19 January 2020
Ju Wenjun Wins Game 9 of FIDE Women's World Championship Match
The score is 4.5-4.5.
The FIDE Women's World Championship Match between Ju Wenjun (China) and Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia) resumed in Vladivostok on January 19 after a rest day.
Oleg Kozhemyako, Governor of Primorsky Krai, became the guest of honour on this day. He gave a symbolic start to the game and wished good luck to both participants. The head of the region also answered questions of the press, gave presents to GMs Nigel Short and Hou Yifan and to members of the Chinese delegation, had a tour around the exhibition from the CFR Chess Museum (accompanied by the Museum's supervisor Dmitry Oleynikov) and visited the youth event, a part of the additional programme.
Ju Wenjun, who was trying to avoid main theoretical lines, started the game with 1.Nf3 and 2.b3. Soon the opening structure typical for the Zukertort Opening appeared. Quite early, the players started to act on their own, the situation on the board became sharper, and a double-edged struggle began. In the position with the opposite castles, White grabbed the space in the centre and got a comfortable play.
However, the Chinese player started to play too aggressively, opening up the b-file, and quite soon she gave up the exchange. As it turned out, it all was in Black's favour. Nonetheless, the Russian made a mistake in a crazy puzzling position, after which the world champion got back the material and found herself in a better endgame. Ju Wenjun managed to achieve a decisive edge and win two pawn. She celebrated victory after Black's 62nd move.
The score is equal 4.5-4.5.
On the same day, the supervisor of the CFR Chess Museum, candidate of historical sciences Dmitry Oleynikov held a trivia game for children called "World chess champions". Participants received presents from the organizers (new chess books from the CFR Library) for the right answers.
The youth team and individual tournaments organized as part of the additional programme finished on this day as well.
Official website
Tournament page
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili
