveningen system you have to score it over 10 games so over all the games right so he has to score one and a half out of two out of the remaining two games that's it all right well there you have it yeah thanks so much Laurent thank you all right so Balash Chonka needs one and a half out of two and the ladies in general well how are they gonna finish eight games still going on but I can see that there are eight positions on the board it's not that there is nothing conclusive so still lots of chess be played we'll let you go Laurent and we'll be back in just a few moments with more coverage of today's round big thanks once again thank you to both and let's hope for an exciting finish exactly yeah with both of you it will be for sure thank you thank you very much see you in a few moments we welcome back to the penultimate round of the jib chess battle of the sexes tournament we just had Laurent fray the tournament director talked to us a bit about his thoughts on the tournament the future and everything else great to have Laurent he's been a very competent tournament director I think we've had we've been very lucky to have him and we'll see what happens in the future in the meantime the games are still going on we've had two results an early draw between Maria Muzitra and Bilal I think that's a bit of a disappointing draw yes definitely I believe that the ladies team were hoping that Maria will be able to win this one but judging from the position I think it was a very practical decision by Maria because the end game I believe actually could have even gone wrong for white if trying too hard so I think that was all right a logical result judging by the final position especially and now we have eight more games still in progress and let's start with with the one between Abdo Malik and Rosen yeah so this was this wild uh what's it called dragadorff and I meant dragadorff yeah the dragadorff and I mentioned before that one of the ideas for black is to play this early h5 to prevent bishop h6 moves and Jan Zaire staying with her style aggressive decides the castle queen side we get the double fiancato h4 knight bd7 and a3 queen c7 all of these moves yeah really standard bishop b2 rook b8 it's interesting eric saying well at some point I want to play b4 maybe or try to use the b file exactly so Jan Zaire moves the rook to c1 and plays knight a2 interesting manoeuvre yeah it is I have to say quite unusual because when you go away with the knight you have to be ready for black playing d5 at some point but I believe that here with with white's rook on c1 perhaps you wanted to capture on d5 and maybe even go for c4 at some point I'm not sure what was the idea after d5 it could also be well it was played it was played d5 and she played knight b4 because now there is a threat of knight a6 and it will be a fork exactly so eric defended like this but it looks a little shaky for black and now he played Jan Zaire played the very natural move knight to b3 withdrawing the knight from the center stopping any e5 d4 moves as well and stopping any a5 ideas as well what about the move d takes e4 is it already bad looks bad yeah I think you can just take the queen and then the pawn on a6 is hanging right yeah and you have to defend against two there are just too many weaknesses in black's position the pawn on d6 the one on b5 and probably that's why eric chose to castle instead yeah and this is the position we have right now and my gut is telling me that this is very bad for eric he says but why and the question is why yeah you could you could argue that white is doing quite fine in the center but normally the ideas are to attack on the king's side if you trade too many things in the center then it might dry out so I'm not entirely sure of this one you go for rook d1 yeah this was the move played this was the most natural move on the board putting pressure down here and that's the question that eric has to answer there is a possibility to play e6 even though it's not the standard way of handling these positions but now with so much pressure on the d5 square maybe it have it has some some sense because then I want to capture on d5 with a piece if if I can and the question is how do you increase the pressure over d5 right I believe it's not as easy as it might look because all of white's pieces are placed quite nicely but if you imagine me playing a5 maybe at some point for now the pawn would be hanging but if I managed to make that knight from b4 go away then it would be great for black yeah it's not clear I mean there's only one idea that unfortunately I don't think works well it works but it's it's probably not very good and that's the idea of e5 so your point is that I cannot really take with the queen because my queen will get trapped after bishop f4 I believe right I don't know if bishop f4 or bishop d4 I don't know which one is is best probably bishop f4 yeah because you don't have ideas with queen takes b2 it will just lead to material loss also the rook on b8 is hanging actually just just anything and I'll win a piece and now your queen has only got one square and then after bishop to d3 theoretically it's trapped and I guess the other point is if you go knight takes e5 you can try bishop c5 but I'm not a big fan of it because actually this is such an important bishop and after just simply let's say queen to d8 bishop takes f8 well maybe not queen to d8 actually because we're losing this but you cannot really protect the pawn on a6 that's true actually that's true and here you could argue that this might work because indeed as you are saying the bishop on g7 is a monster here but you've got not only an exchange but actually it's exactly an exchange because you got the pawn back now you sacrificed it on e5 and now you're getting back the a6 one but I think there are still a lot of dangers in this position knight c4 might come at some point exactly like let's say knight takes a6 let's say rook b6 and then against anything I'm going knight c4 on the next move how unclear is that it looks unclear you know for example if you go knight c5 I go knight c4 and the