 And everybody welcome, this is round number nine of Battle of the Sexes. Live from the Garrison Library in Gibraltar, this is the penultimate round of this wonderful new format. Ten men, ten women who have been having a real fight over the past, well, over a week now to determine who is the stronger sex, is it the men, is it the women, and it's coming down to the wire. So far the story is as follows, it's the men with a decent advantage, a five point lead with two rounds to go, today round nine, tomorrow round ten, and that means the situation is very simple. The women who have white today have to put in a big performance, get a big positive score so that tomorrow the match is competitive and we have a very climactic finish. I'm here with Irina as always, Irina, it's been an interesting spectacle so far because the women got off to an amazing start and then actually they've not won a round since round two. Yeah, it's been a tough few days, even a week for the ladies team and I believe the situation has come to the moment when they should try for an all-in today. It might be an all-in situation because they can't play too solid because what do you think, what score do you think they need to get today in order for them to have a realistic chance at saving this match? I think they should try to win it with a big margin today so I believe it should be at least plus four for them. At least plus four. Yeah, because then they will have all blacks tomorrow and if they win plus four the men will be leading still with one point with a plus one and then with all blacks even if the men play solid maybe they can try to win one game with the black pieces or maybe even two so I guess we'll see a lot of interesting chess today and I'm very curious how that will go. Yeah, I tend to agree with you. Round plus four, minimum plus three I think for the women is necessary. I think anything under that to then ask for a seven, three or eight to win is going to be really, really tough and what we're going to do is we're going to have a quick look at the pairings so let's get those pairings for today up on screen. What we've got to start is round, sorry board one, we've got Gunai Mamadzad against Sabino Brunello. Now this has been a, well this is a very interesting pairing. Gunai who started off so well and she showed so much promise has really faded in the middle part of this tournament unfortunately her talent is unquestionable and her future also in this game is unquestionable but it just hasn't worked for her this tournament. She should have lost in the last round to Eric Rosen so she saved half a point but now with white in round nine she really needs to refine that form that she had at the beginning of the tournament. Meanwhile Sabino Brunello is very much on the ascent after a slow style Sabino put together a few wins, beat Pierre Kramling as well and he's feeling good about his chess and Sabino is a very solid guy so this is a very interesting clash of styles and I think that Gunai is going to have to really try and Sabino is going to be looking to expose Gunai if she over presses. The second board we have is Irene against Balash Chonka. Balash had the most disappointing day yesterday I would say of anybody because Balash had just the most winning beautiful I mean he played just a beautiful game perhaps even the best game so far of this tournament against Shansaya. Wonderful opening I suggest everybody goes back and looks unfortunately I don't know if it was nerves or time or whatever it was Balash was unable to convert this extremely easy well I have to say easy for his standard winning position and only drew and I just hope that that doesn't derail him too much going in today. Black against Irene, Irene is dangerous this could be a tricky match for Balash. Yeah I believe I believe we're going to see a very interesting game here and I'm wondering if we could get confirmation whether Balash still has a chance to get the GM norm out of the last two rounds. He must have because he's on a plus score if he wins today I think it's six and a half out of nine and that might already be enough actually because if the average rating of the women is 24-50 I think it's 50 points per half point I think he gets it with the win today but we'll get confirmation from the Arbiter's so big game there Balash with Black against Irene. Olga Giri against Leandro Krisser well two solid two very solid players aren't they? Definitely I think I think this one might be a draw actually because Olga might not be in mood for trying to hard after yesterday's loss against Bilal and actually Bilal playing today with the Black pieces against Maria Muzichuk. I believe this is a game from two players who are the top scorers right? They are the top scorers yes both the best performers of both teams Maria just is a class player she's on I believe five and a half or she might be on more actually but she's on plus three. Plus three yeah so she's on six out of nine perhaps then yeah I think so sorry five and a half out of eight you're right five and a half out of eight this is round nine correct yeah so she's had a great tournament and as Bilal has as well after losing his first two games yeah he scored five and a half out of six unbelievable wow and playing this wild modern inspiring Morozovic like chess G4 moves everywhere I'm wondering will he play a G5 with the Black pieces at some point well he might not play G5 with Black but certainly his G4 ideas have been inspirational and that's gonna be actually that's a really big game and I think Maria is I think I think this is a dangerous game for Bilal actually I don't think this is a great game at all for his style and it wouldn't surprise me it's all if Maria is one of the key victors for the women today yeah definitely we'll have to see that if it's gonna come or not and we have Yovanka Huska in the next game versus Joseph Gallagher what do you think about this matchup thing this is a very very bad matchup for the women Yovanka is on a really bad streak she it's been a really frustrating tournament for Yovanka Huska followers and fans and I'm one of them she can play really good chess and she is playing really good chess but she's only playing really good chess for four hours after the fourth hour she's starting to collapse and you know having spoken to Joe it's absolutely clear that Joe's strategy today is I'm gonna make the game as long as possible try and keep some pieces on the board if I don't win them fine but I'm not going to yeah you know I'm not gonna try and mate Yovanka or do something crazy yeah or dry things up quickly he wants to keep the position fluid going into the fourth and fifth hour and I really hope that Yovanka manages to find a way to actually see her on the screen right now getting getting ready for for the game yeah wow let's look yeah it's gonna be I think this is an app actually I think this particular pairing is a key pairing for the result of today if Yovanka manages to win this game which I don't have her winning but if she wins then then the ladies team can actually count on that plus four score I think then the plus four score is much more a reasonable aim let's look at the second half of the pairings now Antonetta Stefan over the hero the talisman you can say of this women's team she comes back yesterday after a bout of COVID comes back wins with black against Carissa in a tough game where she was in trouble at some point will will that give her the confidence to beat Ravi Haria I think there is a big chance Antonetta will try to win this game and I actually liked what she said yesterday in the interview that well if you want to win with black you should be taking risks and that's exactly what she did yesterday and it actually paid out so yeah let's see if today Ravi will be taking any risks with no chance zero chance Ravi Ravi stylistically is not gonna take chances he's gonna say to Antonetta look if you want to come and beat me fine I will play solid and if you find a way good luck otherwise I'm not gonna risk anything he understands that this is a critical half point for the men so he will not be risking now for me another critical pairing the next game Pia Kramling against Jillian Boilea Jillian has struggled the most of all the men he's only on one point Pia has had a terrible past three games she's lost the last three low on a bit of confidence but she's an experienced warrior she has white she is playing Jillian this is her moment to keep this especially as a team captain I believe she wants to set up the bar high today and try to bring the point absolutely no no other result is acceptable for Pia today she knows this is a must win game for the team the same goes for Jean-Claire Abdu Malik with white against Eric Rosen I have this down as a very bad pairing for the men I think this is a clear positive spot for the women and actually Jean Sayer yesterday was very lucky to save the game yeah she was in big trouble against Baloch and I think that when you get those lucky moments you just want to ride the moment and to try to to get lucky again yeah well she might not need to get lucky she's white she's 150 points higher than Eric she is you know on paper a better player than Eric she's got the white pieces she needs to win this game and no other result for her will be acceptable I'm sure so they're already you know the Pia game Jean Sayer game those are those are two games where I see two points going for white and it's big and yeah yeah I believe that the last two main chaps Marissa Bug versus Aziz Hussein and Efraimski Marcel against Bobby Chang are you know between players who have been really solid or at least tried to play very solid chess so far and I believe that these two games might actually be very how to say balanced and might end up in draws actually I have to disagree with you on one of those games I do like Efraimski Chang as a potential draw spot but I actually think Marissa Bug white against Hussein is a really great spot for the women I think this is a dangerous pairing for the men Hussein has he is solid but he's black Murray is very well prepared I'm I'm a bit worried about the men here and I'll also say that I think this is a dangerous spot for Efraimski as well she has white though but Bobby I'm not so sure he's just going to settle for a draw today I'm not completely clear I spoke with him yesterday and he I didn't get the impression that he just wants to make a draw at any cost so maybe we'll get some some unexpected turns and twists in this round the games are kicking off as always of course you can contact us we are looking at the YouTube chat predominantly I know this is on Twitch and in other places please keep the chat nice and friendly this is a family show and please yesterday I saw comments on politics and whatever this is not a politics stream if you want to talk politics go elsewhere we are here to talk about the chess we're here to talk about the format and everything else we can talk about Gibraltar but we're not interested in politics I mean I'm interested in politics but not now so the game while we've seen the game started and actually the first move was made by our tournament director we might see him in a bit here in the studio and let's have a look do we have a lot of moves there in any of the games well let's just well the games have literally just kicked off so we've got wow I have a nice one okay let's check the game between Yovanka and Joe because I believe it has been a Kings Indian yes is Joe a Kings Indian player well is the Pope a Catholic the answer is yes I mean Joe Gallagher is one of the most important Kings Indian players of all time he wrote books at least one book probably to he even has a variation in the Kings Indian named after him the Gallagher variation which is actually if I try and remember oh let me see if I yeah so it's actually in this variation here in a fiancato so we have a fiancato Kings Indian let me see if I can remember the Gallagher variation this is kind of the main line e5 e4 and now the move a6 is the Gallagher variation with the idea that after h3 you can sometimes sacrifice the pawn with b5 yeah and this is his variation that he created that would be fun to witness this one today at the board and actually I seem to recall a game of mine against Yovanka where I played actually the Kings Indian myself as black but it was quite quite of us to draw I have to say because she went for a very quiet line and then we traded pieces and I think with this b3 move with the double fiancato she actually tries to keep it as solid as possible right yes she does and I don't think Joe is gonna mind this move too much I don't know if Joe is expected it does she smile I think she might be aware of the books just return on it well absolutely no I mean remember Joe even though he's under the Swiss flag he's an Englishman he's born in London Joe and Yovanka know each other very very well I'm sure they've played on various occasions as well and of course Yovanka knows like most English people that Joe is Mr. Kings Indian in England so you know but I think this particular move b3 might come as a small surprise for for Joe and it be and now he has a real actual choice I believe I recall that the main line should be something with E5 if I'm not mistaken yeah but it's a very solid line for white because you go E5 and we immediately will see an endgame here after d takes d takes no or isn't it here no bishop a free and rookie 8 something no normally what black does is black plays to move knight g4 here so now you cannot really take on d6 because of the rook on a1 and white should play something like bishop b2 right yeah only then you know and then black continues with the move knight c6 this is the main line and then white tends to play c4 and says okay you can take back and black tends to take back with the knight and we get a position like this after knight c3 so black takes with the knight on e5 it's taking with with upon there a bad option well it looks a little bit funny I don't know let's say if I probably take take h3 so the knight should go it's unclear if knight f6 probably doesn't work because the rook is on d8 and then after taking on e5 the knight on c6 is hanging and then the rook on d8 so knight h6 and then the placement of black species is not ideal yeah it's it's it might still be okay for black somehow but it looks a little bit weird I mean white can always cover that d4 square with e3 as well and I mean in general black just doesn't doesn't play like this in these lines also you but you don't have to play with e5 here there are lots of different ways to play I think a5 is an option I think I even played it myself actually I've played this move lots of different ideas it really depends on what Joe feels like then you can also try to play with b6 I know it looks crazy because the knight move looks like it wins here but where are you actually gonna move that knight because if you play let's say knight f to d2 that's a very clumsy move and now black can just play d5 or even c6 followed by d5 and it's okay knight e5 I guess is the only try and even here now here I think you do have to go d5 and it that's probably the reason why b6 isn't played immediately. You cannot take on e5? Maybe you can Bishop takes a8 and then take on d4 maybe? It's probably okay but is it more than okay I don't know yeah it looks like an interesting exchange sacrifice yeah we're gonna see what what is Joe gonna choose and let's move on to another game for now this one will be a very interesting one to keep the eye on. Okay where should we go? Let's try Jhansi versus Eric let's see. The dragon? Wow it is the dragon now my only hope is that Eric has really done some work because I'm very curious to see how this unfolds. The Sicilian? Okay we saw Eric play this weird move order previously and I think we had d take c5 if I remember correctly in a previous game. Do you remember where it went like Eric played this weird move order but okay today we got a mainline Sicilian takes takes and Eric goes for the dragon another English classic. True if you think about who's written the books on the dragon variation Chris Ward Eddie Deering Gawain Jones this is the opening that English juniors played when I was in the English junior team we all played the dragon. But why? Why is that so especially interesting for the English players? I don't know because for some reason we just had a had a tradition we had great games and I remember the games of Eddie Deering, Karl Ma, you know all of these legends and I'm very curious to see what happens so we have the Yugoslav attack, Bishop E3, Bishop G7, F3 now. And A6, you know what this is called? The Dragadorf. Dragadorf because it's a mix between the dragon and the nightorf. It's interesting but what's the idea after say a move like Queen to D2 just a normal developing move? So you have two ideas here as black firstly you can go for a very quick B5 or what tends to be a neat idea of this Dragadorf is you play the move H5. Not allowing White to go for G4 right? And stopping Bishop H6. Now it's been a long time since I've done any work on this variation Simon Williams the ginger GM has had some classic games in this line some battles against Shirov some other players have played it and for sure Jens Sajja has not looked at this for a long time. I have to say that somebody surprised me recently by playing this line with the black pieces against me and you know it wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be to navigate through these lines because it tends to be you know not so move by move you could actually try a positional approach here as well and I recall I played something with Qd2 and after H5 I believe I played something like a4 actually yeah exactly to stop black from playing B5 and then I tried to make a5 happen and try to go for those dark squares then I developed the bishop on c4 yeah White could try different kind of systems here and different setups so it all depends how does Jens Sajja feel here does she want to go for a complex tactical battle does she want to have a more positional approach we're gonna see yeah and you gotta be I mean that as you're absolutely right with everything you said the only problem with playing a4 is it means it's very difficult to cast a queen side definitely so it's gonna be really interesting there are all kinds of ideas in this Dragodorf so I'm very curious to see how that game develops let's go to another game and I see that well Olga Giriya against Leandra Kriss now what's funny about this game well it's actually very funny because we saw Leandro on the other side of the board exactly in this position yesterday against Antoinette Stefanova and yeah it's gonna be very interesting because I believe all the players check their teammates games and I'm curious does he want to repeat what Antoinette do as he have a novelty or an improvement in mind does Olga know how to try and make an improvement for White well it's it's fantastic what we see today on the board here there's only one slight difference well actually in in that game yesterday Leandro actually played 95 first and here Antoinette's a plate a6 so we have a slightly different move order because White has gone a4 Bishop b7 and now 95 so it's not exactly the same position and I reason the reason why I think this is probably a clever move order from Olga is that now if you play the move Queen b6 apart from the standard ideas of b3 trying to undermine this whole structure I wonder if a5 is ever a move here I'm not convinced not sure I'm not so familiar with this kind of structures but it feels like White should be rather challenging those pawns and trying to attack them so the only the only reason I mention is because let's say you did go a5 Queen c7 and let's say b3 like we saw Leandro play yesterday the problem Black has one problem is when you go 90 b7 now a6 becomes a serious problem but what if I spend a tempion playing a6 myself sure absolutely you can play a6 and then I see your idea you want to to get a grip over the dark squares exactly I don't know something like this would be nice to have a knight on b3 rather than the Queen maybe no yeah I mean for sure it would it would be but with the move a4 it's well it again I don't know the theory but it just looks like an interesting idea and as I say the the most you know classic move here to me probably is the move b3 once again we're never worried about something like this because Bishop b2 and you fall behind in development and the game yesterday was was just this very special game so I'm very curious and actually after 95 Leandro plays a6 and I actually see in the chat that there was another difference in the game we saw yesterday of Leandro versus Antoinetta the knight was also on c3 but the knight might still be coming there if we are still in for a transposition I believe it we could be it but maybe the game yesterday when 95 a6 and here what happened knight to c3 was it immediately we would have to check on that I believe Bishop to b7 b3 and I believe here Antoinetta took and Leandro took yeah and then there was the that Queen d4 option yeah definitely and that was the case I think in chat chess lines are saying what if b4 well I can tell you you're ready for this one yeah the move b takes c4 is possible wow what about b takes a check my notes b takes e3 and rook b1 don't worry it's all in the book and now your idea is that after rook takes a7 a7 sorry I was see you know looking already at the next move white could do and I was thinking if rook takes b7 was an option actually well rook a7 the idea is you can go d5 here special notes nobody knows wow and I want to go Bishop e3 next don't worry it's still equal for black but you got to know what you're doing there you go guys I'm seriously impressed here don't be impressed it's just this is what you get with me okay now it's a it's very interesting it's a very interesting line and we'll see but yeah in the game it went a4 a6 and indeed here Olga doesn't surprise me by playing the move b3 yeah so it's not it's not the same line it's different the knight is still on b1 and I guess it's it should be quite a significant difference right yeah it's it has to be a significance and wait he took on b3 now Queen b3 followed yeah I mean the way the position looks it reminds me a lot about Landros yesterday's game absolutely does and well the question is is he gonna take here I would bet a huge no I think this looks suicidal to take this pawn so is he gonna go Bishop e7 simply or knight d7 I think bishop e7 looks very logical because if we remember again yesterday Antonetta was struggling to finish her development and castle so here you could try to do that immediately actually no yeah and now why does God a number of ideas one idea is to where are we gonna put this Bishop here here here here even chief I mean they all look like reasonable moves b3 looks perhaps the worst of all but we are protecting the pawn I wonder if she just wants to go here castles and rook c1 this looks like a very logical continuation putting huge pressure here and the problem is yeah and when knight d5 comes the problem black has now is that why can play moves like knight to d2 and then try to come in via e4 ding leer and plays a lot like this so for example after knight d7 you can take and go knight e4 you can also play knight d3 just dropping back and then you have two knights here and the problem is if black ever just to illustrate just to play some random moves here to to illustrates that if a knight ever lands here black never really wants to take twice because this particular construction with the bishop now on b2 exactly and this bishop gets locked out so if you check out the games of ding and dubov they all play like this with white and it's very very unpleasant and it'd be interesting to see how once again you know what I'm thinking that as I was saying yesterday about Leandro being a player who usually likes to play more positionally I think it's the same case for Olga so is she really feeling herself you know fine with the initiative I think she would prefer something else I think Leandro strategy is to try and make her take risks and I'm very curious how this one will unfold I'd agree another game I'm very curious of is what's happening in Maria Muzichuk against Bilal Bilacin because I have to say just looking at the position I have an idea and I'll come with that idea in a moment but the game was a Bishop b5 Rosalimo e6 castles in 97 I've had dozens of games with white in this in this line especially the move rookie one and here Bilal plays one of the most unusual moves in the position yeah that's not the main move the main move here for black is to kick this bishop after which white has got an important choice you can either retreat to f1 after which the move d5 is very popular or you can take take and now play d4 I've had a lot of games in this but it shouldn't be particularly harmful for black with standard Sicilian positions b6 I know is gonna be dubious it's just a bit too funky I don't like actually what Bilal is doing because now the c3 d4 plan comes even right even more dangerously and that's basically what happened it went c3 a6 and now you can gain time so Bishop takes c6 Knight takes c6 and d4 now to compare this if you go a6 here after Bishop takes c6 Knight takes c6 c3 you would never go b6 in this position so this is a justification from Maria's side saying this is just not very good I'm gonna use the extra tempo and after d4 d5 I immediately see my eyes are lighting up here I see the rook opposite the king and I don't like it so I take here Queen takes d5 and now I just play c4 yeah this was exactly what crossed my mind as well what about Queen takes c4 do we go for d5 that's the natural follow-up isn't it d5 but I'm not entirely sure of this one okay I'm thinking whether to put my knight on b4 or on d4 yep they're both let's try knight b4 first okay so knight b4 my instinct is to play knight c3 oh and can it this looks tough the problem is if you come into d3 I have rookie 4 and I just win the Queen wait can I trade Queen's after Queen to d3 Queen to d3 can you avoid that because if you go and be free then knight c2 might be well I can take on b6 how is that one looks good for white I have this I will have King date wait wait wait where should I take now it's it's it's a very interesting position I have to say now the point is that after knight e1 yeah it probably doesn't work because of Queen c6 check and now you might have knight takes e1 actually as an intermediate move because I don't have a way to attack that knight with the Queen right right I can play knight takes e1 exactly and this is just lost for black and if taking on a1 that can actually be good yeah this position is just losing for black and just give the check take on a8 and take an a you can play 95 if you want it looks terrible