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More than 120 countries following Women’s Grand Prix in Monaco |
The tournament is following its course. Every day a huge number of spectators visit the official website. For the moment, the event has fans from more than 120 countries. The biggest number of visitors is from Russia, France and Ukraine. In the list of countries the 6th place is for Iran, thanks to the participation in the tournament of Khademalsharieh Sarasadat.
Mr. Jean Marc Soriano and Olga Alexandrova
The management of the Casino of Monte Carlo demonstrates great interest for the event. The assistant of director of Casino Monte Carlo Mr. Jean Marc Soriano answered some questions for FIDE website:
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Mariya Muzychuk, clear leader after round four |
Mariya Muzychuk leader with 3,5 out of 4
The fourth round left the youngest Muzychuk sister as the sole leader, with a clear point advantage, after Mariya was able to defeat Natalia Zhukova in an interesting game which served to prove again one of the main strong points of the current World Champion: she makes few mistakes. Mariya, like Magnus Carlsen, knows how to keep the tension, control her nerves and play long games, and today she used her abilities to collect the full point after her opponent blundered in a difficult endgame. Her sister Anna helped, holding Yifan to a draw, while Koneru was defeated by an inspired Stefanova. In the other games, Kosteniuk beat Khademalsharieh, while Pia Cramling managed to save half point after a stubborn defense against Nana Dzagnidze. Those results leave the Swedish and the Russian sharing second place with Yifan Hou and Humpy Koneru. The game Skripchenko-Pogonina was a quick draw.
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Humpy Koneru shares the lead with Mariya Muzychuk |
(Photo: Europe Echecs)
The third round was again a very fought one. Only two games ended in a draw, while the other four had a decision. The leader, Mariya Muzychuk, played with ambition but never had real chances to defeat Sarasadat Khademalsharieh. The young Iranian keeps playing solid chess and despite being the underdog remains undefeated. The same result exactly has got so far the European champion Natalia Zhukova, who drew with elder Muzychuk sister, in a quiet game. The other four boards presented the public with some attractive chess. Koneru was the first to win, in a fine game against Skripchenko. With this result Humpy ties for first with Mariya, with 2,5 out of 3. Trailing half point behind we find two very strong players: Yifan Hou and Pia Cramling. Both won today, but in a very different way. The Swedish played a good game, taking advantage of Stefanova’s ultra-risky opening strategy. The Chinese, with black against Pogonina, took a lot of risk, playing for a long time with the King on the centre. The other Russian player in the tournament, Kosteniuk, had more luck, defeating Dzagnidze in a very tactical game.
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Mariya Muzychuk, sole leader after round two |
Montecarlo after the rain (Photo Tripadvisor)
The second round of the Women's Grand Prix tournament in Monaco began with a minute of silence, after a thunderstorm killed 17 people in the Cote d’Azur the previous night. According to the media, it was the deadliest storm to hit France since 1990.
Tournament participants were also slightly affected by the disaster. Some could not come back to the hotel till the rain was softer, at 1 am. In the morning, the elevators at the hotel were not working yet, and the players had to take the stairs to the terrace, only to know that the breakfast had been moved to the lobby for safety reasons. Up and down seven floors, a good morning exercise!
Beautifull views from the breakfast terrace at the Fairmont Hotel
Anyway, at 15:00 the arbiter Anastasia Sorokina duly declared the start of the second round, which was commenced with the honorary move made by Jean Michel Rapaire, President of Monaco Chess Federation, in the game Skripchenko-Cramling.
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Interview with Mr. Jacques Boisson |
Short interview with His Excellency Mr. Jacques Boisson, Secretary of State of the Prince of Monaco, and his wife Carmen.
Opening Ceremony, Montecarlo, Oct 2nd 2015
¿Why do you think it is important to support chess?
Mr. Jacques Boisson: Chess has a very international dimension and it helps developing the brain and some other abilities. It’s definitely worth supporting.
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