combination is very nasty and if you take I'm very happy with black because I take and then you know pieces hang and but I might have actually queen b4 here after knight c4 because I don't see a good way of making knight takes b2 work because then I will take with the king and there is I believe there is no good way to jump with the knight right yeah it could be could be that I can't do it immediately then maybe I could play c3 and try to consolidate on the dark squares yeah it's that sort of thing that could happen which is why I'm a bit pessimistic towards Eric's position because it's all a bit fragile and you have to protect this pawn and it's not easy to see how to how to do this and this is already this is clearly the sort of position that gensire wants because it's very easy for black to go wrong and I guess it's also the position that Eric wants yeah it's very interesting because both of the players are have very attacking styles and it is actually a clash of styles here but I tend to like gensire's chances more in this game agreed I think this is a great opportunity for gensire okay let's let's move on and let's go to let's go back to oligogiria because it's been a while since we've been there we last kind of checked out around here and we actually said that most likely liandro would just develop with bishop e7 and so he did right yeah he did there was a trade on b5 a trade on a8 and queen to a2 and now liandro decided I think very sensibly to give back the pawn with knight bd7 I think the problem is if you try and keep this bishop on the board you might run into queen a7 right exactly queen a7 looks very very nasty and the pieces are running out of squares so I think liandro did the correct thing which is to give back the pawn and now Olga says well I've managed to win the pair of bishops so I must be better but liandro again has an answer with the move pawn to b4 and he's ready to castle there's nothing you can do now black is going to castle on the next move which is what happens Olga puts the knight to block a the pawn very classic of course and knight to d5 and now the move queen to a5 by Olga Giri and this is the position we have on the board um what do we think of it I don't think liandro is worried at all basically I don't like the bishop on c6 so because basically you have the pair of bishops but you might have to give up to give them up because putting it on a4 doesn't really make sense and at some point if I attack it perhaps I would have to just take some more on d7 on d5 well the only challenge I see in from black's perspective is to keep that pawn on b4 alive but for now it's very well protected the bishop on a7 does a fine job keeping it saved the knight on d5 as well so for example if we imagine an end game without the b4 pawn then black will be in big trouble right but I don't see actually how Olga can try and put pressure on it did uh did actually liandro no liandro is taking his time thinking here yeah liandro's got a bit of a decision because he can obviously trade queens and then play for example I don't know knight f6 or knight p6 let's say maybe knight f6 not allow e4 yeah knight f6 and I guess what he's questioning is what to do against f3 e4 which looks like a sensible plan could you try something like rook b8 or rook c8 or rook b8 I was okay rook b8 so I go e4 you know something like knight to c3 to be able to meet bishop f4 with knight e2 check and yeah I'm starting to get worried about that b pawn cleaning it will not never queen never queen all right but now I have knight e2 and now I get this dark squared bishop and now I will never have to worry about losing my b4 pawn yeah and I don't see black ever losing this position looks like dead equality to me just looks like enough control from both sides perhaps that knight on f6 isn't that great maybe we can try to put it on b6 instead this one here knight b6 yeah and then if e4 again knight c3 and also knight e2 is coming so probably bishop to e3 also now threatens d5 yeah but let's assume I play something like rook rook to b8 maybe you looks a little strange but that bishop on c6 does not have any squares at all to go to right now right I think black is doing perfectly fine here actually very possibly yeah yeah in general as I say I think Leandra's got a number of options and I don't think any of them are particularly bad even if he decides to keep the queens on here I mean he probably isn't going to do it but for example he could try to move queen c8 unless this is really bad which it could be yeah might be the case because why give a pawn if he can avoid that right yeah yeah I see the queen trade happening and I don't see Leandro facing any serious pressure so let's move on it looks as though Leandro doing and he's very much ahead on the clock right yeah I don't think the clock is going to be such a big factor in this position she's got half an hour it's yeah but she might decide to not take risks because of the time remaining on the clock actually yeah all right let's go to another position and let's check out the game of let's go back to Antoinette against Ravi Haria because this game is going really slowly I mean they are spent if we take the last few moves by the way we just we saw it just before after c takes d5 and before oh my Antoinette is half hour again behind on the clock yeah I mean we last saw it here and actually this move e5 was played by Ravi this is one of the other ideas here now that I remember it that Kunosov introduced in another variation knight b5 and knight xd5 and rook d1 so Lawrence you were saying that you were worried you don't know any theory but from what I've seen and witnessed in this studio you know quite a lot well yeah but I no I don't I don't I don't know I know some old stuff perhaps but I can't remember whenever I'm playing I forget so but when somebody plays it it reminds me I've got very bad recall I can't recall but when somebody plays it oh yeah I remember that I've seen that right so here knight bd5 followed but isn't it risky because after rook d1 there is a very unpleasant pin so if white has one move