This year, however, Anna, who is from Long Island, N.Y., dominated the field, clinching first prize with one more round to play. Her final score: 8.5/9. Camilla Baginskaite finished second two full points behind while 25-year-old Krush had to share third-fourth places with Alisa Melekhina.
Originally from Ukraine like Krush, Zatonskih, 31, gets the $15,000 first prize and earns a slot in next year’s championship.
Game of the week. Here is Ana against Sabina Foisor. According to ChessBase, which provided the annotations, “the defending champion pressed ahead and found a stunning coup de grace — a sacrifice of her bishop, her last major piece, that resembled a famous game played by Grandmaster Alexei Shirov. Jettisoning the bishop created an unstoppable armada of pawns that Foisor, of Baltimore, Md., could not slow down.”
White: S. Foisor (2390)
Black: A. Zatonskih (2496)
Queen’s Gambit Declined
USA w ch, Saint Louis 2009
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 Nf6 6.Qc2 c5 7.e3?! Criticized as too passive, but Foisor was obviously trying to play carefully against the tournament leader. Both 7.dxc5 ; and 7.Nf3 would have been more active tries. 7…cxd4 8.exd4 Nc6 9.Bb5 Qb6 10.Nge2 0-0 11.Bxc6 Qxc6 12.0-0 Be6 13.Rac1 Rac8. Zatonskih said after the game she would have happily offered a draw around here but with the no draws before 30 moves rule in effect this was not possible. 14.f3 Qd7 15.g4. The commentary room definitely did not like this move although Zatonskih thought it was actually okay. 15…b5 16.a3 Ne8 17.Qb3 a6 18.Bg3 Rc4. No need for complications with 18…Nd6 19.Nxd5 Bd8 20.Rxc8 Nxc8 21.Nef4 Nb6 although black stands much better here. 19.Rcd1 f6 20.Rfe1 Bf7 21.Nf4 Nc7 22.Qc2 b4! Zatonskih decided at this point that although she would have been happy with a draw, she felt she now had to play what she thought was the best move on the board, irrespective of how it complicated the game. She thought playing for a draw with more cautious moves could have presented other problems. 23.axb4 Bxb4 24.Qf5? 24.Nd3 Bg6 25.Qb3 is still better for Black, but not as bad as the move played. 24…Qxf5 25.gxf5 Nb5 The white pawn will fall. 26.Nfe2 Nxc3 27.bxc3 Bxc3 28.Nxc3 Rxc3 Zatonskih is just a clear pawn up. 29.Kf2 Rfc8 30.Re3 Rxe3. Move 30 comes and goes but there won’t be any draw offer from Zatonskih who feels she can play on here without any risk. She had also seen what was happening in the Krush-Baginskaite game and was sure that she already had the Championship sewn up. 31.Kxe3 Rc3+ 32.Rd3 Rxd3+ 33.Kxd3. An opposite colored bishop ending has been reached but Black still has good winning chances here thanks to White’s doubled pawns on f3 and f5. 33…Bh5 34.Ke3 a5 35.Bd6 Kf7 36.Kf4 Ke8 37.Ba3 a4 38.Ke3 Kd7 39.h3 Kd8 40.Bf8 Ke8 41.Bc5 [41.Bxg7?? a3] 41…Kf7 42.h4 Kg8 43.Kf4 Be8 44.Ba3 Bb5 45.Ke3 Kf7 46.Bb4 Bc4 47.Kd2 Bf1 48.Ke3 Bh3 49.Kf4 Ke8 50.Ba3 Kd7 51.Bf8 Kc6 52.Ke3 Bxf5 53.Kd2 g5 54.Be7? [54.hxg5 fxg5 55.Bh6! and white may still be in with a chance of drawing this.] 54…gxh4 55.Bxf6 h3 56.Be5 Be4 and 0-1 because of 57.Kc3 (57.f4 h2; 57.fxe4 dxe4 58.Ke3 Kd5) 57…Kb5 58.Bh2 Bxf3 59.Be5 Bd1 60.Bb8 a3 61.Be5 a2 62.Kb2 Bb3 and the black king will march over to the kingside to help the h-pawn promote.
Puzzler.
White — Ka4, Ba6, Nb8, Nc6, Qc1, pawns on e3 and h4
Black — Kd5, Nd6, Rf7, Bh7, Rh3, pawns on b3, c4, c7, d4, e6 and f3
White to play and mate in four.
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