Koneru kept her nerve in the rapid tiebreakers bouncing back with a win in the second game to send it into double-overtime. Then Hou took over in the blitz games, taking the mini-match 4-2 and heading to the finals, where she’ll meet Alexandra Kosteniuk.
Here’s her first rapid win:
It’s obvious Black cannot take with the queen, but she’s up a pawn. See if you can find the winning line after 52…Kxc5.
Needing only a draw, Alexandra Kosteniuk happily forced a perpetual check from a position of superiority to clinch a berth in the finals, which thankfully will consist of four instead of two games. Still hardly the way to determine a champion, but what can you do?
In the other match, Humpy Koneru tied it up with a lucky win over Hou Yifan, when the latter allowed the opponent’s queen to penetrate her position (…Nxa5?).
“Hold on to your hats!” Tiebreak games tomorrow. 
A couple great fighting games today:
What do you think, is it a surprise, Hou’s victory today?
No tiebreakers needed this round! That means, tomorrow, the ladies finally get a well-deserved rest day before the following formidable match-ups get underway:
The veteran Cramling could probably be seen as something of a surprise, but she played some rather efficient chess in taking advantage of an apparently out-of-form Stefanova.
Today’s games were particularly interesting to me on account of their openings. It’s always exciting to see a rising star like Hou Yifan playing a somewhat offbeat opening that with which you yourself have been known to tussle. In this case, the exchange Caro-Kann, with Bd3 as White. Can’t say that I’ve been all too successful with it, as Braden Bournival can happily attest. But, I enjoy the ease of development and simple plan, nonetheless.
The other game of import to me was Kosteniuk’s crush of Ushenina from the black side of a Nimzo-Indian. Having studied the awesome Chess Openings For Black with the idea of abandoning my beloved King’s Indian Defense (I still waver about ending that lifelong relationship, and return to it from time to time), the fireworks in this one impressed.
Ack! It doesn’t. 4…d5 is not its recommendation, and since it’s a repertoire book, it only has to give you a primary move or two against each variation of the opponent. I could’ve sworn I’d seen this whole wild 11.Be5 0-0 line in recent high-level play. Perhaps it was one of Kramnik’s games?
Ah well, no Americans left in the draw. 
We’re getting down to some real heavy-hitters here!
The matchups for the next round of mini-matches:
The Women’s World Chess Championship got underway today in the south of Russia in Nalchik, and I’m psyched! It’s my goal to cover it on a daily basis — as I will attempt with the re-reunification of the World Chess Championship in October as well.
In the case of the Women’s Championship, this means I’ll be posting the games that caught my eye from the round or that had particularly weighty title implications. As for the upcoming matches, of course, every game will be posted. I hope you will follow along and comment with your thoughts on the eventual winner and the games themselves.
First thing that caught me off guard was, where in the heck are the games of our US players? Both Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih are participating, but it turns out the rounds are split between two days, so they won’t play until tomorrow.
The next was a brave decision from one the hugely overmatched Alaa El Din in her game against the rating qualifier, GM Humpy Koneru. It appears she shunned a repetition at move 23 when she continued with Ne1 rather than Qe2. Is it possible? So far, all I’ve got to go on is the ICC, since the Game link on the official site is not working as of this typing. I’ll try to remember to correct, if I see it was just a relay error.
There was also an actual upset in the round as Elizabeth Paehtz lost to rating underdog Kadimova, when the former’s attack proved to be “too much too early.”