here white would just capture the knight and e4 is also in the air like you've highlighted knight c3 is also in the air so is the only possible move to go bishop e6 well I mean let's put it this way and when it's a spent 38 minutes on this move I believe she were she was trying to understand if it makes sense to take on d5 or not yeah yeah it's a very possibly but for me it's because after bishop d5 queen d5 maybe there was but actually no there wasn't knight c7 because you could just take on b3 I guess and then even if you take the pawn on a7 somehow it doesn't get you anything because those pawns are doubled you could even run in trouble here with without the pair of bishops right possibly I'm not completely sure I think maybe white would settle for this but I think there might be something even more compelling after knight c7 well for a start we have to analyze knight takes d5 that also exists but you know for example you can play queen c6 here is black and after knight takes a8 bishop h3 yeah exactly so you threaten mate and the rook and if you go f3 maybe I can even throw in a check here right f3 looks dangerous actually yeah well there are no other ways to stop them where you can go e4 but it just to show you the absolute basic that black has is you can take and actually takes runs into queen takes c1 check yeah this looks actually like trouble yeah exactly that's why she didn't take she went rook d1 and now now the big question is what is the idea oops not bishop f5 sorry I believe bishop b6 might actually be the only move in the position because something like a6 doesn't actually help against bishop takes d5 because bishop f7 is a threat after a takes b5 so I'm not sure what is ravi thinking that's there are no other moves right so after bishop e6 e4 what is ravi's idea he has to find a discovery attack with the knight so let's say oh what about just knight b6 let's say I take bishop takes but it's just a piece down of course it's just a piece but where to place the knight then well that's what I've been analyzing I'm trying to analyze and that I'm wondering if you can play knight f4 what is the point that after rook takes d8 yeah I don't know rook takes d8 does this check do anything yeah this is the idea uh no yeah this is the idea knight e2 okay king f1 and now I take rook takes f8 okay let's say I take with the king wow this is some fantastic calculation involved because now if I take on e2 you've got bishop c4 and you collect the knight on b5 and if I take the bishop on b3 you have knight takes c1 but yeah the knight isn't in trouble because it's got two squares d3 and b3 so I believe that is what that I mean it looks so risky what if I take on uh I cannot really take on f4 with the pawn because now after bishop b3 rook takes d8 there is rook takes and after a takes b3 you give a check on d1 and you collect my c1 bishop yeah and it's actually lost for white so I believe that's what they are calculating here so bishop e6 e4 knight f4 what if I go away with the queen somewhere okay let's say queen to a4 and I want to collect ah but now you can play knight to e2 king f1 and even knight d4 might be all right oh knight d4 I think I'm happy with white you'll just take the pawn yeah knight d4 I'd take I'm a bit worried about the king but if all is fine then yeah sure knight c3 is very consolidating on the next move what else then because I just want to take the knight 92 looks to me like it's almost forced you've got an idea like 92 king f1 and what about a move like queen c8 so now your point is that if I take on e2 you've got queen c4 check right yeah queen c4 I did think about bishop c4 briefly but it's probably a little too much like king e1 yeah probably even that I'm not it looks so it looks fine for white yeah but I mean my main idea is for of course now I'm forced to take take and then you collect the b5 knight again but these are all really complicated lines I mean both players will spend I believe a big amount of time calculating them well you have to because you're just forced to otherwise you just lose yeah so it all seems forced bishop e6 is forced well perhaps e4 you can try knight c3 but on knight and then you take the knight you already have a piece sorry that doesn't work that doesn't work so yeah e4 looks like the critical try for for white and then this knight f4 wow yeah looks like that's the sort of thing that could happen but one thing we are guaranteed in this position 12 moves only played they have got I mean Antoinette only with 20 minutes left for 28 moves this is there's gonna be a game that gets to time trouble it looks like this looks looks looks very very but why is Ravi thinking so I am a bit puzzled because you could calculate everything after bishop after you've played bishop e6 I mean does he really have any other he might have one other move which looks dreadful which is to go e4 mm-hmm but I mean I hate it do you all right so now the point is that after knight c3 you've got bishop e6 yeah now now I go bishop e6 mm-hmm and if I take on e4 you you say you're saying that you've got the pair of bishops yeah exactly I take you take even here I could take with the queen queen okay yeah you can take with the queen and then let's say I take to trade that yeah yeah and bishop e6 and the claim is that I should get developed rookie five I can even go rook c8 I don't know which rook maybe rook fc8 talking about like rook d1 rook d1 here mm-hmm yeah and then black can say well I've got the two bishops I've got long-term compensation I've even got bishop c4 right here knight c3 yeah maybe the other one even well but it doesn't matter yeah and bishop f6 and black yeah this position stands to be quite selfish right yeah black really doesn't have any problems so there there are a few things to consider here but yeah bishop e6 does feel intuitively and actually we have one of our viewers in the chat saying that according to the engine girls are winning already in free games could could that be actually happening well I just don't see which I mean Jean Siar if we quickly go back there she's played bishop c5 this