Fairy tale ending Short-circuited

Last year about this time, after the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival I posted a rant about the Australasian Chess Crisis which touched on women's chess. A lively debate followed in the comments section where I made the following prediction.

"Anyway the young girls playing top level chess are getting better and better now and soon our conversation here will seem antiquated. In the next few years when Ho Yifan and her contemporaries rip the arms and legs off their male colleagues, girls will be inspired to do the same".

                                                         Never miss an opportunity to gloat!

I must admit however that I never expected that my "prophecy" would come true less than a year later. Women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan has tied for first in the 10th Tradewise, Queens Diamond Jubilee, Gibraltar Masters Open.

Hou Yifan got to 8 points out of 10 first and then had to wait to see if anyone could catch her and force a 

play-off for the title. Nigel Short climbed that mountain by beating the higher rated Krishnan Sasikiran with black. He then ruined the script by winning the two game rapid play-off.

GM Simon Williams added that extra touch with his Video commentary. Many players joined him every day to show their games or comment on games still in progress. There are many hours of the best, most entertaining chess lessons you will ever get and all for free. I hope you leave it up there a while, and yes, I am talking to you Stewart Conquest!

Long time readers will remember this post and I hope you remembered it for Nana  Dzagnidze's masterpiece. She started like a rocket but then got slowed down a little by the 2700 gauntlet she had to face.

Rd.	Bo.	SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Res.
1	41	110	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2280	IND	6.0	w ½
2	35	116		Chapman Terry P D	2253	ENG	5.0	s 1
3	24	181		Compton Alistair	2051	NZL	4.5	w 1
4	11	26	GM	Fier Alexandr	2603	BRA	5.5	s 1
5	4	10	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	ARM	7.0	w 1
6	2	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2700	IND	7.0	w ½
7	4	15	GM	Short Nigel D	2677	ENG	8.0	s ½
8	6	1	GM	Svidler Peter	2749	RUS	7.0	w 0
9	12	12	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2699	FRA	6.0	s ½
10	12	13	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2683	ARM	7.0	w 0

Look at what she did to this poor unsuspecting 2600 GM.

Lastly I must mention my celebrity guest ranter from the aforementioned post, Arianne Caoili who just won the Tata steel Tienkampen 2B round robin. Unfortunately I cannot find her games on the site, which btw could learn something from Gibraltar, and she has not sent me the pgns yet as requested so I cannot show you any games.


                              It seems all three ladies have gotten the "Doubleroo bump" Have a nice weekend!