all right so yeah I cannot go for this but wait what about the move c4 yeah but now I can yeah this is this is what I was thinking I think c4 is good actually because now after Queen a4 I've got Bishop d7 exactly exactly and this is this is bad for white yeah originally I thought after Queen d3 I've also got Bishop d2 I shouldn't we shouldn't forget that Bishop d2 exists here and I was also thinking what if I yeah it looks like white is really ahead with their development I can also take take on a6 yeah but here even after Queen takes d1 you can you can taking f7 rook takes yeah this is probably 5 for black because I've got the pair of bishops and it should be enough compensation for the pawn and actually we see Maria taking on d5 and we might have all of these lines on the board or at least one of them this is just one one subline so let's look so c4 Queen takes c4 d5 what about 9d4 yeah 9d4 is also very legitimate and here again my instinct just tells me the move knight c3 feels correct but what if I take on a3 here and after Queen a3 I try something like Bishop to b7 oh am I getting my Queen trapped what with rook e4 again wow look at this variation rook e4 Bishop takes d5 I will yeah you can take on c4 but let's have Knight takes d5 on the board Queen takes and rook takes e6 but it's not working yeah nearly nearly nearly I'm not as good as you no no no no no but I mean you're absolutely right you're on the right part but yeah here as you you can just win a piece yeah so that looks already dead so after Knight c3 and the problem is if black tries to go let's say move like Bishop b7 once again I'm very concerned about this Queen after 95 Queen b4 only move let's say a3 Queen a5 Queen b3 exists nice spot sorry I have Queen b3 exists then then it's not maybe knight e5 isn't the right way because then the knight on d4 is very strong maybe we could try something else what about a move like Bishop to e3 could it work or is it too slow I think 95 probably is right 95 so we just need a good move here because that knight on d4 does a very fine job protecting e6 covering all sorts of light squares okay trap the Queen or you don't so let's say we try Bishop d2 this is an attempt you're gonna take on b2 yeah I'm afraid or do you know what we could do how ridiculous okay you take on b2 I go d6 so your idea is that I cannot really take on d6 as after Knight c4 you win a piece right yeah instead I will have to play Bishop f6 I suppose yeah yeah this has gone very very wrong I believe very wrong for white no for black oh for black well I don't know because I mean look at the very worst I go knight c4 yeah Queen c2 and at the very worst I take right like this definitely and this probably isn't that bad for white in the worst case no I think actually white is doing perfectly fine in all these positions well I am not sure rook b8 and I don't I just don't know you could go maybe for d7 takes 97 okay take oh no sorry to check I take here maybe some 94 okay what's the score here I'm two pawns down it's a lot of pawns yeah yeah it's a lot of pawns two points then black is alright but I think there is definitely an improvement like there is it feels like there's an improvement along the way I'm curious to see Bilal on one hour 30 minutes is it something that he has prepared for today because yesterday I was saying that he was bluffing with his very quick reaction after g4 and c5 and I met him in the elevator at some point and he was unhappy about me saying that he was bluffing he said I prepared so much for so many hours he definitely did yes today as well today I'm not so certain that he's bluffing to be honest I'm sorry that he's in book but this this this moves c4 Queen c4 d5 I just it just screams for it to be played yeah and if the knight has to go somewhere passive let's say d8 no that is definitely then you're running into bad comfort black yeah so I want to see that by Maria I want to see her to try and rip the heart out of Bilal's chest today I think she will go for I think so I think so too let's go to the Cheng game against Marcel Efroimski because this is also well this is one of those French is where the the situation is very clear we'll see in a moment but effectively we have an advanced French mainline of this has been this this line with Bishop takes H6 Queen takes B2 has been heavily analyzed for years and years and years of course with the exchange of the seaport so the big con the big question in these French is when should black take on d4 so does it make a difference if black plays 9h6 here or 9g7 here before taking on d4 now general theory says that if you take on d4 too quickly the problem is you allow white to develop the knight to see that we see on the screen that both of the players are not at their ports yeah actually reminds me of the match between Carlson and Neppo you know yeah yeah but you know that they're both playing reasonably quickly and after 9h6 Bishop takes H6 the point is that black theoretically can play this very important vision suck in between move hitting the rook but isn't it risky to go for all those pawns it's only risky so black has won a pawn here it's only risky if you don't know what you're doing now but can I just take on b7 here yeah but how do you castle after that one because the Bishop on d7 is do you go for a long cast I don't know if you do I don't believe you that cannot be right it's probably not right but it's nice to play but okay you can do lots of things here is black you could go for maybe knight d8 knight a5 what about the move like Bishop is 7 are you afraid of Bishop be 5 or why don't you play that one Bishop be 7 yeah I mean it's a move I just don't so feels a bit slow I don't know yeah it should be 5 might actually be already an option for white yeah because at times I could even consider taking on d7 and then that knight on c6 is a tactical weakness yeah I don't know the theory here but I know we are in a theoretical oh yeah she's gonna repeat no yeah I'm telling you because I think there's some problem with rook takes be 7 but this is a terrible opening outcome for Marcel it's a disaster actually no it's not it is I mean when you have the white pieces you are in all in situation you are done by five points in the match this is not the way to play with the white pieces but she can't do anything she he probably tricked her he probably tricked her in the opening she probably wasn't expecting this line of the French and there's just nothing to be done this just has to be on repeat and this this has been played before and the problem let's let's have a look at rook queen a2 rook takes be 7 let's have a quick look I'm really disappointed I mean I'm disappointed in so far as you know and here yet saying rook b8 is one of the main lines no but I mean come on you have to try this one out but you can't do anything after rook b8 it's just it's just it's just equals anyway Bobby has been taking some time as well he he doesn't have one hour 35 on the clock is it like a trick or no he yeah he maybe he tried to trick her slightly earlier I think he tried to trick her here because it's not the main move because like night G7 night H6 has played more often and then I think he tried to trick her here but she's too smart to know that look you're not 25 50 and you play this line I mean he knows wait what about a move after queen b2 I'm just wondering I know nothing about this line but is bishop d2 a try after queen takes b2 you probably know about it what are bishop d2 here trying to know you have bishop b4 at the end oh I see but even queen a2 whatever I see so you cannot really drop that queen on a1 no this has just been played in loads of games this is just really well known as this will be I believe oh he played on oh now I'm happy no way he didn't sorry sorry that's my didn't sorry sorry I was gonna say wow he played on which looks crazy no you have to go queen a2 no Bobby understands a drawer is a good not a bad result so draw is a good result with the black pieces but yeah he should he should play queen a2 here if it was an individual match it's a different story but it's not so but I'm really surprised and perhaps if this game ends in a draw I would be interested to to try and get Marcel here for her to tell us yeah what was going on in in the game it would be very curious also she had was it yesterday no two days ago she had that disappointing game against Ravi yesterday was actually a quiet draw right against Joe she made yeah yesterday no no wait sorry no Marcel didn't have a quiet draw she was slightly worse she was suffering with black against Joe against Joe but I thought that you were saying that it was some kind of long preparation she said but I'm not I'm not I don't completely buy that that position was just okay to hold but she's very well prepared and Bobby just has to repeat I mean you maybe Queen A3 is playable but what is the big difference between Queen A3 and Queen A2 I'm I have to say that I don't see it immediately what is the point of having the queen I think maybe if you go Queen A3 Rook takes B7 and Rook B8 now you can take take and maybe go Queen B1 and gain a little bit of time on the night what about the Queen B4 you probably Queen B4 now yeah Queen B4 now you can play for example I don't know some Queen move Queen A1 all right and your fret is to go for Rook B1 and then that knight on B8 is hanging uh-huh so the Queen on A2 is actually doing a very important job protecting the B1 square yes I see and Bobby's gonna take a little bit of time but he will play Queen A2 because I already sense how Bobby is a very smart player he understands the tournament situation and there is judging by the tournament situation a draw is a completely fine result with the black pieces it means that the girls will have to try and go for a plus four from nine games not from five and that's gonna be a much more difficult task yep absolutely absolutely all right let's see what happens let's go to another game let's see the game between what about Antoinette against Ravi let's see okay okay let's have a look we have Catalan mainline oh well I have never seen it before I think I saw it before actually some Queen to see to actually and I'm wondering what is the big difference well actually now I realize that the difference is that when white will play knight to see free going for those plans with E4 the point on C4 will be protected by the Queen compared to the lines where the Queen is on C2 exactly that must be the difference but I like how Ravi's played it because he plays like so against the move Queen C2 the correct way is to play C5 and after castles to go takes takes and now night a six this is look at Ravi's expression is he is he disappointed look he's shaking his head no no he's just thinking no no he's fine he can't be disappointed it's just a position it's fine he's just thinking he's just thinking what the differences are anyway this move night a six I believe was one of Igor Kurnosov's yeah who really very sadly passed away he was a Russian grandmaster right and a very strong one yeah unfortunately he passed away very at a very young age yeah and it was his idea you are I think I remember some game and the point is the night comes to here and if you take you can just play this intermediate night before I vaguely remember some games of his and I vaguely remember this line that after Queen C2 you should react with a very quick C5 so Queen D3 he does the same Ravi and after castles he actually plays the same way so he takes D4 night takes D4 night a six so I'm not sure it's really Queen D3 an improvement compared to the line with Queen C2 in this particular variation because perhaps when the Queen was on C2 you could try something like group D1 looking to the Queen on D8 and here it's actually not that big of a threat well the point White has in all these Catalan's is that White wants Black to take on C4 and then after taking to claim that White has a little advantage thanks to that bishop on G2 which is looking on B7 and then the bishop from C8 will struggle a bit to develop but Black is not forced to take on C4 yet yeah absolutely and I don't think Black does want to take on C4 in a lot of these lines Black is basically saying to White well how do you how do you intend to get your pieces out here so it's actually quite difficult right because if White plays Knight C3 you can just attack the Queen in any way probably Knight to B4 and then I can probably just take Queen D1 yeah and I seem to now like actually the Queen C2 move more because then after Knight B4 you could go for Queen B3 precisely and here where will the Queen be going I actually really like this set up by Ravi and I'm curious to see what Antonetta what about to move like A3 does it have the right to leave because after Knight C5 I wanted to go to C2 and still try to get Black playing D take C4 and then maybe I will be able to take on C4 with the Queen and hope for some B4 I think White is still a bit better here because A5 isn't a move you want to play then the light squares are weak you could try something what about E5 I'm a bit I'm a bit worried about White because the bishop is coming on E6 with the tempi right yeah and B3 is very weak so if you move the knight I go Bishop E6 and perhaps I should not move it could I try something like B4 or is it already too risky already looks like Black Black has to be fine yeah perhaps you could even take Queen takes D4 actually yeah Queen takes D4 wins upon yeah exactly yeah so A3 isn't the right way and I believe Antonetta played something else yeah she took on D5 and I think this is probably correct and after Knight to B4 I think she wants to go Queen to B3 and then put the rook on D1 so if Knight takes D5 rook D1 and White is doing just fine right oops so I think that's what we're gonna see and I like Antonetta's choice here I will have to calm some of our viewers and to tell them that there is nothing wrong with us disagreeing from time to time there is actually a very nice expression in Russian yeah if to translate it at literally it will mean something like the truth is born in disagreement I like it yeah I think that's exactly what we are trying to do to find the truth right well I mean we're just discussing chess variations so sometimes Irina comes up with brilliant ideas that I haven't seen and sometimes I see some ideas that perhaps she doesn't see but we're here to analyze the game so I don't really see definitely what what's we're just enjoying the chess the players play and yeah I have to say there is I see only positive things in our and also remember there are a lot of broadcasts out there that will have the engine switched on 24 hours a day we do not use an engine except in exceptional circumstances so they always say when we switch it on for a moment just to see if our lines or evaluation was right when the position is completely messy so we will let you know when we switch it on and if we do so because I actually liked yesterday how we were trying to figure out the Andrews game against Antonetta Janssajas game so let's move on to another one yeah and I see a really interesting game between who have we got here maybe it's Gunai Mama is it good no it's not Gunai's game whose game is it is it Irene against Balash yes it's Irene against Balash Chonka oh it's a very fashionable Rui Lopez early night if it's not an early night a five actually I thought it was here night a five you know after after Bishop be free because I seem not to recall that even Magnus played this line at some point right here I don't think it's possible was it here no I think that the night a five you're thinking about is to go b5 Bishop b3 and now night a five this line I'm not sure actually here no it's here sorry I beg your pardon the line you're thinking of is Bishop a4 b5 Bishop b3 is it night a 5 here we're gonna need some help from our viewers actually let's find out where is that night a 5 because it has become a popular line and many of the top players did play it I'm pretty sure it's here with the idea that if you play night takes e5 probably I can just take take and at least win my pawn back with Queen e7 but maybe even Queen g5 winning this pawn on g2 is is actually a problem for white think Vallejo Pondens played this a bit and instead white tends to play something else you win the Bishop pair but what like white can play d4 you get the Bishop pair but positions are slightly better for white I don't think it's losing for black ironically I think the move Bishop takes f7 here is also a move yeah definitely because with the night going to a marginal line away from the center it definitely makes sense to try and go for the King here yeah I do believe this isn't winning for white but it's been a long time since I've looked at it in any case yeah we have a different night a 5 right yeah we have a main line Spanish and we have the h3 oops sorry the h3 anti-marshal right which we saw in a World Championship match we've seen it in two World Championship matches actually in the kayaking Carlson match from 2016 we also saw it and here Balash plays the move Bishop b7 and pawn to a4 which is fairly standard but it's actually not that standard because Bishop to b7 puts a little radar here and white tends to play the move pawns d3 here with because the argument in these systems is that if white has not committed with c3 then you can you could actually develop the night to c3 and try to go for that d5 square at some point right so you can go for that and in general this is seen as a way to play against an early fianceto of this bishop and you don't compare to for example let's just say we had this position this structure here is a lot weaker than this one c3 black could consider playing for like in the martial style with d5 right well this is the main line actually c3 d5 e d5 knight d5 you can absolutely play like this there were a number of games so compared with those lines if the point is on d3 rather than on c3 then it's not that weak so black cannot easily attack it and also the knight has an additional idea of developing to c3 so d5 here I believe is isn't isn't the way even though it's still a theoretical line right yeah it's it's it I think it still might be the main move and after takes takes white wins a pawn and now black has got two options is it somewhere here where I saw that idea with a5 and rook a6 yes yes it is so one idea is I can't remember the exact move order but arenas right that sometimes you can get I'm gonna put a line on the board I think bishop d6 is a mistake here maybe it's just to play is it I can't remember exactly how it goes but arenas right where a5 comes at the right moment and this route runs to the king side yeah and I believe I actually saw this move maybe even in a previous edition of the Gibraltar open could be yeah lots lots of different lines but of course this doesn't really matter because here Irene played a4 which is slightly less unusual she spent six minutes here but she tries to go I mean if I saw a4 on the board I would think Irene wanted a positional approach but seeing the later moves I'm no longer sure of that actually because she she played bishop to a2 well logical right yeah bishop to a2 keeping the bishop and now both pawns e4 well it makes perfect sense but I actually really like Irene's approach because after d3 knight f6 and knight takes e5 but isn't it just a better version of those martial ideas where black has not sacrificed the pawn or you're saying that the pawn on d7 isn't exactly doing great there well I don't really know I've just never seen this position but I expect that Balash is just gonna go d6 I really like that bishop on b7 which black has and I'm not sure if the bishop on a2 does the same job you know I mean it feels like the f7 square is somehow not that valuable as the g2 one I don't know I have this feeling yeah I think it's just a very interesting position as I say I don't know if this is theory or some kind of preparation but I think there are chances here for both sides for sure so we'll keep an eye on that and I actually see a question in the chat if we know if there will be more of these events or is this a one-time thing actually we will be having later today the tournament director joining us on the stream and I believe it will be a good moment to ask him this question and he could perhaps enlighten us on those matters yeah let's just put it this way there's been a lot of positive feedback so far and it wouldn't surprise me if we get some kind of an announcement or some kind of indication perhaps so we'll we'll see Harry H says time for Lawrence make his third GM norm it is on the way sir don't worry about that I'm gonna be playing again this year at some point thank you very much to me hi as well and to everybody else with their positive comments we do try to do the best obviously for you guys and break it down the way we see fit so appreciate all the kind words right let's move on out to another game yeah which one should we check let's look at peer cramming against Julian because this is a for me I mentioned before the round I think there are three or four absolutely must-win games for the women those being peer cramling with white Jean-Claire Abdul Malik with white and I think that Maria's game yeah so Maria I think I didn't have it as a must-win but a win is kind of definitely an expected result and another must-win game I have not must win but game I expect is Marisa bag with white against Hussein Aziz those are where I see the four points coming from okay so one of those game be against Julian here and peer plays in a style and Julian actually plays a tarash which is a very decent opening and we have a tarash mainline and a peer goes for an early d-take C5 the absolute tarash mainline goes 93 castles and now bishop g5 or at least the old tarash let's call it she goes for this d-take C5 and bishop takes C5 and we have one of those classic isolated Queen's pawn positions where white tries to attack this pawn and black says I'm very active and I can compensate my structural defect there is quite a difference here with the bishop on G2 being fiancated though because normally we tend to see these positions with bishop somewhere on e2 the pawn on e3 and then it's maybe slightly easier for white to try and attack the pawn on d5 here the problem and the challenge will actually be that that pawn could move at times to d4 right and then it might be more difficult to attack it and we actually see something like that in a few moves in the game so bishop to g5 bishop e6 and 9 c3 all very logical the pin putting on maximum pressure on the d5 and Gillian goes for an early d4 now this move might be okay but it has a lot of downside to it as well because white can now play knight to e4 exploiting the pin the bishop can come back to e7 and white now has got a variety of ways of playing here but I think that taking on f6 everything isn't perhaps the right way because then the rook will come to d8 and that pawn on d4 is just protected too well I believe there's no way it can be really weak yeah so I believe one of one idea here for peers thinking of is to take take a now play this move knight to c5 I believe this is what she's analyzing and because sometimes black could sacrifice that pawn on b7 so perhaps not here but no I think here is it here well it's a weird one because after bishop d5 knight takes b7 you cannot really play queen b6 because of 96 check yeah probably not I mean maybe you can I don't know but knight f5 is coming it looks like the king isn't so happy to stay in the center but you do have queen e7 you do have queen e7 so it's the knight already trapped because here you should definitely consider moves like e4 yeah exactly and it takes e3 isn't probably an option as the bishop is hanging on d5 and on the other hand taking on e4 with the bishop runs into rook e1 and it's trouble so what to play here yeah I believe there is a lot of calculation here at least it should be yeah b4 maybe Bishop b4 and now I would be like desperate to go queen c2 as white lining these guys up right or even e5 might be a move to consider yeah or even e5 and in fact against bishop e6 the first move you look at here is e5 trying to clear the way things get very messy very very quickly I do believe that might work out for white yeah it could be one of those situations where black did not manage to bring the king to safety first and then you could try all of these tactical ideas you could even after here here no that's but I have to ask something yeah let's let's admit that bishop d5 is working yeah what if I play a move an ugly move a very ugly move bishop c8 well it makes a lot of sense this move because now my point was that I will castle on the next move yeah and still my d4 pawn is protected quite well will you go for sorts of queen d2 rook d1 I'd be free ideas or what should be white's approach because I have the pair of bishops sure and you know actually an interesting idea when having the isolated pawn is that when white attacks it for too many times you could play let's say at some point if the knight is on b3 let's imagine I could go at some point for d3 and actually sacrifice it and we saw a very similar idea in one of Eric's games versus Maria where he did exactly that thing and it should have been a draw if he would play it correctly and then you actually get rid of your isolated pawn and create an isolated pawn for your opponent definitely an idea and you also open up this bishop in this I think you're absolutely right with what you say I think in this position I would be very interested in the move knight e1 that feels like the move to me do you try to to block the pattern yeah so like if you short castles and I play knight e2 d3 but then what will be your idea because it's very nice to block that one but you actually want to win it at some point right I don't think here I want to win it I think now my idea is to play rook c1 and put some pressure on this knight with knight takes b7 and claim that it's a little bit awkward for you to develop your pieces what about queen b6 though okay queen b6 let's say I go rook c1 all right it looks actually very interesting because now for example if I go for bishop g4 you already have knight takes b7 right I have knight takes b7 I also have h3 simply and then when my bishop goes away knight d7 oh that's even a better one but I could go on f5 yeah you could go well I don't know I don't know if I continue with g4 but I have options and this as you said knight takes b7 already might just be good I have ideas of also just going queen a4 and the pieces are flowing here for white yeah that's that's an interesting idea to try and play against that pawn on b7 even though I'm not entirely convinced because I could play just maybe something like rook to d8 let's say and then even when you achieve everything you want let's say I go for okay knight b7 