was why I didn't like knight b6 by the way and I think Jean Siar this position does look very bad for for Eric right I mean you're already blundering this pawn queen c7 knight takes a six but what did he play after rook h2 d1 he played knight b6 which looks like a bad move wow yeah it looks a bit over optimistic to me indeed yeah and after bishop c5 already it's kind of difficult to envisage where to put this queen if you put it on d8 you can just take on a6 and then you can take on b5 right no this this and because rook c8 takes and the point is you can't take because I take everything twice and b6 hangs looks like a pretty dreadful position for Eric and again I don't know what he did badly but why was he so aggressive today well maybe he just thought playing slowly against Jean Siar is just not going to work I think he was too hasty with this d5 move I think he should probably you know maybe play knight b6 first or or something or just try and organize it because he got outplayed basically around here and it could be the case that the current position maybe that overall this line is a bit a bit risky for black oh the line for sure is risky in general but Eric played a slightly unusual way so yeah but as for the other winning positions I mean I can believe this is I mean I if you said this white is winning here I could believe you but where are the other winning positions let's let's have a look at Mamadzada against the man's team captain yeah now this position here looks better for white to me but winning I would wouldn't even dream maybe what can win a point is it the case oh just with rook takes d8 I'm not sure it looks a bit risky because the queen is pinned but rook takes d8 was already played actually and you can only take with the queen or with the king because if you take with the rook the pawn on e5 is dropping right so if I take with the king it looks very scary yeah it does it might be actually just bad I'm not sure could something like f4 work the idea was that after e takes f4 maybe I have bishop f6 g takes f6 and rook d1 which wins yeah because after bishop d6 I could just play windy free let's say okay so what is Sabino play here he took with the queen yeah I find that taking with the queen should be the answer because now after bishop takes e5 perhaps he has some ideas with to do something about this pin but you know the king on c8 suddenly looks like it's in trouble yeah well let's say you go 97 97 yeah not so not so sure that we can take that pawn immediately right okay what are the natural moves bringing the rook in with tempo queen c7 back queen c7 back and now we need need a strong move actually you know I was thinking that instead of rook d1 something like rook e1 might also be interesting rook e1 yeah just trying to apply more pressure on that pawn it does feel as though black has got some problems here though I have to say yeah there are just a lot of weaknesses in black's position it's not only the pawn on e5 but also the king on c8 which might in some variations run into trouble yeah it definitely looks like white might be doing very well here um so after after rook e1 maybe now white wants to take actually on e5 97 doesn't look like a move you want to do here and what else then because the bishop on f8 has to stay there and protect the pawn on g7 and if you go for g6 um wait no I think I can play just knight to e3 then this square is weak that knight on f6 feels very unstable and still the pawn on e5 isn't doing great yeah I believe that Gunai has a very good position for playing for a win here um and actually she's taking now her time to figure things out what else could could she do right now rook d1 seems actually like a move you want to throw in but perhaps the queen doesn't stay so well on d8 perhaps bringing it to c7 is something black wants to do anyway right in any case it does look promising for Gunai this is exactly the sort of position oh and I've seen a very interesting line from our viewers yes d1 queen c7 and bishop b4 this is a move I haven't considered and it's it might be good because now the d6 square is very weak so for example if you take on b4 it takes b4 now 96 might be a threat um yeah and also c5 might be coming yeah this looks it just looks very good for white very nice spot bishop b4 excellent yeah a good job bff yeah brilliant okay so great chance is there for Gunai it seems and so Gunai and Jensaja let's go back to Pia Kramling's game because I you know as I mentioned already uh you know I felt like this was a game that the that Pia really has to win and we have this position here on the board let's just look at it right away and uh I think black is doing fine because um the pawn on d4 is quite all right and also you've got additional ideas linked to queen a5 moves because then when you take on d4 I will be collecting the pawn on a2 so I really don't see Jillian in trouble here no I think he's done a very fine job with black today yeah I think he's doing just fine I agree I think this is fine for black so Pia not winning but apparently what about Joe Gallagher against Ivanka yeah let's check that one because it looked like a very interesting king's indian where Ivanka played an early b3 a double fiancato and actually she's got the pair of bishops right now and also what I don't like in black's position is the pawn on c6 with that bishop on g2 it might mean trouble and actually I'm even considering moves like I don't know could I just play something uh very strange here like now maybe queen d4 is a bit too much but uh it would be nice maybe to to trade those bishops and then try some queen d6 at some point to trade the dalsquade bishops you mean yeah yeah you could try that um because I was also considering bishop takes f6 but then um you tend to have a lot of drawing positions with opposite colored bishops because for example after queen a4 here I disliked uh knight d5 yeah um that's why I tried to make that knight go away somehow I think black white might just have a very classy way to get this what if I go rook takes b8 rook takes and queen a1 yeah oh what about to move like