might be a threat interesting I think white has got quite decent pressure here I mean he has the ultimate knight on d3 protecting here blockading the pawn this bishop is bad this bishop is struggling to have ideas with bishop g4 here now that the pawn on e2 is no longer protected um did you play knight b7 already and you are claiming that after the exchange sacrifice I don't have enough compensation right I mean I doubt it I mean again it's just something I'm looking at very for the first time but I just know I've been on the black side of this and I it's it's a bit unpleasant and it it's very interesting I never expected this to be so difficult to deal to deal with as black and actually I'm struggling to see a good setup here after 91 actually yeah yeah all right so some decisions to make there for uh for peer cramling let's move on to another game and we are going to take a look at the game well we've got a pretty theoretical looking position in gunai mamadzada against Sabino Brunello yeah let's check this one because it seems like Sabino has sensed the weakness in gunai's repertoire and has chosen the carocan actually his teammate won a very nice game earlier in the tournament with this line against gunai and I believe that Sabino chose slightly a different approach he played bishop of five instead of those lines with knight of six I'm not sure if to call them old or modern might be both I think they're I think they're still just very in in fashion basically I mean this is just a theoretical position what we have here this has just been played before it's one of those where black is extremely solid safe king white has got a little bit of a space advantage but this suits Sabino's style so gunai is going to have to be patient today um to find holes and there is a serious actually challenge when playing this line with black because many end games look like they are very close to a draw but because white could take a lot of space there on the king side by advancing the pawns it might be the case that many rook and games are not drawn actually and I recall losing a few of them with the black pieces absolutely so yeah it's gonna be interesting if gunai will be able to play a slower game a more positional one yeah we'll see just a quick comment David Reinhart says show computer evaluation he says appreciates our comments but show the computer evaluation you can see that on the small board in the middle of the live board don't debate the line so deep well it's our job to do so unfortunately we've got a very large community of chess players of all different levels including master level and above this is not a beginner's stream we do of course embrace the entire chess community but it's important that we go into some depth of the ideas because it will help you guys improve even more and we really care about who's winning the next movement drama well we do provide that as well if you've been watching the stream from the beginning we are emphasizing the uh the critical nature of each games and the drama when we get to a crescendo point in the game which is normally not right here but rather towards move 40 definitely if you've been following the tournament you'll see that we do try to do that so this is a you know a very very unique tournament and I have to say that I've been enjoying to watch it a lot you know at the beginning I was thinking that well perhaps I will feel a bit I don't want to say bitter but something like that because you know I'm more of a player and I would have enjoyed I fought more to play the event but actually following the games was really very interesting I didn't I didn't expect that actually to be you know no difference at all for me I mean the excitement level for me is the same both playing and just commentating and trying to trying to highlight the most interesting moments um yeah I mean commentating is I mean I'm extremely honored I'm having a great time with you Irina as well looking at the games I find commentating much less stressful than playing I have to say enjoy commentating to a certain extent more than playing but this tournament has inspired me a little bit to get back to playing yeah I saw that you know I've caught those lines you had when you said ah I'm still in great shape I should be playing you know yeah you know I said to the boys look if you really desperately need me if three of you get corona and you need me to step in I'll happily do that but unfortunately the rules don't allow for it all right so I believe we have one more game which we have not covered it's Marie versus Hussein one of those where you believed that white will be pressing hard yeah and we had a berlin and the anti-berlin and this very popular early exchange on t6 and the positional line with knight b to d2 bishop to e6 and queen to e2 all fairly well known stuff did we see a very similar line in a game I replayed previously versus who was it versus bobby or somebody else I don't remember because I think it was do you remember it was some sort of short castle and maybe it was against Ravi actually maybe maybe and they agreed a quick draw didn't they I think yeah I seem to recall something like that but I believe that we saw a very early knight to d7 in that case and it's a different line here so basically Hussein went for bishop is six quite fast right and after queen to e2 bishop d6 now the move b3 appeared on the board quite logical to develop the bishop on b2 and put pressure on the e5 pawn now I'm wondering isn't knight d7 a move which black usually makes here in order to play f6 and to build that that pawn chain against white's bishop on b2 hundred percent yeah it is knight d7 is is one of the main moves queen is seven though looks also all right sure and a4 played here a standard move trying to gain some space on the queen side and make sure that knight c4 won't be met by b5 at any point on our short castle 97 knight c4 and bishop takes c4 this is a move I'm definitely not sure about it's a very committal move to give up this bishop definitely it's probably okay though it's it's very solid and it's very passive the problem is the argument is which which piece is better knight or the bishop the knight from here let's say black plays a move like f6 there are two ways of playing for white in this position in my experience firstly you try and focus your attention around the f5 square so sometimes this knight can come here this knight can come here and you can try and come into f5 which causes a bit of grief for this queen but then we tend to see this plan more after black's short castle right because if black has not castled short yet perhaps it's not so dangerous when white plays f4 perhaps black could castled on the other side let's say you play knight h4 white g6 oh you want to go g6 first yeah oh well now i'm not going to go knight h4 yeah because now i could castle long and then the f4 plan is no longer no longer here i might just return right yeah and and then try and organize f4 and in fact that's the other idea is actually if you don't take if you go f6 believe it or not taking early is not not a stupid idea what about c takes yeah c takes d4 and now to play either d4 or c4 i don't know let's say d4 first here you might have bishop no i definitely agree about d4 but c4 looks very strange to me well c4 assuming that c5 isn't a move but c4 follow yeah c4 c5 is probably a problem so following up with d4 is very logical and there are a lot of games in this particular with this particular idea of taking on d6 and d4 also the idea is sometimes the bishop comes to a3 and the rook comes to d1 and there's a fairly weak point here on d6 so that's why hussain took it's it's not actually i mean i've seen mcshane play this move a lot in these systems but now after b takes c4 the problem is that i don't see black coming up with the counterplay on the queen side so perhaps black will just have to to be solid and to to basically wait yeah so black tends to wait one idea black does have sometimes is actually to play an ugly looking move which is c5 and then to try to bring the knight to c6 yeah exactly and then let's just say for example white plays a move like white played king h1 in order to play i i believe let's say let's say c5 and now the move knight to g1 with ideas of preparing f4 i wonder if you know something like this would be possible and as easy as saying i want to come in here then you commit white to sometimes playing c3 and then you have a weak pawn created on on d3 the only thing i'm worried here in blacks position is actually that bishop on d6 which looks like a very passive piece oh for sure it's an extreme passive piece but it's not locked in there it also you know for example a lot so basically black will wait for white to play f4 and then claim that that bishop can be traded exactly and then if you don't play f4 the question is what do you actually do here with white and the answer is not very much black can just wait and it's you know this structure is very solid there are no pawn breaks only this one here but again you would make this bishop alive so but perhaps black could even try some interesting plans with h6 and g5 at some point because here you could actually cast a long for black and try to do something on the king side i hate it i hate it yeah i hate it because all the light squares will be weak right i really hate it but i've got a knight to cover them because i could play something like okay let's just try to make some moves let's say h6 here okay let's say i mean i've gone c3 let's say i go bishop e3 oh long castle no okay i don't know let's say i just give you your move now queen to e6 oh you want to prepare it yeah okay i'm just giving okay i know i want actually to play g5 because then my knight is ready to come to e7 but then i will have to take count of those possibilities of d4 right yeah like i might have to come back here or maybe i should go f4 here actually yeah i like the move f4 all right what if i try to play instead of queen e6 g5 immediately trying not to allow you play f4 what's the idea i'm curious what do you want okay so if i have an ideal situation and you allow me to make a few moves in a row i would go for queen e6 97 h6 knight f4 this is what i want okay but that's a lot of moves yeah definitely that's that's a lot of but i hope that it's a static position but of course i hate my bishop on d6 but i'm trying to get a grip on the dark squares here yeah as i say i'm not in love with it for example let's say i go queen h5 or something queen h5 what about queen e6 now yeah and now i can just try and dance around on the light squares like f3 knight e7 yeah let's say knight f2 okay knight g6 i don't know something like g3 i'm a bit concerned that i have this pawn here but at least my knight is protecting d3 i'm actually ah but you want to trade queens that's your point i cannot allow trading queens so i will play king b8 let's say i mean i could have traded queens on the last move right after knight g6 i can always just go here because then i will have to play first king b8 and not allow the queen trade because then the the weakness of the squares will be much worse what are you gonna do when i land here that's my only problem i have with your idea if you go knight g6 let's wait wait wait i have an interesting idea here maybe i could try something like but i'm not in love i was thinking about queen g6 queen g6 i guess i have to take and now i wanted to take with with the pawn actually with the pawn yeah claiming that i have time to play h5 and i'm covering the f5 square yeah it's it looks it looks so strange yeah i in in general i have to say i don't love the idea of h6 g5 here i it doesn't feel like again just having commons not really even playing having just commensated on dozens of games in these structures i don't think that's one of the common ideas with the light squared bishops off the board definitely in fact i think it's an aggressive one because if you would try to find an aggressive plan i believe you don't have any other options with black here yeah but that but that's the point is that you can't be aggressive with black blacks entire setup here it says i don't really have any plans to press i want you to press and if you achieve something with white great but i believe i'm just so solid that you can't achieve something and if you get a bit out of line it can backfire i'm worried that white will be able to make f4 appear on the board then i will have a difficult task deciding if to take one f4 and allow those pawns move forward or play f6 and then the e5 pawn might be potentially a weakness yeah i think in general allowing f4 is never a problem for black for example the game is actually king h1 knight c5 let's say you organize f4 here as as as white let's say let's say i castle on the long side knight h3 f6 and f4 yeah in general you can take bishop takes yeah and you can just play like with 96 and these sorts of positions are just fine for black because you still dominate the dark squares you can play c5 the structure is actually a bit uh i would say uh what's the word static it's actually not that bad for black here at all that's yeah yeah you just you just take this guy i think allowing i think you're right though allowing f takes e5 is sometimes a problem but what about preparing f4 with the move like g3 because ah right i would love to take one f4 with a pawn oh sorry knight c5 knight g1 castles and g3 well now you you could go for an h5 yeah now now you do give me the the justification right and now if i play h4 then you can consider coming up with f6 and g5 well now f4 is just out of the question right well yeah we could get super super aggressive here or we just say well this this transformation has been beneficial for me so very interesting all together but i believe it suits hussain's style of play this type of position because he has been playing quite positional and he wants to play solid chess so perhaps this is a good outcome for him um this opening line yeah i think he's just happy to be slightly passive and suffer against marie i'm not sure it's the best opponent to do it against actually but yeah because marie will enjoy playing risk-free right yeah exactly all right so that means we have uh at least had a little look at all the games so far we did get a result by the way infromeski bobby chained that did it in a repetition yeah so that's a great result for the boys in my opinion and uh as i say they just need to make a few few results today and it's going to be really tough so the key game is still ongoing for me pier cramling white marie must he took whites zhansaya abdu malik white if they win those three games there and avoid disaster elsewhere the match is still alive that's where i'm putting my eggs and i think there are another few games where white will try to play um a very long game you know and just keep the possibilities opened and i believe we're gonna see a very exciting round today absolutely all right guys we'll be back after a short break with continued coverage of the penultimate round of this battle of the sexes chevening and tournament don't go anywhere we've got all the action coming up in just a moment but everybody welcome back to penultimate round round nine of battle of the sexes and we're delighted to be joined by uh the man who has orchestrated everything the conductor of this opera and this uh this group of people it is lauren fey the tournament director lauren thanks obviously for joining us um and thank you for uh everything you've done obviously your tournament director this year you've tried to make this work as smoothly as possible we're gonna talk about that now so uh i think you deserve a big congratulations for all of your good work hello lauren hello thanks for the invitation it's indeed a great pleasure to be with you here you are the visible part of the iceberg if we can say it this way and i think from the audience it's always a pleasure to follow you with your enthusiasm and passion uh you were interviewed recently and you you shared the passion and we can feel it and so this is something really really great yeah um there are plenty of other people involved as you mentioned it and uh without all of them it wouldn't be the same success so i think it's also uh a good time now that we are reaching the end of the event to give them attributes people from hammers were in this room the arbiters the people from the organization in general were supporting not only today but also during the the whole preparation phase so that's it's a very convenient environment to work on the challenges to make this tournament happen these days with the pandemic ongoing and traveling being quite difficult did you have any particular challenges and who helped you to to make it a great event as it is indeed so yeah we had a few challenges due to the pandemic also with the visas and so on so we had a great support from the different authorities the border and coast guards the health authorities as well just as a as a kind of example two days before the the actual start of the event i finally was happy to have all of the players having a plane ticket to join so it's like you are inside not in the in the game you know you see the clock running and finally everybody's ready to start to start their games locally during the event as well it's very important for us to be as safe as possible against the covid so you participate yourself every night every night to our testing parties we can call it this way fortunately we mainly have some negative results and this is really positive because for us it's key that we enjoy chess but in a safe way for the tournament for the Gibraltarians as well i mean we don't want to a super spreader to give you we want to spread the passion for chess and not the one for covid right absolutely yeah all right so we have a very interesting question from our viewers they were asking what are the plans for for the next years is the event going to be in the same format or what are the plans generally so the plans are in brainstorming mode at the moment so we have different possibilities so far nothing is decided but what is sure is that we are going to continue the jib chess story especially next year is number 20 because the tournament was born in 2003 so it's important for us to continue to welcome chess players women chess players as well as it's always been the case when we started the game today we we chose to start on Antoineta's game as we already started the other day with with pia who was present at every edition since the creation Antoineta is actually number two in in the number of times participated exactly she came 16 times and pia 18 times really this is also something which is very important and and it's a great let's say reward to see the players enjoying and coming back year after year and yeah actually also I think with Jovanka they are accumulated so pia Antoineta Jovanka they are accumulating I think almost 50 but they are the top three participants in the in the event from the start fantastic yeah I mean what can I say there's a reason why they've come back year after year after year this year it's a bit different but still you've managed to create some kind of social element to this tournament okay the excursions have been a bit difficult to organize for obvious reasons but even in the hotel lobby every night there's a there's a group of people the girls enjoying playing some other games whatever it is that's an important element of this entire tournament isn't it the social side absolutely we enjoy great fights on the board but it's also important as I said during the technical meeting we had on the left the boys on the right the girls but at the end we said we are one team together and that's something which shines in the evening when we when we finish the games of course you would sometimes see the ladies in a group the man in a group and preparing the strategy somehow for the for the next day but yeah globally there is a great atmosphere and this is really important as well for the tournament well I know that for many years the main focus in Gibraltar was women's chess and also the 2022 year is the women women in chess year in FIDE and I know you have some extra information for us about that will there be any special events for for women in chess for actually not only women players but also for the arbiters because we have also our very lovely female arbiters so tell us a bit more about it yeah absolutely so as you said we always emphasize the fact that women should be included in tournaments and this year there is a special initiative in FIDE 22 the year of women in chess so in various sectors there will be some support to participate in tournaments some conferences led by by women supports for arbiters which is the sector I better know we will have some seminars to train make sure that we make as attractive as possible the the world of chess for women in various sector arbiters coaches trainers encourage them to organize as well to celebrate really the the concepts and I would say that this tournament is a good way to start the year about this absolutely as well 50 percent women 50 percent men the tournament is also led by an arbiter Anna Slebonich top level arbiter who is a woman of course and so this is a good tribute to to this world initiative in FIDE oh I'm very glad to hear about it and I hope to also be able to enjoy this and I hope to see as many women as possible interested in our beautiful game actually I can only back what you just said um yeah I mean I what can I say thanks again so much unless you have any other questions for Laurent is there anything else you want to say additionally well I actually have a question okay what are your thoughts about the situation in the match right now yeah let's talk about do you think are the ladies chances will they be able to level the score today or I know that you have agreed to moving the round with one hour if the ladies are gonna win with plus eight do you still believe in that happening or well it will be difficult indeed but as you mentioned it we have quite a challenging atmosphere in between the rounds so indeed yesterday everybody as you know is not a fan of starting the games early right so we had a kind of negotiation with the team captains like especially with the women's team if they make plus eight today then we postpone by one hour okay it will be indeed quite difficult especially as we had already two games finished and they they would have to score 100% if we speak about technique just two seconds there is a rating difference between the men's team and the women's team so technically speaking if the men finish with plus four it would be like the exact expectation of the of the a low rating system okay so they should not just increase the gap I'd see otherwise we are just statistically at the expectation right so plus four because they have a 15 points elo average and plus four is the expected so we are pretty much on the expected value line of yes of this of this tournament so does it mean that you expected women to overperform was was it what you hoped for yes somehow I mean it's always I kind of I would say a human reflex to to think okay then you you root for the the one who is in in lower position to to try to make a specific performance so yeah it would mean they they perform better than the theory yeah well look I mean I know I've been in general there have been some very impressive individual performances as well they are a team but there have been some specific individual we actually do have one more question for you because we were wondering if any of the players have chances for a GM normally right now what is the situation with that yes I think if I'm correct the only one who still has a chance is bolage yeah so it should score seven out of 10 and now is that five and a half right can he score six and a half out of nine for a nine round norm I think that the new regulations which were published in January about scoring norms on the one hand they included this possibility of scoring norms in a schreveningen system like we have here yeah but the counterpart is that they should play all rounds contrary to a Swiss tournament where you can say okay I scored very well in the first nine I skipped the last one like we could have in the previous editions of the festival with the schreveningen system you have to score it over 10 games so over all the games right so he has to score one and a half out of two out of the remaining two games that's it all right well there you have it yeah thanks so much Laurent thank you all right so Balash Chonka needs one and a half out of two and the ladies in general well how are they gonna finish eight games still going on but I can see that there are eight positions on the board it's not that there is nothing conclusive so still lots of chess be played we'll let you go Laurent and we'll be back in just a few moments with more coverage of today's round big thanks once again thank you to both and let's hope for an exciting finish exactly yeah with both of you it will be for sure thank you thank you very much see you in a few moments we welcome back to the penultimate round of the jib chess battle of the sexes tournament we just had Laurent fray the tournament director talked to us a bit about his thoughts on the tournament the future and everything else great to have Laurent he's been a very competent tournament director I think we've had we've been very lucky to have him and we'll see what happens in the future in the meantime the games are still going on we've had two results an early draw between Maria Muzitra and Bilal I think that's a bit of a disappointing draw yes definitely I believe that the ladies team were hoping that Maria will be able to win this one but judging from the position I think it was a very practical decision by Maria because the end game I believe actually could have even gone wrong for white if trying too hard so I think that was all right a logical result judging by the final position especially and now we have eight more games still in progress and let's start with with the one between Abdo Malik and Rosen yeah so this was this wild uh what's it called dragadorff and I meant dragadorff yeah the dragadorff and I mentioned before that one of the ideas for black is to play this early h5 to prevent bishop h6 moves and Jan Zaire staying with her style aggressive decides the castle queen side we get the double fiancato h4 knight bd7 and a3 queen c7 all of these moves yeah really standard bishop b2 rook b8 it's interesting eric saying well at some point I want to play b4 maybe or try to use the b file exactly so Jan Zaire moves the rook to c1 and plays knight a2 interesting manoeuvre yeah it is I have to say quite unusual because when you go away with the knight you have to be ready for black playing d5 at some point but I believe