knight 98 now yeah and what if I just go rook d1 and now unfortunately I cannot take on c3 and play knight f6 back that's the problem because if I get my knight to d5 black is doing very well but if I don't it's it's trouble and actually Yovanka played another move which uh which I also considered queen d6 yeah because now if getting the past pawn actually it might mean that the pawn on c6 will fall so perhaps you can't even take on d6 well maybe you can so let's discuss so queen takes d6 c takes d6 knight d5 well you have to take right bishop takes g7 okay let's say I take ah but now I could take on b8 and play rook c1 yeah but that's not winning for white rook b2 are you are you sure because that pawn on d6 looks like it might be a queen no really d i'm okay let's try first d7 d7 first uh yeah and then after rook b8 I can throw in bishop takes d5 you are forced to take with the e pawn and then I take on c6 play rook c7 and it's probably winning yeah sorry rook b2 is a bad move so what if I go king f6 yeah it might be might be the way okay now um do I take on c6 yeah why not okay you take I'll throw in the check bishop f1 and now I will have rook a6 ideas okay so let's say I got rook a1 rook a6 and knight c3 it's uh it looks all very risky to me yeah it's it's probably risky but it's one of those let's say a3 because I really want to keep the a pawn alive and if we remember one of the recent games of Magnus versus Richard Rapport that a pawn together with the light squared bishop might be a queen at some point yeah I think black might be in trouble really because even if I give up the d6 pawn and I take the a pawn as I was saying that pawn is very dangerous if we've got the catalan light squared bishop alive it could be perhaps I didn't even play it the best way but still I'm worried about Joe because he will have to find really precise moves so not to get in trouble immediately maybe yeah I mean that's it's I'm certainly not convinced by black's position here after this is there anything else could you avoid taking on d6 maybe something he played it and look at his clock he's done to 15 minutes Yavanka is up almost half hour on the clock what about rook takes b1 rook takes b1 and now what if I go rook d8 can I try this is just bad you can just take and rook b8 check no this is this is problematic for sure yeah this is problematic so rook I mean 95 looks like it should be the move takes takes this is all forcing and rook c1 yeah it looks critical because yeah it just looks critical without because and actually he played a different move he played knight to e4 but now the rook and games no this this is probably a great decision by Joe actually because well firstly you can't maybe you can take but I can seriously consider this but maybe not but wait there is one more or is it not I was thinking about bishop before also but maybe it's not possible no but actually I hate this by Joe I hate you just liked it now you hate it no I thought it was good but I've just realized I hate it what if I take what do you do but why do you take on e4 first I'll show you are you I take let's say okay f takes e4 first one and now bishop a5 oh god and the plan is queening well it might not but I mean this bishop is just such a monster on a5 oh no but this is just I think it's just losing because after bishop f6 you've got even bishop c7 and it looks terrible well maybe I even change a pair of no wait bishop c7 rook takes b1 rook takes b1 but whatever just winning yeah this is just terrible bishop d8 rook b8 yeah yeah this is and I'm coming in and there were weak pawns 94 is 94 is terrible I think he wants to do this actually but it's a very bad end game after bishop takes c6 because with a pawn on d7 and with rooks on the board I think it might just well be lost looks very bad this is pure suffering Joe with a stinker today um yeah 94 again should we I I'm gonna yeah it's just yeah it wants to play that it wants to play that ending and it's very much likely to be lost I mean it wouldn't surprise me if this is just absolutely no hope for Joe I mean he'll have to defend and grovel and it'll be quite disgusting the most important thing will be to keep at least one pair of rooks on on the board because if you trade them all then the bishop end game the opposite colored one is a draw even that is not immediately a draw it's not not so clear even the bishop end game but with rooks it's just it's just disgusting I have to say what black has to to go through in this one yeah this is not going to be fun and apparently Ravi has lost what what let's have a look I haven't got the result here let's see it didn't he play bishop b6 wow he played queen a5 queen a5 let's check because we didn't check with the engine anywhere bishop b6 is good yeah it looked like almost the only move yeah so he plays queen a5 now why is this bad for black let's see well there might be several reasons actually and well there's a lot of calculation here to be had well let's try the most straightforward one bishop takes d5 let's first see if that one works so now his point is that after queen d5 he's got rook d8 I guess and if queen b3 I can take take and take and black is more than fine yeah so I cannot take with the queen probably but after rook d5 there is bishop to e6 also queen a1 is yeah sorry that that that's what I thought was at least this and black is at least fine again yeah so actually that doesn't work so why is this there might be some bishop d2 involved actually yeah that's what I was thinking but then there's some bishop knight before it's uh yeah that might be that might be the line where the trouble will appear the bishop d2 looks interesting actually right away the video is late ravi lost already no no he didn't lose what is this I the result hasn't come through and she's at the board how can it be late oh no I think I think our viewers are just saying that he blundered yeah yeah and it's actually completely fine for black so it was actually that line which we first discussed so what does it takes takes queen d5 rook d8 and now there is a queen sacrifice right oh yeah okay well