that here with with white's rook on c1 perhaps you wanted to capture on d5 and maybe even go for c4 at some point I'm not sure what was the idea after d5 it could also be well it was played it was played d5 and she played knight b4 because now there is a threat of knight a6 and it will be a fork exactly so eric defended like this but it looks a little shaky for black and now he played Jan Zaire played the very natural move knight to b3 withdrawing the knight from the center stopping any e5 d4 moves as well and stopping any a5 ideas as well what about the move d takes e4 is it already bad looks bad yeah I think you can just take the queen and then the pawn on a6 is hanging right yeah and you have to defend against two there are just too many weaknesses in black's position the pawn on d6 the one on b5 and probably that's why eric chose to castle instead yeah and this is the position we have right now and my gut is telling me that this is very bad for eric he says but why and the question is why yeah you could you could argue that white is doing quite fine in the center but normally the ideas are to attack on the king's side if you trade too many things in the center then it might dry out so I'm not entirely sure of this one you go for rook d1 yeah this was the move played this was the most natural move on the board putting pressure down here and that's the question that eric has to answer there is a possibility to play e6 even though it's not the standard way of handling these positions but now with so much pressure on the d5 square maybe it have it has some some sense because then I want to capture on d5 with a piece if if I can and the question is how do you increase the pressure over d5 right I believe it's not as easy as it might look because all of white's pieces are placed quite nicely but if you imagine me playing a5 maybe at some point for now the pawn would be hanging but if I managed to make that knight from b4 go away then it would be great for black yeah it's not clear I mean there's only one idea that unfortunately I don't think works well it works but it's it's probably not very good and that's the idea of e5 so your point is that I cannot really take with the queen because my queen will get trapped after bishop f4 I believe right I don't know if bishop f4 or bishop d4 I don't know which one is is best probably bishop f4 yeah because you don't have ideas with queen takes b2 it will just lead to material loss also the rook on b8 is hanging actually just just anything and I'll win a piece and now your queen has only got one square and then after bishop to d3 theoretically it's trapped and I guess the other point is if you go knight takes e5 you can try bishop c5 but I'm not a big fan of it because actually this is such an important bishop and after just simply let's say queen to d8 bishop takes f8 well maybe not queen to d8 actually because we're losing this but you cannot really protect the pawn on a6 that's true actually that's true and here you could argue that this might work because indeed as you are saying the bishop on g7 is a monster here but you've got not only an exchange but actually it's exactly an exchange because you got the pawn back now you sacrificed it on e5 and now you're getting back the a6 one but I think there are still a lot of dangers in this position knight c4 might come at some point exactly like let's say knight takes a6 let's say rook b6 and then against anything I'm going knight c4 on the next move how unclear is that it looks unclear you know for example if you go knight c5 I go knight c4 and the combination is very nasty and if you take I'm very happy with black because I take and then you know pieces hang and but I might have actually queen b4 here after knight c4 because I don't see a good way of making knight takes b2 work because then I will take with the king and there is I believe there is no good way to jump with the knight right yeah it could be could be that I can't do it immediately then maybe I could play c3 and try to consolidate on the dark squares yeah it's that sort of thing that could happen which is why I'm a bit pessimistic towards Eric's position because it's all a bit fragile and you have to protect this pawn and it's not easy to see how to how to do this and this is already this is clearly the sort of position that gensire wants because it's very easy for black to go wrong and I guess it's also the position that Eric wants yeah it's very interesting because both of the players are have very attacking styles and it is actually a clash of styles here but I tend to like gensire's chances more in this game agreed I think this is a great opportunity for gensire okay let's let's move on and let's go to let's go back to oligogiria because it's been a while since we've been there we last kind of checked out around here and we actually said that most likely liandro would just develop with bishop e7 and so he did right yeah he did there was a trade on b5 a trade on a8 and queen to a2 and now liandro decided I think very sensibly to give back the pawn with knight bd7 I think the problem is if you try and keep this bishop on the board you might run into queen a7 right exactly queen a7 looks very very nasty and the pieces are running out of squares so I think liandro did the correct thing which is to give back the pawn and now Olga says well I've managed to win the pair of bishops so I must be better but liandro again has an answer with the move pawn to b4 and he's ready to castle there's nothing you can do now black is going to castle on the next move which is what happens Olga puts the knight to block a the pawn very classic of course and knight to d5 and now the move queen to a5 by Olga Giri and this is the position we have on the board um what do we think of it I don't think liandro is worried at all basically I don't like the bishop on c6 so because basically you have the pair of bishops but you might have to give up to give them up because putting it on a4 doesn't really make sense and at some point if I attack it perhaps I would have to just take some more on d7 on d5 well the only challenge I see in from black's perspective is to keep that pawn on b4 alive but for now it's very well protected the bishop on a7 does a fine job keeping it saved the knight on d5 as well so for example if we imagine an end game without the b4 pawn then black will be in big trouble right but I don't see actually how Olga can try and put pressure on it did uh did actually liandro no liandro is taking his time thinking here yeah liandro's got a bit of a decision because he can obviously trade queens and then play for example I don't know knight f6 or knight p6 let's say maybe knight f6 not allow e4 yeah knight f6 and I guess what he's questioning is what to do against f3 e4 which looks like a sensible plan could you try something like rook b8 or rook c8 or rook b8 I was okay rook b8 so I go e4 you know something like knight to c3 to be able to meet bishop f4 with knight e2 check and yeah I'm starting to get worried about that b pawn cleaning it will not never queen never queen all right but now I have knight e2 and now I get this dark squared bishop and now I will never have to worry about losing my b4 pawn yeah and I don't see black ever losing this position looks like dead equality to me just looks like enough control from both sides perhaps that knight on f6 isn't that great maybe we can try to put it on b6 instead this one here knight b6 yeah and then if e4 again knight c3 and also knight e2 is coming so probably bishop to e3 also now threatens d5 yeah but let's assume I play something like rook rook to b8 maybe you looks a little strange but that bishop on c6 does not have any squares at all to go to right now right I think black is doing perfectly fine here actually very possibly yeah yeah in general as I say I think Leandra's got a number of options and I don't think any of them are particularly bad even if he decides to keep the queens on here I mean he probably isn't going to do it but for example he could try to move queen c8 unless this is really bad which it could be yeah might be the case because why give a pawn if he can avoid that right yeah yeah I see the queen trade happening and I don't see Leandro facing any serious pressure so let's move on it looks as though Leandro doing and he's very much ahead on the clock right yeah I don't think the clock is going to be such a big factor in this position she's got half an hour it's yeah but she might decide to not take risks because of the time remaining on the clock actually yeah all right let's go to another position and let's check out the game of let's go back to Antoinette against Ravi Haria because this game is going really slowly I mean they are spent if we take the last few moves by the way we just we saw it just before after c takes d5 and before oh my Antoinette is half hour again behind on the clock yeah I mean we last saw it here and actually this move e5 was played by Ravi this is one of the other ideas here now that I remember it that Kunosov introduced in another variation knight b5 and knight xd5 and rook d1 so Lawrence you were saying that you were worried you don't know any theory but from what I've seen and witnessed in this studio you know quite a lot well yeah but I no I don't I don't I don't know I know some old stuff perhaps but I can't remember whenever I'm playing I forget so but when somebody plays it it reminds me I've got very bad recall I can't recall but when somebody plays it oh yeah I remember that I've seen that right so here knight bd5 followed but isn't it risky because after rook d1 there is a very unpleasant pin so if white has one move here white would just capture the knight and e4 is also in the air like you've highlighted knight c3 is also in the air so is the only possible move to go bishop e6 well I mean let's put it this way and when it's a spent 38 minutes on this move I believe she were she was trying to understand if it makes sense to take on d5 or not yeah yeah it's a very possibly but for me it's because after bishop d5 queen d5 maybe there was but actually no there wasn't knight c7 because you could just take on b3 I guess and then even if you take the pawn on a7 somehow it doesn't get you anything because those pawns are doubled you could even run in trouble here with without the pair of bishops right possibly I'm not completely sure I think maybe white would settle for this but I think there might be something even more compelling after knight c7 well for a start we have to analyze knight takes d5 that also exists but you know for example you can play queen c6 here is black and after knight takes a8 bishop h3 yeah exactly so you threaten mate and the rook and if you go f3 maybe I can even throw in a check here right f3 looks dangerous actually yeah well there are no other ways to stop them where you can go e4 but it just to show you the absolute basic that black has is you can take and actually takes runs into queen takes c1 check yeah this looks actually like trouble yeah exactly that's why she didn't take she went rook d1 and now now the big question is what is the idea oops not bishop f5 sorry I believe bishop b6 might actually be the only move in the position because something like a6 doesn't actually help against bishop takes d5 because bishop f7 is a threat after a takes b5 so I'm not sure what is ravi thinking that's there are no other moves right so after bishop e6 e4 what is ravi's idea he has to find a discovery attack with the knight so let's say oh what about just knight b6 let's say I take bishop takes but it's just a piece down of course it's just a piece but where to place the knight then well that's what I've been analyzing I'm trying to analyze and that I'm wondering if you can play knight f4 what is the point that after rook takes d8 yeah I don't know rook takes d8 does this check do anything yeah this is the idea uh no yeah this is the idea knight e2 okay king f1 and now I take rook takes f8 okay let's say I take with the king wow this is some fantastic calculation involved because now if I take on e2 you've got bishop c4 and you collect the knight on b5 and if I take the bishop on b3 you have knight takes c1 but yeah the knight isn't in trouble because it's got two squares d3 and b3 so I believe that is what that I mean it looks so risky what if I take on uh I cannot really take on f4 with the pawn because now after bishop b3 rook takes d8 there is rook takes and after a takes b3 you give a check on d1 and you collect my c1 bishop yeah and it's actually lost for white so I believe that's what they are calculating here so bishop e6 e4 knight f4 what if I go away with the queen somewhere okay let's say queen to a4 and I want to collect ah but now you can play knight to e2 king f1 and even knight d4 might be all right oh knight d4 I think I'm happy with white you'll just take the pawn yeah knight d4 I'd take I'm a bit worried about the king but if all is fine then yeah sure knight c3 is very consolidating on the next move what else then because I just want to take the knight 92 looks to me like it's almost forced you've got an idea like 92 king f1 and what about a move like queen c8 so now your point is that if I take on e2 you've got queen c4 check right yeah queen c4 I did think about bishop c4 briefly but it's probably a little too much like king e1 yeah probably even that I'm not it looks so it looks fine for white yeah but I mean my main idea is for of course now I'm forced to take take and then you collect the b5 knight again but these are all really complicated lines I mean both players will spend I believe a big amount of time calculating them well you have to because you're just forced to otherwise you just lose yeah so it all seems forced bishop e6 is forced well perhaps e4 you can try knight c3 but on knight and then you take the knight you already have a piece sorry that doesn't work that doesn't work so yeah e4 looks like the critical try for for white and then this knight f4 wow yeah looks like that's the sort of thing that could happen but one thing we are guaranteed in this position 12 moves only played they have got I mean Antoinette only with 20 minutes left for 28 moves this is there's gonna be a game that gets to time trouble it looks like this looks looks looks very very but why is Ravi thinking so I am a bit puzzled because you could calculate everything after bishop after you've played bishop e6 I mean does he really have any other he might have one other move which looks dreadful which is to go e4 mm-hmm but I mean I hate it do you all right so now the point is that after knight c3 you've got bishop e6 yeah now now I go bishop e6 mm-hmm and if I take on e4 you you say you're saying that you've got the pair of bishops yeah exactly I take you take even here I could take with the queen queen okay yeah you can take with the queen and then let's say I take to trade that yeah yeah and bishop e6 and the claim is that I should get developed rookie five I can even go rook c8 I don't know which rook maybe rook fc8 talking about like rook d1 rook d1 here mm-hmm yeah and then black can say well I've got the two bishops I've got long-term compensation I've even got bishop c4 right here knight c3 yeah maybe the other one even well but it doesn't matter yeah and bishop f6 and black yeah this position stands to be quite selfish right yeah black really doesn't have any problems so there there are a few things to consider here but yeah bishop e6 does feel intuitively and actually we have one of our viewers in the chat saying that according to the engine girls are winning already in free games could could that be actually happening well I just don't see which I mean Jean Siar if we quickly go back there she's played bishop c5 this was why I didn't like knight b6 by the way and I think Jean Siar this position does look very bad for for Eric right I mean you're already blundering this pawn queen c7 knight takes a six but what did he play after rook h2 d1 he played knight b6 which looks like a bad move wow yeah it looks a bit over optimistic to me indeed yeah and after bishop c5 already it's kind of difficult to envisage where to put this queen if you put it on d8 you can just take on a6 and then you can take on b5 right no this this and because rook c8 takes and the point is you can't take because I take everything twice and b6 hangs looks like a pretty dreadful position for Eric and again I don't know what he did badly but why was he so aggressive today well maybe he just thought playing slowly against Jean Siar is just not going to work I think he was too hasty with this d5 move I think he should probably you know maybe play knight b6 first or or something or just try and organize it because he got outplayed basically around here and it could be the case that the current position maybe that overall this line is a bit a bit risky for black oh the line for sure is risky in general but Eric played a slightly unusual way so yeah but as for the other winning positions I mean I can believe this is I mean I if you said this white is winning here I could believe you but where are the other winning positions let's let's have a look at Mamadzada against the man's team captain yeah now this position here looks better for white to me but winning I would wouldn't even dream maybe what can win a point is it the case oh just with rook takes d8 I'm not sure it looks a bit risky because the queen is pinned but rook takes d8 was already played actually and you can only take with the queen or with the king because if you take with the rook the pawn on e5 is dropping right so if I take with the king it looks very scary yeah it does it might be actually just bad I'm not sure could something like f4 work the idea was that after e takes f4 maybe I have bishop f6 g takes f6 and rook d1 which wins yeah because after bishop d6 I could just play windy free let's say okay so what is Sabino play here he took with the queen yeah I find that taking with the queen should be the answer because now after bishop takes e5 perhaps he has some ideas with to do something about this pin but you know the king on c8 suddenly looks like it's in trouble yeah well let's say you go 97 97 yeah not so not so sure that we can take that pawn immediately right okay what are the natural moves bringing the rook in with tempo queen c7 back queen c7 back and now we need need a strong move actually you know I was thinking that instead of rook d1 something like rook e1 might also be interesting rook e1 yeah just trying to apply more pressure on that pawn it does feel as though black has got some problems here though I have to say yeah there are just a lot of weaknesses in black's position it's not only the pawn on e5 but also the king on c8 which might in some variations run into trouble yeah it definitely looks like white might be doing very well here um so after after rook e1 maybe now white wants to take actually on e5 97 doesn't look like a move you want to do here and what else then because the bishop on f8 has to stay there and protect the pawn on g7 and if you go for g6 um wait no I think I can play just knight to e3 then this square is weak that knight on f6 feels very unstable and still the pawn on e5 isn't doing great yeah I believe that Gunai has a very good position for playing for a win here um and actually she's taking now her time to figure things out what else could could she do right now rook d1 seems actually like a move you want to throw in but perhaps the queen doesn't stay so well on d8 perhaps bringing it to c7 is something black wants to do anyway right in any case it does look promising for Gunai this is exactly the sort of position oh and I've seen a very interesting line from our viewers yes d1 queen c7 and bishop b4 this is a move I haven't considered and it's it might be good because now the d6 square is very weak so for example if you take on b4 it takes b4 now 96 might be a threat um yeah and also c5 might be coming yeah this looks it just looks very good for white very nice spot bishop b4 excellent yeah a good job bff yeah brilliant okay so great chance is there for Gunai it seems and so Gunai and Jensaja let's go back to Pia Kramling's game because I you know as I mentioned already uh you know I felt like this was a game that the that Pia really has to win and we have this position here on the board let's just look at it right away and uh I think black is doing fine because um the pawn on d4 is quite all right and also you've got additional ideas linked to queen a5 moves because then when you take on d4 I will be collecting the pawn on a2 so I really don't see Jillian in trouble here no I think he's done a very fine job with black today yeah I think he's doing just fine I agree I think this is fine for black so Pia not winning but apparently what about Joe Gallagher against Ivanka yeah let's check that one because it looked like a very interesting king's indian where Ivanka played an early b3 a double fiancato and actually she's got the pair of bishops right now and also what I don't like in black's position is the pawn on c6 with that bishop on g2 it might mean trouble and actually I'm even considering moves like I don't know could I just play something uh very strange here like now maybe queen d4 is a bit too much but uh it would be nice maybe to to trade those bishops and then try some queen d6 at some point to trade the dalsquade bishops you mean yeah yeah you could try that um because I was also considering bishop takes f6 but then um you tend to have a lot of drawing positions with opposite colored bishops because for example after queen a4 here I disliked uh knight d5 yeah um that's why I tried to make that knight go away somehow I think black white might just have a very classy way to get this what if I go rook takes b8 rook takes and queen a1 yeah oh what about to move like knight 98 now yeah and what if I just go rook d1 and now unfortunately I cannot take on c3 and play knight f6 back that's the problem because if I get my knight to d5 black is doing very well but if I don't it's it's trouble and actually Yovanka played another move which uh which I also considered queen d6 yeah because now if getting the past pawn actually it might mean that the pawn on c6 will fall so perhaps you can't even take on d6 well maybe you can so let's discuss so queen takes d6 c takes d6 knight d5 well you have to take right bishop takes g7 okay let's say I take ah but now I could take on b8 and play rook c1 yeah but that's not winning for white rook b2 are you are you sure because that pawn on d6 looks like it might be a queen no really d i'm okay let's try first d7 d7 first uh yeah and then after rook b8 I can throw in bishop takes d5 you are forced to take with the e pawn and then I take on c6 play rook c7 and it's probably winning yeah sorry rook b2 is a bad move so what if I go king f6 yeah it might be might be the way okay now um do I take on c6 yeah why not okay you take I'll throw in the check bishop f1 and now I will have rook a6 ideas okay so let's say I got rook a1 rook a6 and knight c3 it's uh it looks all very risky to me yeah it's it's probably risky but it's one of those let's say a3 because I really want to keep the a pawn alive and if we remember one of the recent games of Magnus versus Richard Rapport that a pawn together with the light squared bishop might be a queen at some point yeah I think black might be in trouble really because even if I give up the d6 pawn and I take the a pawn as I was saying that pawn is very dangerous if we've got the catalan light squared bishop alive it could be perhaps I didn't even play it the best way but still I'm worried about Joe because he will have to find really precise moves so not to get in trouble immediately maybe yeah I mean that's it's I'm certainly not convinced by black's position here after this is there anything else could you avoid taking on d6 maybe something he played it and look at his clock he's done to 15 minutes Yavanka is up almost half hour on the clock what about rook takes b1 rook takes b1 and now what if I go rook d8 can I try this is just bad you can just take and rook b8 check no this is this is problematic for sure yeah this is problematic so rook I mean 95 looks like it should be the move takes takes this is all forcing and rook c1 yeah it looks critical because yeah it just looks critical without because and actually he played a different move he played knight to e4 but now the rook and games no this this is probably a great decision by Joe actually because well firstly you can't maybe you can take but I can seriously consider this but maybe not but wait there is one more or is it not I was thinking about bishop before also but maybe it's not possible no but actually I hate this by Joe I hate you just liked it now you hate it no I thought it was good but I've just realized I hate it what if I take what do you do but why do you take on e4 first I'll show you are you I take let's say okay f takes e4 first one and now bishop a5 oh god and the plan is queening well it might not but I mean this bishop is just such a monster on a5 oh no but this is just I think it's just losing because after bishop f6 you've got even bishop c7 and it looks terrible well maybe I even change a pair of no wait bishop c7 rook takes b1 rook takes b1 but whatever just winning yeah this is just terrible bishop d8 rook b8 yeah yeah this is and I'm coming in and there were weak pawns 94 is 94 is terrible I think he wants to do this actually but it's a very bad end game after bishop takes c6 because with a pawn on d7 and with rooks on the board I think it might just well be lost looks very bad this is pure suffering Joe with a stinker today um yeah 94 again should we I I'm gonna yeah it's just yeah it wants to play that it wants to play that ending and it's very much likely to be lost I mean it wouldn't surprise me if this is just absolutely no hope for Joe I mean he'll have to defend and grovel and it'll be quite disgusting the most important thing will be to keep at least one pair of rooks on on the board because if you trade them all then the bishop end game the opposite colored one is a draw even that is not immediately a draw it's not not so clear even the bishop end game but with rooks it's just it's just disgusting I have to say what black has to to go through in this one yeah this is not going to be fun and apparently Ravi has lost what what let's have a look I haven't got the result here let's see it didn't he play bishop b6 wow he played queen a5 queen a5 let's check because we didn't check with the engine anywhere bishop b6 is good yeah it looked like almost the only move yeah so he plays queen a5 now why is this bad for black let's see well there might be several reasons actually and well there's a lot of calculation here to be had well let's try the most straightforward one bishop takes d5 let's first see if that one works so now his point is that after queen d5 he's got rook d8 I guess and if queen b3 I can take take and take and black is more than fine yeah so I cannot take with the queen probably but after rook d5 there is bishop to e6 also queen a1 is yeah sorry that that that's what I thought was at least this and black is at least fine again yeah so actually that doesn't work so why is this there might be some bishop d2 involved actually yeah that's what I was thinking but then there's some bishop knight before it's uh yeah that might be that might be the line where the trouble will appear the bishop d2 looks interesting actually right away the video is late ravi lost already no no he didn't lose what is this I the result hasn't come through and she's at the board how can it be late oh no I think I think our viewers are just saying that he blundered yeah yeah and it's actually completely fine for black so it was actually that line which we first discussed so what does it takes takes queen d5 rook d8 and now there is a queen sacrifice right oh yeah okay well there you go ah but wait it's just lost it's just losing because there is b4 yeah that's beautiful and now the back rank is such an issue beautiful I wonder if she finds it I'm curious I think she will actually because you go through these forcing variations and you look at queen takes d8 anyways yeah this is this is actually quite a serious blunder especially because I have to say I mean ravi is okay he's not the most how can I say tactically gifted grandmaster in the world he's so much he's got a great feel and a great positional feel but bishop b6 is just a really easy move to find yeah and it's very logical exactly you know in this I heard something very interesting and she took on d5 of course yeah she took okay let's have a look this is a big moment so bishop takes d5 let's see if ravi looks a bit yeah what I was gonna say is that in complicated tactical positions when you don't know for sure which move to choose normally the most sound positional move is actually the best tactical one as well so from this point of view bishop b6 seemed great I mean he has to take so let's just start with us yeah there's no other no other move and then it takes and now does bishop b6 exist here as well first no you can take on b7 now and you're attacking this bishop yes no this is just no you can't even do that so rook d8 forced yeah because a6 I can just move the knight and rook d8 and now you have this wonderful idea queen takes d8 bishop takes d8 only move yeah because this is already a piece down so that's just immediate resigns and now this wonderful distraction tactic tactic and so queen b6 is now the only move and now after bishop b3 it's just game over it's just a piece it's just a full piece not even for a pawn for nothing it's just over oh wow what a blunder by rabbi I think he just realized what he did well let's see I mean Antonetta and what what a comeback by Antonetta you know after being one week in self isolation she came yesterday won her game with the black pieces against Leandro and today it looks like she has huge chances to score in other win yeah well I mean she she's just winning it's not even huge but also she she played so quickly this bishop takes d5 I believe it means like she is in great form if she spotted this before intermediate it moves right away let's see let's see if she plays it we'll keep an eye on that but that means that if she wins then at the moment Gunai, Jhansaya, Antonetta all have big positions and very promising ones and let's go to Irene yeah let's check that that game because for now okay so she she played d4 how is this one rooks are off the board but there are still four pairs of light pieces queens it looks very drawish actually there are still a lot of pieces on the board that's correct and there might be that one of the sides could blunder at some point but still it looks like a balanced one for me so far what are your thoughts yeah I mean it looks it looks like Balash is okay here I don't see any particular big advantage for white so yeah it's not the most exciting of positions that's for sure so I think we can we'll come back to this if some big developments happen but yeah I see Balash holding of course also Yavanka so we've got Yavanka there are four games four games where there are really huge advantage for what for for the ladies what about this one this one here sorry which one this one this one between Mari and Hussein yeah again it's also one of those positions where I seriously dislike what black has done in the past few moves because I actually don't understand why he castled long like this because well the king is on a semi open file the rook on b1 is looking straight into the eyes of that king and there are a lot of tactical ideas here I could double let's say at some point I could play knight b3 knight b3 rook b3 and then b6 might be a tactical weakness well Mari has to find the best way to make that happen because then maybe there is some queen is seven bishop c5 meanwhile but that b6 square just I have a feeling you know on the previous days you said you're spidey senses but now I believe it's mine which says that Hussein might be might be in big trouble in this game I don't know I mean I don't like black's position I'm not sure it's I'm not sure how bad it actually is it's it's a weird one because I could do whatever I want as white here you don't have any counter play so I could play rook b2 bring the queen to a 2 bring the other rook to b1 but then if I just move the king if you move the king I just want to try to make something work with either bishop a5 or you know maybe I have to change to trade the knight knight b3 let's say then okay it's very abstract let's maybe try to to put a line on the board so queen e1 how would we continue with black here well I I don't know but I want to give you the move so let's say I go queen f8 rook b2 let's say all right I'm just gonna pass I'm not sure if it's smart to bring the queen to a 2 but let's try queen b1 queen a2 rook a2 b1 and now it would be ideal if my if I could bring the bishop to e3 I don't see any point of keeping it on c3 anymore so but maybe then the pawn on a5 won't be hanging yeah it might be not as easy as I thought but let me still try here how do I make it work I need a knight maneuver what Eric has chances sorry I'm reading the chat we're gonna have to go there I will say though arena that well this particular plan I'm not I'm not such a believer in there's a lot of tempi and but what else I mean well that's the point I think these positions are very deceptive it looks as though what is good something but in fact the same plays move which I quite like in c8 I'm not so sure because now I could at times maybe consider a breakthrough in the center and the rook on a8 I don't know well we will have to to see how this one develops because it will probably be a slow one yeah I think this game's got a lot of legs in it but I actually don't think black is doing too badly here it looks optically that he should be but actually again the lack of serious breaks means but is the is the clock correct does Mary have only 13 minutes yes because it's really very low in this position it's low but you can make a lot of non moves for example you can go back to e3 you can go to e2 you can play a lot of non-committal moves and so yeah but now black actually has a plan with this move king c8 to go knight 96 maybe because if you go to b3 then I can go back to c5 and otherwise my bishop is opened yeah I think I will have to agree with you probably black is doing fine here yeah all right let's let's go to Jansaya now what on earth is going on here so hold on a second so it went bishop c5 which I liked queen h2 yeah I quite like this move I don't see any other but wait wait wait there is rook h1 no wow she she didn't play rook h1 queen g2 let's try but just traps the queen there is no knight c4 no no the queen is protected I can just take what on earth why didn't she play rook h1 maybe she just thought that now the idea is to go back to c7 or e5 or something but no so you can't go c7 you go to e5 but here I've got yeah I have to think do I have bishop d4 or not yeah you probably have bishop d4 because this might run into the clever knight takes e4 yeah now b2 is a tactical weakness it's going to be just a mate my maybe actually I still have queen d4 but yeah yeah even even this is not not completely over at all like queen d4 and a lot can happen but apparently she played knight takes e6 and rook bc8 and the guys in chat saying sorry knight c4 good move good move Eric and now queen e1 oh it looks like the queen is going to the wrong direction yeah this is a this is now a bit of a mess because if you take here I go here it's actually a total mess the queen on h2 somehow unbelievably is very well there you'd never expect the queen to be fine on h2 when white king is on the other flank but actually it's it might be one of those situations where once in 100 games this queen is just fantastic on h2 wow I'm but I'm seriously puzzled by the fact that she did not play rook h1 I mean it it was just the first instinct wasn't it yeah it was I mean again we oops sorry we haven't checked with the uh the computer I am curious though if rook h1 is really good yeah very surprising she didn't play that actually really actually yeah this is just shocking yeah yeah and now knight takes e6 knight c4 queen e1 and rook bc8 and she's worse you can't make it up just okay we can't be too critical of her because also I mean the position is wild and actually I believe that during the past few days all of her positions were wild so definitely but I can tell you all the players she's had a lot of luck this tournament's wash answer I mean yesterday to draw this position against chonko is just I mean if I was but also you could argue that there were ups and downs in some other games like with bobby she was worse than she was probably winning then it was a draw in the end but this is a very unpleasant position to play she's got 19 minutes and I can tell you this I would not want to be white in this position not because objectively black is better but because objectively finding the moves for white is really hard yeah because all the pieces are somehow hanging there are a lot of weaknesses like like how I like this term of technical uh tactical weakness and this is the case of the point on b2 the point on g2 the point on h4 the bishop on c5 the point on e4 and actually there are there's nothing hanging in blacks position so only the point on d5 which is protected actually twice exactly and uh well we'll have to keep an eye on this one and uh see but you know Eric as well if you're a xancaia fan I wouldn't be overly concerned because Eric really has struggled and meanwhile I see aunt vanetta took on d5 with the queen it means that she has spotted this intermediate before move yes she has yeah she has so queen takes d5 and the idea it's basically game over here yeah it really is game over what uh what uh what an unexpected turn of events in this game because Ravi was the one to play uh quite solid so far oh by the way xancai played queen g1 which is a did she offer a draw or something oh she might have been very clever and offered a draw here did she offer a draw I I didn't uh catch that up but I saw some movements and I thought might be the case not sure queen g1 well black is just doing marvelous right so lots of ways to play and I wonder if firstly taking on h4 is is a move but let's just I think I'm taking on g1 might be possible okay so takes let's say you have to take with rook rook takes to keep an eye on that point on e7 right okay I take now I take on e7 this is just winning for black winning well I mean winning but it's it's just horrible for white would you go bishop c5 I just dislike white's position greatly me too that said it's it's still complicated enough for it to not be conclusive but here for example knight d7 bishop d4 if I trade these bishops I have a chance to survive and maybe actually it might be all right but you've got have you got knight d2 here I've got knight that's what I've been trying to calculate then I've got bishop b5 maybe in the end so knight d2 check now if I take on d2 and that's probably what I'm gonna do you take on d4 and now bishop takes b5 oh wow and now after bishop g1 I was hoping for bishop d7 I'm not sure this all works but I could try feels like it doesn't work yeah because of some e3 no e3 or even bishop e3 yeah might be just bad so much to calculate here now this is really a battle of who can calculate better if I would be Eric here I would trade queens just to make sure that later white doesn't have some you know unexpected resources yeah all right well Eric is far away from a win that's for sure there's still a lot to get a lot of game left there yeah if we compare this game with the game of Antoinetta versus Stravid there is still a lot of work for Eric to be done great what our game should we check and he actually played queen e5 I don't like this one I don't like this one but it might be it might be still fine because after bishop t4 he probably wants to play something like queen d6 yeah he wants to play queen d6 and then e5 will be coming but then I have bishop c5 yeah what does he want actually after bishop I don't know it feels like queen e5 is the wrong way bishop d4 queen d6 knight b4 can I just take yeah I was considering it for a second but then I decided it can't work but I don't see really why if I take I have to take with the bishop and now the knight from before does a fine job protecting c2 how are we with the plans it's 5 to 5 and Jean said played bishop d4 immediately actually yeah it's a very easy move to play because with low time on the clock you are tempted to force things so bishop d4 queen queen but wait how did you play after queen d6 I cannot take on c4 right and now e5 or no so now it detects e4 exactly yeah the point is that I don't have good discovered moves by this bishop on d4 for example bishop c5 you always have well I can go queen e6 here for example or queen c7 yeah or even queen e5 trying to repeat the position yeah now Erika Erika's played a very very double edge continuation which as I say I'm not not a huge fan of but he's taking a lot of risks in this game and this is quite surprising for me considering the situation in the match yeah I think it was unnecessary let's and he played queen d6 yeah oh let's try to move to another game yeah let's go back to Gunai against Sabino and we do more or less have a position we've been looking at and this concept of bishop b4 looks still like it's very relevant here wow she will definitely play it let's say takes takes king b8 how how bad is life here I think it's pretty bad but for now after queen d2 queen d4 queen d7 no I don't like this but we can try it yeah because queen d4 right queen d7 rook c8 probably yeah no it's it it's not the way but how do I protect the opponent before then because queen e1 perhaps queen e1 seems like a better try what about uh yeah it's a very smart one because I don't have rook c8 I have to protect my opponent e5 the pawn is hanging what do I do now now I now I don't know what you do but uh because the pawn g7 hanging is a serious issue and I cannot maybe I have just to abandon it but how something like e4 maybe but no it's e4 no that's loose but there is no other way no no it's it's it's it's I mean knight h5 we can't be considered even no it it looks bad and also g6 runs into a rook d6 potentially potentially at the very least this move exists queen c7 I take take now something like c5 and my rook attacks there are too many weaknesses in black's position yeah looks really good for Guna be very very pleased to see bishop b4 on the board um right but we'll see uh it's it's a game and actually Guna is about to make a move she played it beautiful well played Guna great move and Sabina looking at that move and he's like meh I didn't want to see that move definitely beautiful move and queen e1 is an important follow-up after a takes b4 actually perhaps king b8 is not the only move okay could we try something else I'm not sure what though maybe something like rook d8 rook d8 here no can't be because after you take I take on d8 I was hoping that if you take a d5 I have a perpetual queen e1 queen a4 you do but you might take other points yeah exactly so here after rook d8 firstly I can play 97 check and then queen 65 is with check first but at least my king will be maybe out of trouble let's say king b8 queen a5 king a8 let's say it seems like I dislike it less than the previous really because I hope for some perpetuals that's the only reason or is it still very bad queen take I mean netx d5 and maybe this might be not as bad because I could come with the king and the pawn from the d5 I mean will not be as safe I think there are decent chances here or you don't think so let's say queen uh queen d7 and now king b8 but you could play queen a7 and I don't have I have you have one check I have king c8 maybe queen d8 worst case I win three pawns right but maybe I will have some perpetual no ideas would I try that ah you have d7 yeah I was thinking to go d7 first king takes d7 king c8 or actually I could consider other squares as well but let's say queen c8 yeah yeah so there is a decent chance to but I I think this position is just over no I agree that it is I mean I just played quite a huge advantage for white but I mean that there are still some hopes for black especially because this d6 pawn it's not so easy to queen it I don't I don't believe it the king is quite quite strange on b1 I might be wrong though but I mean this is this is plus 10 okay no definitely not let's check plus one and it might not be enough plus one only you're kidding me plus one and a half tops plus one it's creeping up king c2 king b3 actually makes a lot of sense because then the king might not run in those perpetuals but it's not game over still but that was like the worst case yeah definitely probably white had some better things along along the way yeah I mean this is this is just a bad position for Sabina whatever happens he's going to be under immense pressure we have somebody saying that there are a lot of things going on in the eric game so let's go back and check it again wow what's going on here oh he played e5 he didn't take on e4 or no he went bishop d4 queen d6 knight b4 and it's over to eric it's this position he's still thinking yeah not a lot has gone on are they're saying plus 2.9 in that in that previous line because our engine is a bit a bit weak so yeah it felt it felt gone somehow it just felt like didn't feel like any serious chance with a bit of a bit of accuracy but let's go to the gillian game actually because we've been we've spent a lot of time also okay let's try that one first and then we can check Jovanka's game oh yeah we have to check Jovanka let's try gillian first of all against pia cramling and what has transpired here yeah he went for those lines where oh but wait there are no pawns down here he could just nice can he take a pawn or is there a rook b8 yeah I think that's what pia is banking on so if you take here so this knight is being attacked if you take here I go rook b8 what a tricky move and that's over oh no bishop c8 exists sorry bishop c8 exists but this looks wrong it does but it might not be enough for who for white no bishop h3 wait but I could I see various pretty lines after okay let's say queen a6 queen a6 this is a move you missed I didn't miss this move what's going on queen c5 this is psychological attack Lawrence oh okay queen c5 looks good queen c5 yeah it looks good and also if you go queen c3 I can go queen 6 f8 check at the very least yeah and your your piece up in this variation this looks bad so he went queen d5 wait this is he might not be able to take the opponent oh sorry wait wait wait wait wait wait what rook b8 sorry he played queen d5 queen d5 here all right so he wants to take on a free yeah this might be a good move this might be a good move but wait yeah this is a this is this is a really good move it is this is a good move this is a really good move and she took what while she's going for the ultra safe takes takes and then try and win b7 with no risk this is still probably a bit unpleasant for black but definitely but it it feels like a hold to me might not be a lot yeah feels like a rook b7 here just going for the pawn well we can go a5 but let me be me I'm gonna go rook c8 so we want to bring the rook to c1 but wait you you are in trouble yourself on the last rank so I'll go h6 and I'll just claim that I have activity I don't believe this again it's the same knight d4 and now again I will have this nice bishop if you allow me to probably not enough yeah I don't like it you're right I don't like it okay so I'll go a5 a5 but I can't but again there is this unpleasant knight d4 move I believe yeah knight d4 I like because the bishop is much better than the knight in these types of positions with pawns on the flanks I think I've been saying it a lot but I think it's a very useful principle to know oh he's got bishop takes yeah I saw that one but I'm not sure it's good no rook takes before okay bishop f3 no this is this is much better than no but wait rook a4 okay g5 bishop g2 yeah but this is just one of those endings with rook you're not with your rook on a1 still but I can get it there right I don't know anything I mean rook a7 okay let's say rook b2 I'm not actually sorry I should go g4 probably I'm not convinced you can go rook a4 rook a5 when a pawn maybe yeah if the rook would be behind the pawn it's just a theoretical draw but as the rook is still not there I think there might be some so if I go here king of 3 h3 or maybe h4 was better let's try h4 better first h4 or then you will have rook before I guess I don't know so if I go no wait I have to figure out a way let me think for a moment please no this is between all right yes I have to figure out a way to take all those pawns away from the second rank and then bring the king somehow it's okay yeah let's continue the same way king a3 h5 h3 okay I'll go king g7 king e3 okay I'll go king g6 let's throw wait what did you do they are heading to the sand game yeah they're gonna head to it um yeah so ideally I wanted to play some a3 and bring the king to the other flank but I'm not sure I mean you probably have enough time to collect one of those pawns on the king side let's try g4 here g4 you probably will play h4 yeah rook a6 yeah it looks like might be just not enough yeah it's one of those typical endings I really love what Jillian has done this is this is definitely not maybe I could try something else okay after rook a4 you played g5 I think so what else do I have here let me try play rook a3 okay so you want me to commit with g4 okay I'll try g4 anyway and now h3 okay it will be better in that rook hand games if I get rid of this h1 okay let's go rook c8 I take on g4 now this is a better I think I like this one more all right rook clicks a7 yeah and then I play king g2 yeah yeah here I have chances to try and win this one agreed so I can't let you do that so I have to go h5 and here I take on g4 I could also try but probably rook a5 isn't good okay and now bishop g2 I like this yeah this is a much better version because also the pawn on g4 is a weakness so just to tell to our viewers that rook a8 is never the way to play these hand games because the rook shouldn't be passive it should always be active even at the cost of a pawn now I could throw in a rook a4 to make you play a 5 and now take on a7 and it actually might not be good it might be it might be bad for for black for black yes I don't know it's still a tricky one isn't it with the rook in front it's still not an ideal yeah you still have if I had my pawn on a4 I would already say that you are lost because I play rook b7 rook b4 rook a4 and bring the king and game over but you still have some moves yeah and as I said I'm not in I'm not even entirely sure that I have to go with g5 yeah perhaps skipping those h pawns alive and not overexpanding too fast might be a better idea so let's say I went g6 for example I like this one better and let's say but what if I throw in this rook a3 just to make your bishop go away I like that move very nice move yeah this is gonna be I definitely Jillian will have passive oh she played bishop g2 did she yeah yeah she took took and bishop g2 this is this is just wrong yeah this is not a but wait no because you don't have a wait I'm still winning the a pawn no I can go here f6 oh perhaps she missed that but maybe the king and pawn is winning so this like could it be winning yeah probably not though right no no no it's not it's not enough but I'm really surprised that she played did we miss something I don't think so but okay she was also having quite a tough time in the I mean she lost the last three games but it seemed like a very safe option to go for rook a4 I mean this one no she definitely missed this idea with f6 otherwise f6 maybe f5 I don't know probably f6 yeah and the other point is if you go let's say rook a4 you've got rook f7 rook f7 and the key point king f3 rook e7 king f7 yeah easy draw yeah yeah it is a draw yeah I don't believe why it should win this position me neither so that's uh that's kind of a disappointment for the for the girls actually quite a big one if I was right about my rook a4 assessment let's go to Ivanka's game though because I mean this is a catastrophe for Joe Gallagher this position here bishop f6 why isn't this is just immediately I mean this isn't even a debate right I mean your thousand pawns up you can take you can go here and take and then run the a pawn okay he's got maybe some little tricks like after rook c6 maybe he hopes to play some bishop d8 or something it's not even a trick is it rook c5 not even close to a trick yeah no it's just over no this is just this is just not even a oh what's going on what is wrong something happened oh they got uh they got the extra time on the clock too soon did Joe run out of time I don't know because we can see 29.54 can it be oh yeah he was quite low on time yeah he's way behind on time oh no I don't really know I think he lost on time anyways the position's a mess so he so he I think they just don't mind that there's the extra time are they gonna readjust the clock are they okay not sure at all what's going on in any case he I mean he could have five hours and he should lose this position yeah they are discussing something yeah yeah I mean Joe's position is just a uh yeah uh yeah but I'm very curious what's what's going on maybe there would maybe some moves so it looks like they are still gonna play some moves it doesn't look like they are signing the score sheets or something but Joe looks looks very disappointed I'm afraid to say well he should be