there you go ah but wait it's just lost it's just losing because there is b4 yeah that's beautiful and now the back rank is such an issue beautiful I wonder if she finds it I'm curious I think she will actually because you go through these forcing variations and you look at queen takes d8 anyways yeah this is this is actually quite a serious blunder especially because I have to say I mean ravi is okay he's not the most how can I say tactically gifted grandmaster in the world he's so much he's got a great feel and a great positional feel but bishop b6 is just a really easy move to find yeah and it's very logical exactly you know in this I heard something very interesting and she took on d5 of course yeah she took okay let's have a look this is a big moment so bishop takes d5 let's see if ravi looks a bit yeah what I was gonna say is that in complicated tactical positions when you don't know for sure which move to choose normally the most sound positional move is actually the best tactical one as well so from this point of view bishop b6 seemed great I mean he has to take so let's just start with us yeah there's no other no other move and then it takes and now does bishop b6 exist here as well first no you can take on b7 now and you're attacking this bishop yes no this is just no you can't even do that so rook d8 forced yeah because a6 I can just move the knight and rook d8 and now you have this wonderful idea queen takes d8 bishop takes d8 only move yeah because this is already a piece down so that's just immediate resigns and now this wonderful distraction tactic tactic and so queen b6 is now the only move and now after bishop b3 it's just game over it's just a piece it's just a full piece not even for a pawn for nothing it's just over oh wow what a blunder by rabbi I think he just realized what he did well let's see I mean Antonetta and what what a comeback by Antonetta you know after being one week in self isolation she came yesterday won her game with the black pieces against Leandro and today it looks like she has huge chances to score in other win yeah well I mean she she's just winning it's not even huge but also she she played so quickly this bishop takes d5 I believe it means like she is in great form if she spotted this before intermediate it moves right away let's see let's see if she plays it we'll keep an eye on that but that means that if she wins then at the moment Gunai, Jhansaya, Antonetta all have big positions and very promising ones and let's go to Irene yeah let's check that that game because for now okay so she she played d4 how is this one rooks are off the board but there are still four pairs of light pieces queens it looks very drawish actually there are still a lot of pieces on the board that's correct and there might be that one of the sides could blunder at some point but still it looks like a balanced one for me so far what are your thoughts yeah I mean it looks it looks like Balash is okay here I don't see any particular big advantage for white so yeah it's not the most exciting of positions that's for sure so I think we can we'll come back to this if some big developments happen but yeah I see Balash holding of course also Yavanka so we've got Yavanka there are four games four games where there are really huge advantage for what for for the ladies what about this one this one here sorry which one this one this one between Mari and Hussein yeah again it's also one of those positions where I seriously dislike what black has done in the past few moves because I actually don't understand why he castled long like this because well the king is on a semi open file the rook on b1 is looking straight into the eyes of that king and there are a lot of tactical ideas here I could double let's say at some point I could play knight b3 knight b3 rook b3 and then b6 might be a tactical weakness well Mari has to find the best way to make that happen because then maybe there is some queen is seven bishop c5 meanwhile but that b6 square just I have a feeling you know on the previous days you said you're spidey senses but now I believe it's mine which says that Hussein might be might be in big trouble in this game I don't know I mean I don't like black's position I'm not sure it's I'm not sure how bad it actually is it's it's a weird one because I could do whatever I want as white here you don't have any counter play so I could play rook b2 bring the queen to a 2 bring the other rook to b1 but then if I just move the king if you move the king I just want to try to make something work with either bishop a5 or you know maybe I have to change to trade the knight knight b3 let's say then okay it's very abstract let's maybe try to to put a line on the board so queen e1 how would we continue with black here well I I don't know but I want to give you the move so let's say I go queen f8 rook b2 let's say all right I'm just gonna pass I'm not sure if it's smart to bring the queen to a 2 but let's try queen b1 queen a2 rook a2 b1 and now it would be ideal if my if I could bring the bishop to e3 I don't see any point of keeping it on c3 anymore so but maybe then the pawn on a5 won't be hanging yeah it might be not as easy as I thought but let me still try here how do I make it work I need a knight maneuver what Eric has chances sorry I'm reading the chat we're gonna have to go there I will say though arena that well this particular plan I'm not I'm not such a believer in there's a lot of tempi and but what else I mean well that's the point I think these positions are very deceptive it looks as though what is good something but in fact the same plays move which I quite like in c8 I'm not so sure because now I could at times maybe consider a breakthrough in the center and the rook on a8 I don't know well we will have to to see how this one develops because it will probably be a slow one yeah I think this game's got a lot of legs in it but I actually don't think black is doing too badly here it looks optically that he should be but actually again the lack of serious breaks means but is the is the clock correct does Mary have only 13 minutes