because the position is a mess and it's a big loss actually it was one of the games I didn't have down I thought Yvanka you know she's not being that great and Joe has been playing all right and maybe he's feeling a bit of fatigue a bit of tired tiredness and actually we've seen actually quite a number of players who who are definitely low on energy levels yeah all right it's exhausting playing these tournaments it really is so Brunello in a bad position Joe Gallagher toast uh let's have a look at the Kyrie versus Leandro game because this is just him looked interesting this is just a draw probably I mean she's a pawn down actually I don't even know how that happened no this is this is not even to discuss I mean either Leandro I mean Leandro can just try here forever I mean it's just a pawn right yeah so Olga is not winning this and at best she's making a draw it should be enough for a draw but Leandro yeah like you said he's gonna just play here forever and actually we have an interesting moment here because the main arbiter came to check the video from the playing hole I believe that there was something with running over time well even as I say even if he does lose on time here it's not it's not a it's not really a big deal because his position is just completely over so that means let's just have a quick look so we're gonna have Gunai great position Zansaya well I mean did you did Eric take on e4? Zansaya losing apparently apparently apparently Zansaya losing which but losing objectively in a very complicated position let's say Antoinette's are winning so actually let's have a look at what happened there because it went Queen takes d5 and now he didn't play rook d8 because he spotted b4 so he went bishop b6 queen takes b7 and rook d8 trying to play this position on bishop d2 is fine and knight c3 is fine okay I guess I why didn't she go with this knight very good question perhaps a6 or what I don't know what was she worried about I have no idea the rooks are connected the knight can just go to a3 or something or a c7 might even be possible after knight a3 I have bishop takes a3 b takes a3 rook d2 and I get back an exchange but it might well still be lost that might be a good and if I go knight c7 rook d7 I guess she was worried about might be no I think rook 5 to c3 is is knight 5 to c3 probably she will be left with an extra exchange and pawn at some point because she might just want to move away the rook from d1 and then Ravi might sacrifice the rook for two pieces on d2 yeah well the game will still continue for for some moves definitely Ravi is trying to you know just to make things as complicated as possible because the players still have only seven minutes on the clock but I don't see I don't see Antoinette I'm messing it up yeah me neither no she's just too good so Antoinette's winning Mamadzada great position Jovango Husko winning and so the dream of the plus four result is alive right now they've reconvened I actually think this is probably a good moment to go for a quick break what do you think yeah let's let's go for a quick break also find out what was going on there at Jovanka versus Jo and we'll be back to the action in just a very few moments see you soon battle of the sexes we are in a critical moment in this round quick summary so far two draws only up until this point so there have been no results since the last break but uh we've got some absolutely fantastic positions on the board let's go straight to Shanta Abdumalik against the fans favorite Eric Rosen where we've got an absolutely mental position on the board with Eric to play off then we should be six um what do we think exactly three minutes against seven minutes they still have to to make 10 more moves to reach the time control and it looks like white pawns are missing what but white is a pawn up right so hold on a second so what what's the score so not a pawn sorry an exchange up an exchange up okay so black has got five pawns white has got four and white has an exchange up and Eric has just played a very well unusual move yeah because that bishop on g7 was on a dream position on that long diagonal but from another point of view probably white wanted to play bishop d4 and tried to to trade it right but now well definitely white has to do something about that rook on c1 i believe so what do you do so you put the rook on a1 or something what about i'm afraid that at some point some c3 and then rook a3 might work but well it's still not the case but wait what no no it's not working for now she played rook b1 actually which might mean even more trouble for that king on a2 yeah i can't make it work for now what about going c3 yeah b3 will follow yeah b3 is kind of forced right no king a1 is actually a move believe it or not but okay she's gonna play b3 definitely and now the point is that that king on a2 might run into some mating ideas after a move like let's just imagine i can play rook a3 king a3 and queen a1 a8 sorry the queen is still not there but what if i prepare it somehow what if i play queen c8 here rook d8 check i cannot yeah for now for now all is fine then but it looks very dangerous for white i think eric here is going to play the move bishop d2 that bishop d2 with the idea of queen c8 knowing eric but what if i played it but what if i play queen d4 ah then you've got a very smart bishop e3 bishop d2 yeah bishop d2 queen d this is genius but how did look look at this move that i guessed yeah but you know what i'm afraid that at some point why it might be able to take on d2 and return some material and we have another result actually i believe that joe lost joe lost yeah joe lost yeah joe got crushed so a very nice win by ovanka and i have to say a very well deserved one it looked like joe just couldn't solve the opening problems somehow absolutely yeah he just uh yeah got crushed good and that means that the ladies are leading today for now with plus one and now a lot will depend on the game of john sya versus eric because it's one of the only positions which we see where uh the man's team has very good chances to bring a full point yeah so now we were saying that after queen d4 there is bishop e3 and the huge suddenly lose the bishop on b6 yeah uh so what else don't know five minutes for john sya let's have a look what about you know i was going to say queen c5 and then i realized that it's bishop e3 once again you always run it run into this move bishop d2 is a class move actually yeah it's uh it's a very good one i have to agree with you what if i take on d2 rook takes d2 okay c takes and could i play rook rook d1 i mean if i if i get back that deep on then maybe the worst is behind because i've got opposite colored bishops my king is no longer in that mating net i've got the b2 square for it yeah looks like a good move looks like a very practical try at least unless there is some no i don't i don't i don't see it but she didn't do it she did something else what did she do what did she play bishop c5 she played bishop c5 oh i don't like it you don't like it so he's gonna go ah he's got bishop takes no sorry uh he doesn't he nearly has bishop takes c2 what about to move like bishop f3 yeah now she's gonna be forced isn't she but then d1 is coming and you lose the exchange you lose two exchanges in one move right yeah that's that's very valid and another another result antoinetta has just won her game against ravi what a disaster today for ravi i must say just a disaster just a disaster absolutely disaster for ravi and i actually hope that we'll be able to have antoinetta in the studio that would be great because she has had two fantastic days in a row after her covid isolation she got two points very important two points for the ladies team absolutely what what a player okay so in this position after bishop c5 what if i go queen c8 now so you still want to take on a3 then play queen a8 but uh you didn't like bishop f3 was it no no i like bishop f3 i like bishop f3 i think the bishop f3 is good but i'm just trying for okay some other ideas but you know ah actually i don't have it but now i could take on d2 okay takes takes and now rook d1 okay so i think it might be all right for white because if you play something like queen d7 i've got queen d4 and i think i might eventually get that pawn back yeah i'm not in love with queen c8 yeah i think your move bishop f3 is good i'm curious what the just just flick it on for a minute oh wow it's just over it's just over randomly but i don't understand anything why this is over wait this is a fantastic resource this knight e5 knight e5 yeah knight go for knight c4 wow wow wow wow wow and the idea is if you take i take and then i mate you so knight e5 is just over apparently and then also wait what and then there's some wow knight c4 but also knight f3 knight f3 and also it's kind of logical because the knight is doing nothing yeah he didn't find it also knight c6 is afraid because the pawn on c2 will be in big trouble queen f6 what did he play what is this queen f6 where is he heading to i don't know the move looks random to me the move looks random yeah it doesn't look like the right way definitely knight e5 was just over that's incredible knight e5 is just over and if i take what's the idea surely not knight f3 now can it be no it must be takes and why is this over it's just far too deep it's just too complicated it's just a different world of chess queen f6 though by eric uh yeah this movie is a mystery to me what is this is he really going for the h4 pawn that would be oh maybe maybe maybe maybe let's also maybe he's getting ready to play uh let's put rook d2 c takes rook d1 now he has queen c3 because there's no bishop d4 as the knight is hanging on b4 but perhaps i have queen d4 yeah for example now in fact i think his idea here is to go bishop takes c2 what can it can it be i'm not following and now if i take queen c3 or it can't be right night before night before yeah and no follow it's too much yeah okay so that doesn't work all right so queen f6 on the board jensei with four three and a half minutes it should be said three and a half minutes yeah this game is definitely a very interesting one and one where the men are still hoping well if eric wins this it's it's worth like 50 000 points well definitely i mean in general if you said before today if eric wins today the matches the match might even be over because this for eric to be jensei with black uh you just yeah but eric rosin he's a man of many mysteries and many talents and jensei looking a bit confused i mean how do you play this position anyway this position is like insanely tough to play i think the most practical decision is is sacrifice but now you can't do it she played rook f1 actually yeah yeah you can't do it now because there's some bishop f3 again so she goes rook f1 is he gonna take that point i think he is i think he's gonna take the point i don't like this rook f1 because there will be no ideas if rook takes the two at any point later and the king is still in the mating net i'm a bit worried i'm more than worried here for white i think he's got 50 seconds yeah you got a take right any other moves that make sense here then maybe i have oh no i don't have it yeah he took the pawn yeah i like it maybe i've got some queen d4 queen d4 maybe i can activate a bit and now i can go 93 oh well it might not be anything special rook h1 rook h1 yeah okay work but i can also take right with the queen yeah you could and god knows what's going on there but let's just say i play a more standard move like queen g4 now rook b to g1 yeah queen f5 yeah this has gone wrong for me c2 suddenly is hanging yeah not the right way for white wow and she does go queen d4 so we got this on the board queen d4 on the board is he gonna find 93 well i mean it's just it's it's the move but what do i do after night if i don't know you're probably losing right no can't be why not oh yes it can eric rosin for the boys can he do it quick what is this move f5 what what is this what is what is this move the guy is on a suicide mission yeah i have no words to describe this move he's not a chess player he's a kamikaze pilot well this this is just too risky look at that king on g8 what is f5 maybe it's genius who knows i can't you know what i've commented on thousands of games of chess never in my life have i never been able to guess one move of somebody and that man is eric rosin i cannot guess a single move yeah queen c4 i mean she he leaves himself so open what is this why would he now the bishop is coming to d4 what king f8 king f8 he's trying to hold on but now he's gonna run into something on oh maybe not the queen protects his there's queen e6 which one oh queen e4 game over game over blunder he just blundered the piece awful oh oh eric oh no the bishop on e4 i have to say it i just can't help it the only the only good news is that um there aren't tens of thousands of people watching at the moment only a few thousands so it's not that everybody saw it at the same time right you know i'm you know eric should know better that f5 is just not a move you can play well but that f5 was just what a crazy move 93 by the way is just really good for black 93 is just really good for black it's crazy complicated but this this game might cost man not only today's match but huge might cost them the all over match i've got a theory that he was given a bit of money under the table to throw this game really to keep it competitive no it's just eric doing what eric does he's a great player he gets fantastically interesting positions with all the chances and then something goes wrong i don't know what's going on well it's clear what's going on all right let's have a look here let's have a look so queen takes e4 rook a5 okay this is just okay now you can he's a rook down now you can take on e7 twice and go knight c6 knight takes a5 if you want yeah why not bishop e7 game over yeah takes takes takes takes knight c6 knight takes a5 now you have got three pawns but i've also got a runner on b3 and and we have another result actually gunai has just made a draw against against sabina something went very wrong for gunai because at some moment it was the position looked very promising for white yeah it did so something went wrong there but let's just watch the end of this game between eric rosin because obviously critical game and rook a5 on the board and bishop takes e7 is tactics 101 and i mean gencaia is going to see it because it's definitely definitely she's just considering if to take on e7 with the queen or with the bishop yeah she'll take with the bishop no no okay queen d4 it probably doesn't spoil anything to be honest because knight c6 is still the threat yeah it's probably still and queen h8 is in the air and it's just it's just over i mean shocking shocking just shocking just shocking i mean goodness me i feel for eric here but i have to say that in terms of making this match even more interesting everything might actually come down to tomorrow's results if the ladies are gonna make a big come back today they will just play with 100 000 pounds on the board right yeah and just to give you an update the sabag hussein game looks like it's just immediately a draw so this looks like a repetition takes check and back and this is just a draw just immediately uh immediately a draw like you would you i mean he doesn't even have any week series weaknesses right so i mean he could even just you know attack a pawn like this no this has to be a draw so sabag is going to be a draw pia is going to be a draw she's not going to win this position and olga i mean olga is the one suffering here for a draw because well she's upon down but she has chances because of the opposite colored bishops so i believe uh um yeah that is the only game oh and eric blundered a rook now okay yeah it's time to resign it's time to resign eric this is this is you are two two rooks down yeah that's too much he blundered two rooks in two moves oh eric goodness me at least he made it a spectacle at least he made it a spectacle because you know what's gonna happen don't you you said today the women needed plus four and you know what they're gonna get plus five uh no no they're gonna get they're gonna get they're gonna get plus three plus three is too little no oh actually hold on balash is pushing wait a second balash is push pushing here this could be a horrible game to lose for the women but this is this is uh i think just just a draw no it should be just a draw because you will take back but then i don't have many useful moves but how do you improve no i think it should be a draw probably but i i'm not i'm a bit concerned i'm a bit worried for for erine here my instinct is telling me to be a little bit concerned for erine so we'll have a look at that in a moment but just to finish off that well they've reached move 40 i think what we're gonna do is this um we're gonna go for a very quick break because we are gonna get antonetta stefan over uh the hero of the last two days the hero of the women's team right the talisman is going to be in the studio and we're gonna hear from her the story is as follows the the women are up two games exactly at the moment jensire will win that will be plus three and that will mean that there will be three games left girya cramling sorry four games girya cramling tsukunda no three games as marisa bag has already agreed to draw three games left plus three an ideal situation for the women so far wow what a finish we're gonna have tomorrow but we'll be back in just a few minutes where we'll hear from antonetta don't be right back love the sexes round nine and we have the hero of the women's team of the last two days two out of two antonetta congratulations thank you uh how well have you been feeling this past week i know it's been tough you tested positive you had to isolate yeah it's the first time in my life that i test positive so it was a strange feeling but i was lucky that i was asymptomatic so i didn't really have health problems but of course being isolated in the room is not what i came here for so i was really eager to play some chess games but i used this time when i was in my room to write a lot of things for my university i'm going for second master degree so ah so you had a productive time anyway uh did you follow the games i believe you you surely did right of course i did yes i mean and we started great the first two days with plus three and then somehow everything went wrong but uh okay i mean we i believe we still have a chance and we have to fight till the end and actually i don't know if you know but i had some kind of uh bet with uh loran and actually we we said about it so what was it so it was if we managed to make plus eight today that the last round we'll play not at 11 but at 12 which seems more suitable time for most of the girls so i see well i i believe it's already a bit late for plus eight but you might still be up some points in today's match let's have a look at your game sure uh so here d4 e6 c4 please stop me when you think uh something was something else was possible to say so knight f6 knight f3 d5 g3 okay it's just a normal catalan until now and bishop g2 castles yeah and what about this queen d3 move because we did not know anything about it well i believe not so many people know many things about it but uh it seems playable and it was uh suggested to me before the game uh so i just thought that it's not a bad thing to try because okay it is uh not one of the usual moves and i wanted to surprise him a bit and make him think on the board we knew about the queen c2 move which looked very similar actually to queen d3 uh but what about this after c5 short castle c takes d4 knight takes d4 you are still in your prep right here i believe so yeah right uh knight to a6 c takes d5 looked very logical knight before queen b3 yeah so here he had a choice to take on d5 or to play e5 well i was not sure about e5 i mean i i i somehow remembered another line from my preparation but how was it uh after cd5 all right here after cd5 no after yeah i'm not sure if it was here or after okay yeah that's not this close to many things maybe you can still use that one so let's let's get no but um the thing is that after e5 knight b5 it becomes all very concrete and my opponent after the game he said that after knight bd5 he was sure that the correct move is knight c3 and really yes and i was also okay i also thought for a long time here because after rook d1 it's very very concrete yeah we actually were trying to make this one work out and we figured that bishop a6 might be and now after e4 knight f4 right um knight f4 is one of the possibilities the other one is knight b4 maybe and here okay i should take on d8 rook f takes i guess and after queen a4 a6 and well i mean i'm i have queen for rook but there are some problems still so i guess knight c3 here knight c3 yeah but okay then there are always some things with b5 and maybe knight c2 or trying to trap the queen i don't know so maybe i have to go with another the other knight to c3 and then just give a piece back right and now after it takes b5 you can take with the queen yes but i was thinking maybe not a b5 but what i was thinking maybe bishop d7 first i doesn't make any sense i don't know maybe yeah you could probably develop the bishop yeah but then i can develop yeah no i i don't know i mean i was thinking for so long because i could not believe that he's just going to lose a piece right so i was trying and after knight f4 what yeah there are a lot of interesting variations here because now after rook takes d8 yes bishop takes b3 take rook takes f8 i guess yes let's say it doesn't matter but then i just take on f4 no oh wait how was it then maybe there is knight e2 yes there was a knight e2 in between here so here knight e2 and now after king f1 take on b3 uh-huh and the point is that after bishop c4 check yes yes after rook takes f8 bishop f8 but if you take on e2 there is bishop c4 yes and after knight if you take on b3 there is knight c1 probably and then i can go something like knight d2 knight d3 and rook takes a7 right yes this is the point yeah it still it still looks like quite is fine here but maybe it was maybe not it might have been forced actually bishop e6 i believe might have been the only move no i thought so because after queen a5 i just didn't see for black how to continue the game after bishop d5 knight d5 queen takes queen takes and the point is of course that if rook d8 then i just take it and the bishop takes b4 right queen b6 rook d6 and i'm going to be a piece up rook d6 yeah yeah right because after bishop b3 queen f6 and then black is on time to save the bishop but after rook d6 i think he's just piece up for for white so right so basically it was a blunder for him right because he probably missed this b4 idea i i guess so yeah okay i mean he missed yes this maybe rook d6 at the end i don't know what exactly he missed but it was clear that okay after this bishop p6 okay he tried to of course get the maximum compensation what he has but i believe with some precise moves white should be not in too much trouble here because okay i'm a piece and a pawn up and okay i just have to be careful a bit with my development again right like like yesterday no like yesterday yes it was i also had some thoughts about yesterday that again i was collecting some pieces and still i had okay at least today i castled right quite quickly i actually checked your interview from yesterday and you said that with the black pieces you cannot really win without taking risks so yesterday it was your strategy to take some risks and try to score the point right well i try to score a point every day no matter how but yeah i mean today i okay katalan is not the most risky opening so but it's sometimes pleasant to play such positions that you don't risk too much and maybe if your opponent makes a mistake then it's quite easy to get into trouble so i don't know i guess i was a bit lucky that he didn't remember the lines and to be honest yeah i didn't see this knight f4 till the end i mean i didn't see the knight 92 intermediate check so probably that was the best and maybe he was right that knight c3 because i was thinking knight c3 is just slightly better for white instead of rook d1 but somehow i couldn't since i i couldn't see how exactly black is not losing a piece it was very difficult not to play yeah it was a very tempting one yeah all right what are your thoughts now about the situation in the match did you get a chance to check the other games not much to be honest because okay i know that we are leading plus three right but i have no idea what happened with the other games since i just finished mine so i hope that we can make some more pluses and have a better starting position tomorrow but of course to be five points behind in the last two rounds it's not an easy situation right of course but on the other hand okay in the first two days we made plus six so it's not impossible to do and we have to fight till the end and i still hope that we have a chance to win but of course it will depend very much on today's games uh well i have one more question for you before letting you rest and prepare for the last game uh we know that you have been the player who came to Gibraltar for almost for most of the times so you have been coming here for many years in a row uh tell us a bit about how what place does have Gibraltar in your heart for you and how has it uh influenced your career as well well it's obviously a very special place for me Gibraltar i missed only two editions actually and it was the first one and probably the third one so i've been playing every year since that time and i always felt very good in Gibraltar and with um brian kalahan steward conquest now laura and i mean everybody always made me feel at home here and i'm sure not only me but a lot of female players especially they feel great in Gibraltar and having the chance always to play some good games here it's very important since as you know very well there are not so many tournaments which we can play and have such high prices right of course this is also very important but it's not maybe even the most important but the most important is that we really get the chance to play with some of the best male players that otherwise we wouldn't play and i'm sure a lot of women made their gm norms here it's not my case because i got it before but uh i have seen every year there were there were many women players who played greatly here and i just i'm just happy that even with the covid situation and so on we are still playing here in Gibraltar and it's a very interesting new format and i really hope that we'll continue to have innovative events here in Gibraltar in the future as well great thank you very much for your time Antoinetta it has been great to to see you here finally you know and we will be taking a short break and then