yes because it's really very low in this position it's low but you can make a lot of non moves for example you can go back to e3 you can go to e2 you can play a lot of non-committal moves and so yeah but now black actually has a plan with this move king c8 to go knight 96 maybe because if you go to b3 then I can go back to c5 and otherwise my bishop is opened yeah I think I will have to agree with you probably black is doing fine here yeah all right let's let's go to Jansaya now what on earth is going on here so hold on a second so it went bishop c5 which I liked queen h2 yeah I quite like this move I don't see any other but wait wait wait there is rook h1 no wow she she didn't play rook h1 queen g2 let's try but just traps the queen there is no knight c4 no no the queen is protected I can just take what on earth why didn't she play rook h1 maybe she just thought that now the idea is to go back to c7 or e5 or something but no so you can't go c7 you go to e5 but here I've got yeah I have to think do I have bishop d4 or not yeah you probably have bishop d4 because this might run into the clever knight takes e4 yeah now b2 is a tactical weakness it's going to be just a mate my maybe actually I still have queen d4 but yeah yeah even even this is not not completely over at all like queen d4 and a lot can happen but apparently she played knight takes e6 and rook bc8 and the guys in chat saying sorry knight c4 good move good move Eric and now queen e1 oh it looks like the queen is going to the wrong direction yeah this is a this is now a bit of a mess because if you take here I go here it's actually a total mess the queen on h2 somehow unbelievably is very well there you'd never expect the queen to be fine on h2 when white king is on the other flank but actually it's it might be one of those situations where once in 100 games this queen is just fantastic on h2 wow I'm but I'm seriously puzzled by the fact that she did not play rook h1 I mean it it was just the first instinct wasn't it yeah it was I mean again we oops sorry we haven't checked with the uh the computer I am curious though if rook h1 is really good yeah very surprising she didn't play that actually really actually yeah this is just shocking yeah yeah and now knight takes e6 knight c4 queen e1 and rook bc8 and she's worse you can't make it up just okay we can't be too critical of her because also I mean the position is wild and actually I believe that during the past few days all of her positions were wild so definitely but I can tell you all the players she's had a lot of luck this tournament's wash answer I mean yesterday to draw this position against chonko is just I mean if I was but also you could argue that there were ups and downs in some other games like with bobby she was worse than she was probably winning then it was a draw in the end but this is a very unpleasant position to play she's got 19 minutes and I can tell you this I would not want to be white in this position not because objectively black is better but because objectively finding the moves for white is really hard yeah because all the pieces are somehow hanging there are a lot of weaknesses like like how I like this term of technical uh tactical weakness and this is the case of the point on b2 the point on g2 the point on h4 the bishop on c5 the point on e4 and actually there are there's nothing hanging in blacks position so only the point on d5 which is protected actually twice exactly and uh well we'll have to keep an eye on this one and uh see but you know Eric as well if you're a xancaia fan I wouldn't be overly concerned because Eric really has struggled and meanwhile I see aunt vanetta took on d5 with the queen it means that she has spotted this intermediate before move yes she has yeah she has so queen takes d5 and the idea it's basically game over here yeah it really is game over what uh what uh what an unexpected turn of events in this game because Ravi was the one to play uh quite solid so far oh by the way xancai played queen g1 which is a did she offer a draw or something oh she might have been very clever and offered a draw here did she offer a draw I I didn't uh catch that up but I saw some movements and I thought might be the case not sure queen g1 well black is just doing marvelous right so lots of ways to play and I wonder if firstly taking on h4 is is a move but let's just I think I'm taking on g1 might be possible okay so takes let's say you have to take with rook rook takes to keep an eye on that point on e7 right okay I take now I take on e7 this is just winning for black winning well I mean winning but it's it's just horrible for white would you go bishop c5 I just dislike white's position greatly me too that said it's it's still complicated enough for it to not be conclusive but here for example knight d7 bishop d4 if I trade these bishops I have a chance to survive and maybe actually it might be all right but you've got have you got knight d2 here I've got knight that's what I've been trying to calculate then I've got bishop b5 maybe in the end so knight d2 check now if I take on d2 and that's probably what I'm gonna do you take on d4 and now bishop takes b5 oh wow and now after bishop g1 I was hoping for bishop d7 I'm not sure this all works but I could try feels like it doesn't work yeah because of some e3 no e3 or even bishop e3 yeah might be just bad so much to calculate here now this is really a battle of who can calculate better if I would be Eric here I would trade queens just to make sure that later white doesn't have some you know unexpected resources yeah all right well Eric is far away from a win that's for sure there's still a lot to get a lot of game left there yeah if we compare this game with the game of Antoinetta versus Stravid there is still a lot of work for Eric to be done great what our game should we check and he actually played queen e5 I don't like this one I don't like this one but it might be it might be still fine because after bishop t4 he probably wants to play something like queen d6 yeah he wants to play queen d6 and then e5 will be coming but then I