we'll be back to check the games we welcome back to round nine of battle of the sexes we just had Antoinetta Stefanova the hero heroine of the women's team winning back to back games in uh extraordinary style actually because you know they're about to be quite crazy games uh today Ravi just blundering as he did very rarely do you see that and you know she she told us that she just wants to win every game no matter of the color so that's it it will be very interesting tomorrow if she will manage to win her third game in a row actually agreed yeah and uh what it means is as thing stands the women exactly where they need to be plus three on the day three games remaining but we can say that Balash Chonka Balash the chomper Chonka is chomping again well yeah he might be on his way of scoring that point which might actually bring him a GM norm if he manages to to draw tomorrow yeah now this is a situation before I said it felt very difficult for Irene and she played Bishop b1 king a4 and this was his idea he wanted to sneak in and I don't quite know why she didn't try to keep you know I believe that the end game after bishop a2 bishop b4 might have been a quite a sad one yeah actually but still it looked like the best the best chance white could have tried and after she let the king come to be free yeah the position definitely looked bad and here bishop to e4 what a move what is this king c3 move by Balash because he was worried that after d takes e4 yeah knight c4 king c3 there is knight d6 yeah no no sure this this is this is good for white but why can't I play c3 good question what's going on here I'm kind of shocked actually maybe bishop d3 ah bishop d3 is her idea or bishop c2 even okay so let's say bishop d3 great suggestion and now somehow the point from c3 is having not the easiest time and the knight's coming to c2 huh right and if I go bishop c7 you just put this knight on c2 but then you could play bishop c8 yes king where king f3 king f3 now I can go king c1 king d2 but otherwise how do I protect that point on g4 no no I I'm not I'm not sure you can protect the pawn maybe I've no but f5 isn't a move I wanted to make yeah it looks like it was winning um yeah king c3 wow well it's interesting it could be really good because knight takes d5 check king takes d4 is the idea a new winner piece right that's clear what about bishop takes d5 you should take back I believe he wants to take take and king d4 right either king d4 or king d2 I don't know oh even king no king d2 runs into 93 actually and there's another even that is not clear right who knows what's what's going on there even that right king d2 93 c3 if you give check I go king d3 and you can't take c2 wins makes a queen but let's let's assume that he wants to go king takes d4 which is a natural move and his claim here is that this ending is winning and it probably is actually it definitely is probably yeah probably is just an easy win okay anyway yeah yeah so it looks like ballash is on his way of winning today and that will mean that the ladies will be up only two points let's have a look on on the other games let's go to pier oh I really like this h6 move if you are following us on the previous days you might know that we actually love this idea of bringing the point on h6 in an end game because then the point on h7 might might be in trouble let's just imagine the rook on g8 in this position then after rook g7 is just game over so perhaps white will have these kind of ideas yeah I think actually Julian has mishandled this end game greatly I I believe he is in big trouble here I don't see him defending this one to be honest okay so where is the breakthrough let's say I play like he's been playing with rook a8 I could play I believe f5 here okay I will take I will take back with the pawn okay okay and if I keep on passing already here you have to answer questions after rook to the rook d5 okay king e7 and I could even try I was thinking but I'm hurrying no let's let's move back after rook a7 I will first play a4 okay I have to pass and now I will play rook d5 okay and here I will try king c5 I think it's it's lost already because those pawns black has on f6 and on h7 are too far away so even if you will be able to collect say the h6 pawn my pawn on a4 will be queening faster looks very dangerous that's for sure and pia has got fantastic technique and I believe she she will be managed to win this one it's so difficult I mean even if the engine maybe would still hold this one I think from a human's perspective it's it's impossible impossible it's a bit stronger I don't know it should be Magnus Carlsen with black here and still he okay I don't know do you think Magnus would be able to make this one a draw yes you think yes okay so you play king c6 I'll try it okay so um rook wait I should think a bit rook c5 check seems fair okay now I actually have a decision but let's go back king d6 so I have two ideas let's try the first one I will play a4 now after rook a5 yeah I'm not losing now rook g4 check king e3 and now you will be coming to e5 yeah this is not the right way okay so how did you play this one well you went f5 and I took took and I just went king king d6 king d6 yeah or king c6 sorry I'm just passing so I should probably try and bring the king let's say king c4 now after king b6 my idea was to go for rook d5 threatening a check on d6 and now a big question where do I go and I think king king d4 yeah king d4 should be good it's close you know might might not be able to defend like this we'll see rook d6 rook f6 yeah it looks quite bad yeah I don't think I can defend like this I've got a bad feeling that this doesn't hold for black yeah I think even rook f7 yeah I don't like it yeah so the idea is that we have to keep the king on the queen side yeah for white let's try rook c8 oh no you got king b5 and rook b9 doesn't work that move definitely doesn't work okay and if I okay so if I pass what's the what's the breakthrough what's the big plan yeah yeah okay so ideally I should I don't think it's as bad as you make out for black I mean after all let's say I play a rook a3 rook a3 okay so if I put the rook on c6 now you want to come around or something yeah I want to bring the rook to g3 and then to g7 and collect the h7 pawn okay but king e5 is a problem oh wait yeah I cannot do that okay so I have to try that with you want to go rook d5 check and rook d3 yeah definitely okay now I go rook g8 again but now I have rook e3 maybe rook g4 check and the king comes to d5 yeah once I start getting like king d3 probably king d5 and then I can start putting you back and I'm quite happy because I'm I'm gonna get active and my king is too close it's still it's still challenging after king c2 let's say really no okay rook a3 king b2 and let's say rook a5 rook f6 and here rook f7 yeah king f something like this maybe I'm not sure wait what if I take on h7 maybe this one I've got to be a bit careful because you have like rook e7 rook e7 yeah okay h7 yeah and you've got some and the king comes yeah and this is it might still be a draw but I'm not sure if the king is cut yeah I don't I have absolutely no idea king b4 maybe you can just advance the pawn too quickly I don't know it's close I mean it's close there's definitely chances yeah so even even here but but I'm sure I played it badly around here around this point like once I get this I'm pretty confident like here for example I can go rook a4 immediately right which is obviously much better definitely yeah no I don't I don't believe that that's I don't believe that it's as bad as no I I just I just can't believe it's that bad now I don't know there must be a way to put on maximum pressure but I don't know but what okay so we have been trying this f5 idea right let's try the g5 one g5 okay so I think I should probably take right now I should take with the pawn I believe right and now I'm gonna go king e6 what about the move like king c5 no king f5 right king b6 yeah now I come wait a4 what no what's the idea okay I want at some point to collect the a6 pawn yeah but am I not am I not really fast here no I mean even if I go check right okay I've got king a7 actually king a7 wow okay rook b4 no no no rook b4 I want to cut king a6 okay and where's the where's my progress yeah king a7 okay I just pass and then you take both pawns yeah this is not good but then it means that this plan might not be good at all well you can go king e4 but what's the difference yeah no I know I'm just gonna pass and I'm just gonna ask you but wait here maybe I have rook c5 okay rook c5 rook e7 or rook or rook b7 I don't know let's try rook e7 so what are you saying that the opponent game is strong no no no no I don't I don't know rook e5 ah rook e5 sorry I blinded it's losing sorry rook e5 wins no no rook e5 just wins ah rook c5 okay let's are you gonna go a4 right this might be troublesome yeah I see that our viewers say that a3 was better before g5 but these are subtleties no really big subtleties I think the human way is to push one I like I like g5 much more than f5 let's put it like this this is yeah because we keep only one weakness so exactly so I like g5 much more yeah so Jillian still with a big task ahead of him to defend this really really tough what about Olga Giri is she holding or is things are things getting worse things are getting worse right yeah they are getting much worse because now that pawn on f4 is on a dark square and even the opposite colored bishop and games might be lost bishop b5 yeah she's trying to keep um she's trying to keep a a shield force field yeah now her point is that if black goes actually for the opposite colored bishop and game let's say knight c5 knight c5 king c5 she's got this important bishop d7 move and after taking on a five the bishop will actually hold the b1 square and also the h pawn is of the wrong color for black actually that might be a very big problem because if we sacrifice everything and we get with our king to h1 and black has only the pawn from h4 and the dark squared bishop it will be a draw yeah interesting could we hold on a second bishop b6 what's this what on bishop d7 she he just wants to go 96 and continue okay a long game there leandro has to give her 50 000 turns could we just have a quick look of how the game between guna and sabino ended because we felt that it was trouble for black could we just have a very quick look at it after bishop b4 what did he play he went e4 she took and played 96 check but okay okay 96 check king b8 and couldn't she just uh no she couldn't she went c5 which kind of looks logical rook d8 rook d4 but why not rook e1 here yeah what was the problem with this one isn't she just winning a pawn well i see that there are different ideas in the air for example let's just put in a random h5 move and now after 94 94 rook e4 there might be rook d1 queen d1 and queen e4 but still it's a pawn up right i mean right yeah there were a few ideas here so she probably saw these and wanted to just keep the tension with rook d4 rook d7 queen d2 rook c7 queen f4 ah she was banking on some tactics but missed 95 she missed this move must have because it's she's probably thought she could take or something but it but wait is it really working i don't get it 95 yeah queen takes e4 yeah what what is the big point here no queen e4 queen e4 94 so rook takes c5 queen takes e6 yeah this is still a better end game for white sure yeah why didn't she go for this queen takes e4 what are we missing oh knight c3 yeah knight c3 b takes c3 and queen b3 but is this what is this king c1 yeah this doesn't c3 maybe this is king d1 rook c5 oh wait rook c5 runs into mate in one queen c5 then queen c5 i don't believe it i don't believe it but you could just play something like king e2 king f1 king g2 yeah it's a bit strange bit strange yeah okay so i mean what happened in the game she went queen d2 she got spooked and she missed e3 as a shot and then rook c5 and rook c6 and that's the right and then suddenly the advantage is gone and actually this was a great moment to take a draw because the momentum definitely the momentum is gone okay so gunai possibly missed a good one there um chonka now completely winning right like this is just a this is just not even a uh this isn't a fight actually there's just no defensive resource well she is hoping that if black takes b5 you could take on d5 yeah she's hoping for that if you you can't i'm hoping i win the lottery on the weekend as well but if you push the d4 point the v okay there are very little practical very little practical problems for for black to solve here first yeah but definitely black is winning here yeah that's a huge win and leandro is still pressing but maybe not and she went with uh she went with f5 which we didn't like yeah we didn't like it no okay maybe no you i think rook f5 just doesn't help because king is six central g8 yeah so probably she will have to take but jillian has to take on f5 there is another way of continuing he has he will take he will take so f5 gf5 gf5 and we were saying king c6 no why not right and the players have bf has nine minutes jillian has 14 minutes it's quite quite enough time probably for for this end game it's good that jillian has an advantage a slight advantage on the clock yeah i see that many of our viewers are enjoying the format of the event and this is actually a great thing for us to hear because well it has been a great pleasure for us on commentating this as well absolutely and we also hope like like you do that we'll be seeing more of these types of tournaments actually and i see a lot of men saying that they are rooting for for the women's team here well we are also rooting i believe today for the women's team because that will mean that tomorrow will be a very exciting day yes we want i mean in an ideal world plus three today for the women would make it really really exciting i think if it just ends plus two um plus two so they need to get that would mean they need three what does that mean they need to get plus three tomorrow to tie no if it's plus two yeah yeah if it's plus two they can get plus three but they all have black but they actually did get a plus three with all blacks in the second round so it doesn't mean that it's impossible to achieve is jillian gonna draw this game what do you think i still i would still take ps chances here should we make today another bet on this one no because i i'm not sure i believe in jillian oh you don't i'm not sure it's a tough position he does play king c6 i mean you have to give me odds like if jillian wins i get three to one so for everyone i get three back or like i get five to one five to one five to one is a good deal i'll take five to one you i will have to ponder let's wait until they get until until pia has a winning position until they get less than 10 minutes both on their clocks and then i will uh okay i will answer you on that right now let's go to olgogiria let's try and work out if there's absolutely anything here and she's just standing it might it might be a draw but you know as we've been seeing a lot in this tournament a position in which the computer says it's drawn doesn't mean that will actually end in a draw right because also actually it was also olga who had that queens end game with a pond on and she was defending for a very long time against sabina and she blundered in the end and today again she's a pond on in a different end game maybe i'm not sure which one do you think was more difficult to this one or the other one the other one yeah because this one basically your idea for white is to stop this black king from entering right so this night covers here and this bishop covers here you cover the only weakness that is attackable which is f4 so you just have to find a way not to allow this king to enter you also know that the knight can never move and be traded because of the pond on f5 right yeah the only thing that black can possibly try to do i guess is to put the knight on d6 to protect this pawn and but even after that i mean what do you want to do with black it feels like a a thankless task right oh so um yeah we say some moves in the pia versus jillian game and she actually went for my rook a3 yeah i like rook a3 because it's exactly the line which we checked right is it no it's not we had some rook c5 check and then rook a3 we didn't we didn't actually check rook a3 no look it was in the king d6 rook a3 oh yeah it was slightly different i like this though because now rook g3 rook g7 is is real um and after rook g8 well i hung up well yeah rook a3 is excellent what if i you want to do why you want to do good question why you want to do could i play something like a5 actually a a5 okay so rook g3 looks very dangerous a rook g8 check okay i guess i'll put the king on e4 that's a good one maybe you have to get active now rook d2 yeah i was worried about rook g7 but perhaps i'm in time definitely rook a2 rook h7 rook h2 is just a draw easy draw because rook h8 i put my king on b7 right yeah definitely but wait sorry i go rook h5 first yeah or rook h4 first yeah sorry rook h4 much better excuse me rook h4 yeah because then if king b7 immediately i could try to enter on d5 then on e6 yeah this is a key move rook h5 check the king force it back and then go king b7 and we have this famous construction where i can just hold this position and every time she tries to go here i put my rook oh i have my a pawn i have a pawn yeah no this is this is this is just an easy draw okay so rook a3 so rook a3 so what are we saying a5 a5 okay i like it perhaps we could still play but yeah the problem here is that after king c4 king d6 yeah you want to go to e5 right what if i play rook e3 here rook e3 but you've got rook c8 well we carry on king d4 what about here we have to get active rook c2 rook e6 yeah king d7 rook f6 yeah and it's one of those where i could lose rook f7 rook h7 and actually i just it's just it's just losing for black you think it's already losing yeah because if i go rook h2 you've got the trick rook h8 check no king f7 sorry king f7 wait this is not losing is it no you still have the a pawn so the pawn and games are are drawn what a weird idea can't be good but you're worried a bit maybe you could throw in a king e5 or something instead of the check oh okay okay here for king e5 but then would it be better yeah it could be could be much better king f8 now yeah but now uh king of six uh king of six king g8 that should be a draw actually no rook g7 and eights no rook g7 okay i put the king in the corner oh wait i have a fantastic idea king e6 after king f8 yeah i will make this end game winning and rook a7 rook h6 f6 came over all right and if i give you a check king f6 and what's going on here if i take the a pawn isn't that one of those famous isn't this that famous draw but i'm not sure the b file is enough it's the b file enough here i'm very far rook a5 now you should first collect the h pawn i believe this one isn't good isn't this a draw well if you manage to make okay let's let's test your rook end game knowledge okay so let's try rook a7 first okay eight no rook a7 no i better i yeah rook f7 or king of seven rook f7 let's try king of seven first because i think it's a draw with the rook on the a file i'm not sure about the b file all right so if i go here f6 and this is just uh you have to play rook b8 rook b8 and how was the winning plan here isn't this one of those famous rules king g6 and now i have seven king g7 yeah i cannot play that so wait what could i try i could try to bring the rook to e8 rook a7 okay rook a8 but now you've got rook a8 yeah and this is a draw yeah this is a draw i think a lot of these f and h are draws but you know you need to know your stuff and there's still tricky stuff along the way okay let's look at the position because some so rooky so we've got wait what happened king c4 he went king b6 and rookie three and he's he's ooh i don't like what he's done he wants i think he gets no yeah no but he still wants to go for rook d2 probably but but now after rookie six show you can take on a6 first yeah and the king will be too far away yeah no i don't know this is lost well hold on this is lost no no no no wait i don't know if it's lost yet but it's it's definitely no but we barely made it with the king to g8 in the previous line here if the king will be forced to go to b7 it will be lost after rook d6 i have rookie seven you cannot do you know if rook d6 is is holding that's it's holding i think rook d6 okay so i'll try rook d6 rookie seven because rook d7 is not holding anymore okay and now rook d2 how do i make it work rook h7 okay let's try this one rook a2 yeah oh rook a2 yeah well yeah i yeah let's go rook a2 sorry rook a2 no rook i'm not sure which one i could try rook h8 here yeah but now i give check no rook h8 isn't good okay i will believe you on that rook f7 then okay let's collect all the points i'll still give check um king beef okay king somewhere king d3 let's say okay let's let's try king e5 king d6 and i think it might not be enough okay so rook f6 rook f6 king e5 rook f7 okay i'll go rook h4 h7 a5 easy draw easy easy draw can't we do something like maria did with eric no right not against me you might do it against eric you're not doing it against me yeah it's not the right way okay let's go back because i think i handled it badly okay so rookie three is on the board so no my question is after rookie six rook d6 is this a draw okay let's try it rook takes d6 king takes d6 i know but this is a draw this is because i cover e5 so king d4 king c6 yes so this is a this is not even like close yes yes this is definitely this is definitely a draw so rookie six rook d6 so you want to go rookie seven right yeah it makes sense okay rook d2 ah but here i can be smart okay play a three a three yes what is this rook f2 my point is rookie six now and now you go rookie six oh that's very smart i see a three okay so i have to pass or what if i go rook d1 now maybe i can try rook a7 okay i like i like this you like rook a7 king d6 ah but now you go to e5 but wait it's still unclear how is this why am i struggling so much here i think i think you were thinking it's more winning than it really is like i'm not sure it's winning that these are so i think it should be really yeah so a three was a nice try i believe and after rook f2 wait so rook d2 i have to make this work okay maybe i should play actually um rookie six rook d6 rookie seven yeah rook d2 what if i go now for a4 a4 try to bring the point as fast as possible okay i'll go rook h2 again rookie six you are missing it i'm blundering we have to go somewhere else oh i can go sorry i can't go king d6 i really like a4 rook d1 was your idea in the previous line yeah rook d1 what if i go for king b4 now king b4 rook d4 check king a5 okay rook a5 rook d5 king a6 really you're just giving up this pawn i don't know rook h7 yeah but the two flank pawns are also a draw even without this right in this position if you know if you know if you know if you know your rook's theory but but with the with the pawn it should be like really like but wait let me think after i played a4 rook d1 because it seems like i should be i should have something a4 rook d1 uh so how was it uh rook d2 a4 rook d1 yes how do i make it work what if i what if i go insane and i play a5 now i can give checks uh you're right okay so now i know a5 but how to win this rook hand game so i what did i try you tried king b4 let me try rook a7 then rook a7 yes okay i'll go again for king d6 i think so feels correct but i think i can protect now rook a6 okay king a5 rook a5 king a4 it was better than what i had before i believe no i don't think so because i'm collecting here as well i put the king on g5 it looks like it looks like it should be an easy hold i think it's tonight rook d5 rook d5 okay let me come behind rook a1 king b5 okay king g5 a5 a6 king b6 easy hold rook a5 surprise no but even that yeah a7 rook a8 yeah i think i think wait wait wait i think it's all i think by maybe no a8 i lose i lose you're you're losing this one i believe because you don't have time to play h4 rook h8 ah rook h8 loses immediately wait even that yeah it needs counting even the king might be too close on b6 yeah it might be like this uh where'd you put the rook oh no wait where was the right no but it's easy it's an easy win yeah this is not right okay so i can't i can't let you trick me yeah so what happened i went king g5 you went king b6 yeah yeah it's not so easy yeah so oh no check so i have i have to be careful so this you think this one's winning huh could be there are decent chances for that at least because the points are too too far away and that's exactly why this h6 was so important right curious yeah it might be winning no king g5 a5 at least pia can try she can try something yeah she can try and actually we see she played rook e8 oh we have something i'm rook d2 so very similar to what we've been looking at yeah here after a4 she will get the same the same position basically a lot of calculation and this late in the day very very very hard all right now i think do you still take julian's chances i can go for three to one now three to one really oh wow i yeah i'll take three to one that's he still has a great chance so what are we betting on whatever you want i don't mind you can choose this time okay today i took a long thought before offering this uh bet okay and i thought we will do challenges no no no let's you have to do three challenges no no no you're offering me three to one all right so you have to do one challenge i will have to do three ones but okay acceptable ones not insane no i would rather i mean for something like we can do challenges tomorrow but i think for this one we can just have we need a unit a unit a unit of something we can think about it yeah okay maybe our viewers have an interesting an interesting idea an interesting wager yesterday yesterday we were betting on a bottle of wine actually yeah and i won that one i have to say you are you are a bottle of wine up that is true let's go to another game has leandro made any progress the answer is no so i mean olga just holding the fort there beautifully so i see no other result and in this one well again not really much to discuss actually this night is being trapped now um so this is this is resignable for iran bishops c5 bishop d7 is going to win the night nothing to discuss in this game just two pawns and a piece and a winning position so the only really interesting soup game at the moment is this ending here rook d2 let's see if jillion and they they both have obviously very little time yeah and they don't have the opportunity to you know just try lines like we are doing they have to just see them in their in their head and i think she will go for a4 i really don't know i mean this it's it's just such a difficult spot um i think she has to go for a4 i'm very curious what uh