have bishop c5 yeah what does he want actually after bishop I don't know it feels like queen e5 is the wrong way bishop d4 queen d6 knight b4 can I just take yeah I was considering it for a second but then I decided it can't work but I don't see really why if I take I have to take with the bishop and now the knight from before does a fine job protecting c2 how are we with the plans it's 5 to 5 and Jean said played bishop d4 immediately actually yeah it's a very easy move to play because with low time on the clock you are tempted to force things so bishop d4 queen queen but wait how did you play after queen d6 I cannot take on c4 right and now e5 or no so now it detects e4 exactly yeah the point is that I don't have good discovered moves by this bishop on d4 for example bishop c5 you always have well I can go queen e6 here for example or queen c7 yeah or even queen e5 trying to repeat the position yeah now Erika Erika's played a very very double edge continuation which as I say I'm not not a huge fan of but he's taking a lot of risks in this game and this is quite surprising for me considering the situation in the match yeah I think it was unnecessary let's and he played queen d6 yeah oh let's try to move to another game yeah let's go back to Gunai against Sabino and we do more or less have a position we've been looking at and this concept of bishop b4 looks still like it's very relevant here wow she will definitely play it let's say takes takes king b8 how how bad is life here I think it's pretty bad but for now after queen d2 queen d4 queen d7 no I don't like this but we can try it yeah because queen d4 right queen d7 rook c8 probably yeah no it's it it's not the way but how do I protect the opponent before then because queen e1 perhaps queen e1 seems like a better try what about uh yeah it's a very smart one because I don't have rook c8 I have to protect my opponent e5 the pawn is hanging what do I do now now I now I don't know what you do but uh because the pawn g7 hanging is a serious issue and I cannot maybe I have just to abandon it but how something like e4 maybe but no it's e4 no that's loose but there is no other way no no it's it's it's it's I mean knight h5 we can't be considered even no it it looks bad and also g6 runs into a rook d6 potentially potentially at the very least this move exists queen c7 I take take now something like c5 and my rook attacks there are too many weaknesses in black's position yeah looks really good for Guna be very very pleased to see bishop b4 on the board um right but we'll see uh it's it's a game and actually Guna is about to make a move she played it beautiful well played Guna great move and Sabina looking at that move and he's like meh I didn't want to see that move definitely beautiful move and queen e1 is an important follow-up after a takes b4 actually perhaps king b8 is not the only move okay could we try something else I'm not sure what though maybe something like rook d8 rook d8 here no can't be because after you take I take on d8 I was hoping that if you take a d5 I have a perpetual queen e1 queen a4 you do but you might take other points yeah exactly so here after rook d8 firstly I can play 97 check and then queen 65 is with check first but at least my king will be maybe out of trouble let's say king b8 queen a5 king a8 let's say it seems like I dislike it less than the previous really because I hope for some perpetuals that's the only reason or is it still very bad queen take I mean netx d5 and maybe this might be not as bad because I could come with the king and the pawn from the d5 I mean will not be as safe I think there are decent chances here or you don't think so let's say queen uh queen d7 and now king b8 but you could play queen a7 and I don't have I have you have one check I have king c8 maybe queen d8 worst case I win three pawns right but maybe I will have some perpetual no ideas would I try that ah you have d7 yeah I was thinking to go d7 first king takes d7 king c8 or actually I could consider other squares as well but let's say queen c8 yeah yeah so there is a decent chance to but I I think this position is just over no I agree that it is I mean I just played quite a huge advantage for white but I mean that there are still some hopes for black especially because this d6 pawn it's not so easy to queen it I don't I don't believe it the king is quite quite strange on b1 I might be wrong though but I mean this is this is plus 10 okay no definitely not let's check plus one and it might not be enough plus one only you're kidding me plus one and a half tops plus one it's creeping up king c2 king b3 actually makes a lot of sense because then the king might not run in those perpetuals but it's not game over still but that was like the worst case yeah definitely probably white had some better things along along the way yeah I mean this is this is just a bad position for Sabina whatever happens he's going to be under immense pressure we have somebody saying that there are a lot of things going on in the eric game so let's go back and check it again wow what's going on here oh he played e5 he didn't take on e4 or no he went bishop d4 queen d6 knight b4 and it's over to eric it's this position he's still thinking yeah not a lot has gone on are they're saying plus 2.9 in that in that previous line because our engine is a bit a bit weak so yeah it felt it felt gone somehow it just felt like didn't feel like any serious chance with a bit of a bit of accuracy but let's go to the gillian game actually because we've been we've spent a lot of time also okay let's try that one first and then we can check Jovanka's game oh yeah we have to check Jovanka let's try gillian first of all against pia cramling and what has transpired here yeah he went for those lines where oh but wait there are no pawns down here he could just nice can he take a pawn or is there a rook b8 yeah I think that's what pia is banking on so if you take here so this knight is being attacked if you take here I go rook b8 what a tricky move and that's over oh no bishop c8 exists sorry bishop c8 exists but this looks wrong i