yeah a4 a4 is really the only chance yeah she has to try or she's going with a rook maybe she wants to throw in a check on a6 no what is this ah this is clever wait no this is fine but there's king d7 no ah king d7 ah king d7 now we will get to those end games which you said and after rook a8 now we can just go like rook f2 and if she goes here king d6 and we get these endings which uh but this is similar to what we had wait this this this this move is not obviously ridiculous rook c8 and this is now the quite now this might be a good practical try because king b7 might be horrible okay definitely king b7 is terrible king b7 i wouldn't even consider that one even that even yeah yeah he can't go king b7 and he can't go king b6 and he can't go king d6 so he will go king d7 yeah i believe so i don't know but king d7 rook h8 wait this is her idea this is genius what is the difference i don't see it oh no now i can just take on a2 yeah basically and then king d6 king g5 yeah no this is this is a draw this is actually this is an elementary draw okay so jillion oh is jillion gonna save the day for the boys was i too early with with my with my bet i think three to one was very generous of you i mean you're basically saying that pier wins this position 75 percent of the time but i was confident that she she was gone and actually we see another result yeah that's has won against tyrene so it means that the ladies are now up with plus two today and overall the the man's team is up plus three right the men is up uh sorry yeah so they were plus five before today the ladies are up plus three yeah no the ladies are only up plus two yeah and overall overall sorry yeah plus three for the man overall with uh leandro's game where he's good yeah of course he has to just play forever and hope that she makes a ridiculous blunder but i just don't see it um and yeah well actually we have this question coming up every day about jillion's right way of pronouncing his name and actually we asked him and he told us that it's jillion i don't know if he just wanted to make life easier for us or not sure no that's just in his language i thought it i i started in the broadcast saying gillian but it's jillion yeah so uh there you go all right this game is just nothing i mean this is they're just going around in circles here so we really should look so king d7 rook h8 is on the board so let's go straight there so king d7 rook h8 but yeah this is just this is just the worst of the tries right by pia now you just take on a2 yeah and you see in all of this line the problem is that hanging one on a2 and the good thing about whites king on c4 was that it was controlling the d3 and d4 square so that's why a3 or a4 could have been much better tries because then the rook would have to spend two tempests on collecting the a pawn rather than just one exactly so king king d6 and yeah and now uh yeah i mean this is just this is actually just like an elementary draw because the other point is you can't stop king e5 so move like king d4 just runs into rook a4 checking king e5 and actually then black is better if you make a huge blunder here oh no no that would be well no it's still a draw i mean it's still an easy draw but black is better right it will be a very important king e8 what is this move it's losing it's losing well hold on hold on him no no no no no no no is it yes it's just lost what why is it just okay seven rook a7 game over it's game over king f8 h7 rook h8 king d5 king e6 king f6 and i put the rook on h6 but anyway you will lose the rook and games because the rook is on h7 i will be able to take on yeah so let's have a look so king d5 so i'll go a5 oh okay king e6 okay i will now go rook h6 and now ah now rook a5 rook a5 opponent game is lost king g7 rook a7 and king h8 and this should be still lost rook f7 probably is losing uh no tricks right rook h1 no rook f6 is winning probably oh but this is this is unbelievable this is unbelievable not to go king d6 king e5 is unforgivable no king e8 you you know you know you never put the king passive never go with the king back in the rook end game like never ever when your opponent gives you a check you never go back this is a this is a this is a catastrophic this is a catastrophic blunder by jillian now i don't know i mean king d6 is just immediately just a draw right even this rook h8 is winning what ah because the king no she's just had it all worked out we're just idiots the point is no this is easy winning because rook h2 h7 you can't play king b7 right this is genius no no no no no and then king c6 was done so hold on rook sakes h7 she he had to find the move king c6 only move well then it's not as easy as no no no no and king e8 has to be losing right let's just double check must be losing yeah easy win wow wow wow wow wow wow wow rook a7 rook h2 h7 and king d5 as you said oh wow what a heartbreaking loss for jillian just king d5 king f8 king d5 and he's gonna have to try some well i don't even know what he can try no but it's over oh my goodness but what a great i mean that's great for the tournament yeah that will be fantastic because then the ladies will be again up uh in in today's match plus three and that will be plus two overall lead for for the men's team yeah and then we have a real fight tomorrow right wow poor jillian holy wow he just could not hold king c6 only move sandor falcus says king c6 is sus as well because of rook f7 but not really right because now you can give a check force the king back and now you can play a move like king d6 and on rook takes f6 king e5 the f and h pawns with the king cut is is really not a winnable position right no no no this is this is no king c6 very instructive yeah it it is just fantastic how complicated these games are even with so so little material remaining right right and what what a fantastic win it would be for pia who lost the last three games i mean i'll be i'll be so happy for pia as well um right okay so she played let's have a look so what happened so so oh goodness i've i've lost the thread here ah what happened uh the rook c8 variation so rook d2 rook c8 rook c8 right king d7 rook h8 rook h2 rook h7 king e8 rook h7 now yep um rook h7 rook h2 right h7 king f8 king d5 e5 oh yeah and king d6 yeah nice this this is just heartbreaking he's gonna try rook h6 ah but rook h6 you can even yeah you can even uh yeah you can even take immediately because if you take i give check that's what i did king g7 i think now instead of taking on h7 yeah i played king g7 right but he's done something totally different he's gone a4 i mean this is uh yeah but it's this it's the same actually she can just take now but it's isn't it the same after king g7 yes yeah yeah it takes king g7 rook here king h8 but actually i have another way of winning this one i believe what if i play king of six yep rook h6 king g5 yep back and king g6 and i want to play h8 yeah that's that's an easy that's even easier easy easy win lots of lots of wins um wow okay let's quickly go back to liandro any point no they've they've played uh a thousand moves here and you know but it's only move 55 and if olga has to count uh 50 moves without a pawn being moved or any trades and they are again down to one minute each no will it be a no yeah i think it's just gonna be a draw i just don't see a way to to win there's just no opposite color bishops no weaknesses and she's just too solid um sandal farkas what do you think how many how many times would i win that play position against a lower rate of play what what position it depends against which type of player because there are players who are very good with their end games but are still lower rated you struggle with their tactics so but overall let's say if you would play against somebody rated 2300 let's say how many games in the it from what position though i don't understand let's say that rook and game which was with the rook on a8 and the rook on a5 in the moment pia played ah that position oh wow i don't think i would win more than 50 percent 50 percent yeah maybe maybe something like that also depends a lot on how many how much time the players have had on the clock because with little time it's very easy to go wrong so jillian just re-signed his game a great win by pia one which he worked very hard today to achieve because it looked like jillian was was really going to make a draw yeah and leandro trying every trick in the book but no good but pia well done uh what a what an important win for her confidence as well after losing three games in a row poor jillian just has not been able to compete uh this tournament really uh yeah i believe he's very disappointed but it might be a lot for him to learn after after this tournament i believe it's it's just a great you know overall experience to play against these kind of strong players and i really hope that he will be able to to make some important conclusions and to be back with being even stronger yeah i totally agree wow and look at that result the results panel there so many ones yeah a lot of white wins we haven't seen them in such a long while no not since round two right i think we can just get a big board of this game uh with uh we can i think olga is already checking her scores yeah looking for a three-fold repetition i believe or move 50 without moving on f5 was the last pawn move okay so move 43 was the last pawn move and nice yeah but do you know it's quite stressing when you're open and does that right yeah because you don't really have yeah and we saw her marking something on the scoresheet so definitely the three-fold repetition is in the air yeah balash is looking good for grandmasa says sandal who is who is also hungarian no doubt yeah balash just needs to make a draw a draw is enough for him tomorrow in order to achieve his gm norm was it the second he was saying would it be the second i think it's the second but i should point out i'm sorry we forgot to say this during the stream tomorrow the games start at 11 am right right forgot to say that the games start at 11 o'clock so that's four hours earlier they're normal so if you're watching from the us get up early if you're watching from europe get up early if you've got work forget it work is cancelled tomorrow is the day oh no was i was going to say there's a move here there is no move don't worry no need to panic night of two he goes for the h3 pond but i could protect it in so many ways right yeah it's nothing king g2 should be fine bishop f1 is fine f1 looks fine definitely probably king g2 to not allow the king to i know that king g2 then you get stretched with bishop e3 do you no even that is not no because you cannot really take no pawn as the knight is hanging four am the f me evangelist yep four am get up at four am set your alarm no excuses eric rosen versus iran tsukanda oh that will be a fun one to watch do you think they are going for for each other or will it be a no they have to know they have to fight they have to fight no question will their friendship pass this test you have to fight there are no friends on the chessboard you know if i was playing my wife god there are no friends i think on the board i think once once you will get married you might change your opinion on that lorenz no if i played my i would crush her what are you i would try to what is this this is a game this isn't a marriage well you don't think a husband should try and crush his wife on the chessboard well it depends because the wife might try the same thing and you know that's fine in the end somebody might end up sleeping on the balcony good i hope she has a blanket no i i think you should though i mean i know a lot of these couples they end up making a draw and stuff but i'm not really sure like in a competition like this where every point counts it's very much against the spirit of the composition i would be very disappointed if a couple made a draw but you know if the friendship is strong then okay it's just a game of chess i mean the game is over and then you can get it can't affect it yeah you can't affect the friendship or the relationship it just can't it just has nothing to do with it and it might be actually a lot of stake tomorrow so when you have a team competition it's especially different because if it's just an individual tournament then it's it might not be the case you know yeah to get in trouble in your household yeah like let's say it was a different situation where let's say you know you you were playing your husband and for you to win the women's prize which is a huge amount of money you needed a draw right even then it's kind of bad because you shouldn't pre-determine a game and you you know it's still not really in the spirit of the game but that's more understandable but in a tournament like this where every single half point counts and it's a team event and it's a team event it's a team event no i i i've seen and also erica's got white so come on i mean i would be very disappointed if he made a draw tomorrow very yeah i agree with you on that one yeah all right meanwhile this game is just going on i mean no progress has been made for 40 moves it's they're just going round and round and round and liandro just hoping for some kind of random blunder you know one of the dangers in this position is to get too obsessed with checking if there's a free folder repetition or not run low on time and then just make her own random move and blunder yes so she cannot really afford going too low on time yeah yeah but it's really hard to blunder she's found a construction she's moving the bishop back and forward i mean she's she she knows she's just so experienced i just cannot see olga making a mistake here right night c1 you know she's look how alert she is look at this this is beautiful night c1 now and she's ready to meet any attack on f4 with 93 this is just good chess yeah actually 93 might be already now but also it's there's no point in changing the fortress so maybe there is no reason to go with the knight on d3 on c6 night just to keep it on b3 of course night b3 yeah of course night of course she will play night b3 nothing to do nothing to do and that's it oh no it's the scoresheet okay matthew car our arbiter bringing the scoresheet leandro trying everything in the book and not succeeding basically right but he definitely remembers his team captain's game against olga and he is going to try for a while here yeah he can try until there is no more try left that's it there's just but of course the point is that it there is there is nothing to do but have you noticed that some of the players are wearing the masks and some don't yeah i see olga with it olga and minneta yeah a lot of guys are a lot of guys aren't each to their own the competition is the rules are clear you can wear a mask if you want oh and look we've got pia still in the playing hall yeah she's hoping for olga to hold this this draw sabino still there yeah the arbiters keeping keeping an eye on the game yeah i wonder i wonder how much more will leandro try here i believe that until olga will claim a three-fold repetition or 50 moves he has no reasons to agree for a draw earlier no no he has he shouldn't be making a draw here under any circumstance until the game is officially drawn questioned by ars are all the players vaccinated and or tested yes is the answer we get tested every single day um and i believe the majority of players are at least double vaccinated i don't know the exact figures but my understanding is at least double vaccinated most have got a triple vaccination yeah i think it's great that we have this safe environment because when you know that everyone is negative then you somehow feel you know calm and just you don't have to think about other things than chess right uh bobby bobby who is bobby our bobby uh bobby chang yeah uh bobby bobby has been very solid he's we haven't spoken about him that much in this tournament i would say in general it like compared to other players because he's just he's just been solid and good and uh uh he's he's been a big asset for the men's team yeah he's been really solid and it's really important on a team to have players which uh you know that are never going to lose a game and somehow here it was uh it was the case for bobby he was very close actually to to losing to john sya in one game but he managed to save that one he did throughout the game he was better than worse than lost but then in the end he found really good resources to to make that a draw and actually in all the other games he was never in real trouble right exactly exactly yeah yeah actually pia is the women's team captain and sabina brunello is the men's team captain and we will actually have them over here after this game is finished to to hear their thoughts and to see what are their plans for tomorrow if they're going to disclose them of course well i mean the plans are clear it's the preparation that's going to be interesting uh and uh you know yeah uh it's going to be just fascinating the women will have to win on demand with black not easy but uh at this level i would say it's not like at super elite level where if you really want to make draws with white they find a way i think here you can play stuff and and try and make it work and leandro just having just no success here at breaking through just but it also depends a lot of the player style i think in this range of rating because for example if somebody tells me uh and i'm an aggressive player irina go and make a draw tomorrow with white it's just it might just work very well against me you know because my style is to play uncompromising chess let's say and if i play a different style then i might go wrong right so you want to stay true to your style basically yeah and just play a game yes sure okay sometimes if i see that there is a line which is like draw on move 10 if my opponent plays the berlin for example i could i could make the draw but other than that i believe in all the openings there could be still a fight it's not like if you go and the engine says minus one or plus one it's game over like we've seen throughout the tournament right yeah agreed absolutely uh question by abdallah aiman says i wonder if maria is going to play more aggressively tomorrow given that women desperately need to win or is she going to make a quick draw there's absolutely no chance that any woman tomorrow is allowed to make a quick draw that will be an instruction from pier if they are losing losing the match by two or by three how on earth can they make a quick draw the women probably probably let's assuming this is a draw now they will be plus four today right um no sorry no plus three one two because they lost a game sorry plus three so yeah plus two overall for the men's team for the men's team so the men will be up two games going into the last round you can't make quick draws you need to make those two points somewhere and maria i don't know who she's playing and we'll have a look at the pairings hopefully we can get the pairings perhaps we can work on that actually uh if the if the uh yeah those are the pairings they can we get them for tomorrow as well can we have a preview yeah that would be that would be great that would be great maybe we maybe we can organize that already and uh yes they are playing for a huge prize fund huge the difference basically means five k pounds for each player yeah that's the difference that's the difference between winning the match and losing it so yeah so if you lose the match you get wait what happens if they have an even score well then i know there is uh more chess so perhaps we can get information on that as well or maybe tomorrow maybe what we'll do tomorrow is we'll speak to the organizers and before the round or when we do the preview before the games we can explain what happens in the in the event of a draw but i do know for a fact there is more chess and you know what the good news is what we also get to charge more really no we don't i was thinking that we are gonna play against each other and that would be the decisive point hey i we can do well early in the morning right okay so uh yeah big fight waiting for for us tomorrow huge fight huge it's gonna be really really exciting and actually you know what i was thinking that yeah an important difference will also be the fact who of the players are early birds and who wake up very difficult in the morning well let me tell you this in the you weren't here because you came later but the first day we had the technical meeting yes and originally the proposal to do the coronavirus test was at eight o'clock in the morning and this was met with a groan of uh unhappiness let's call it that from the women's team they especially i i can't i can't remember who it was but one of the women said i've never woken up at eight o'clock in the morning in my life you know we're in a chess event i can't remember if it was maria or jansaya or maybe it was maria so maria musichuk said i've never woken up at eight o'clock in the i mean for a start well i think only to catch a flight she said i think she exaggerated a bit because i recall playing against each other in i mean as teams in the bundesliga where on sundays we get to play at nine a.m. in the morning okay so it's even worse so she definitely played and i think it was a slight exaggeration slight exaggeration what about the men's team are they waking up no they were all okay they were like yeah sure we'll do it eight in the morning so i feel i so now so that makes me think you know but if we're starting at 11 they can get up at 9 30 and they it's it's kind of okay but eight eight o'clock to do the corona test was too so in the end what we're doing is we're doing them in the evenings after the game all right so that's as a result of the women's protestation no they said we will not wake up at excuse me like hello i i used to get up at six in the morning five thirty in the morning getting on the tube every day to go into london waking up at eight a.m. morning eight a.m. yeah i was getting up at six thirty in the morning every morning really of course i had a real job you know suffering every day i think i don't believe you but all right what do you mean you don't believe me i don't think i'm waking up at six thirty in the morning i was what it used to work in the city i used to go into london every day no i mean here oh here no here here i'm not getting up here i'm not getting up is it no i'm saying in the past i have and when maria said i've never gotten up at eight o'clock in the morning you know there was a time when i was a university student when i was going to to school and i used to wake up but it it seems like it was ages ago yeah yeah i mean uh it was a long time ago since i did that that's true but still okay so uh i think that well they're still playing of course they've got a minute each i what i'll do is nothing has happened so this position here you could have uh gone to the shop bought yourself uh you know a pint of milk come home cooked an omelet and had a nice cup of tea and nothing has happened so liandro is just trying to find a way there is no way the recent and he's moving around until the inevitable happens which i think is move 97 and we're on 68 question for you do you know what they prefer breakfast in argentina argentina yeah because i believe the andro is from argentina what is an argentinian breakfast that's a good idea i don't know do you know i have no clue oh no no i know on the other hand what would be a perfect russian breakfast yeah i know russian breakfast yeah what is your guess um what did i used to have like bread and meats and cheese sometimes yeah uh i guess the dark bread right yeah dark bread meats and cheese and egg is something hard but they have something very specific and these are very little uh pies from cottage cheese which they fry in the pan yeah they are called actually sirniki right sirniki you probably know them and then you eat it with sour cream or with honey uh those are my favorites yeah i don't think Olga's getting she can have a nice plate of cumberland sausage bacon and baked beans which has been by the way what we've been eating with a bit of fruit and whatnot i fully expect to uh have a heart attack before the end of the round tonight c5 she's gonna play night c1 nothing has changed she's just keeping the porn at bay and actually we have the pairings oh we do let's let's bring that up on the full screen i will keep an eye on the game if in case anything happens but let's put the uh let's put those pairings up can we get that as a full screen so we can see here we go eric rosen against irie we already spoke about this eric will go for the win it doesn't matter about their friendship relationship whatever eric is going for the win all right sabino against abumalek that can be that can be a huge fight i expect that to be nothing else humongous huge fight jillian against gunai what a chance for gunai tomorrow with the black pieces she will go against the tired jillian now he's lost all his confidence what a spot for gunai huge that's a must win i'm not so let's do this let's put the games as a must win game that is a must win game yeah must win game for gunai well who's saying versus pia what what are your thoughts about this one i i don't think i i'm not saying it's a must win game but i'm saying it's a game that they would really want to win so let's put it like that bill eleganz marie marie is fully expected not to like marie they will tell marie pia will tell marie tomorrow solid try to make a draw yeah don't why don't just be play like you and make a draw definitely bill eleganz has been scoring fantastically in the last actually in the last week yeah he's been fantastic let's look at the next five leandra against maria maria will be instructed not to lose and not to try to win you think so yes 100 percent i'm telling you the game this is the game antonetta stefanova yeah i think this is must win must win must win against joe gallagher yeah if it's a two-game advantage antonetta stefanova against joe has to try and win and maybe olga as well is going to be given against ravi against ravi just because what happens a day with ravi she you know they might say just try and keep chances alive because i try to keep the game running for for a long time yeah yovanka black against bobby is well i mean bobby might actually try to try to win this one like quite seriously and ballash with white but yovanka actually should be in a much better move now mood sorry now because she won a very nice game today against joe and that's why i think that joe might be in a variable mood today wait wait wait wait wait we have oh my goodness what what am i seeing has the have the wheels come off the bus how could it be happening let's go back to the game breakfast let's go back something has happened he tricked her he put the night look at this after 96 she didn't play the move 92 or 93 and she allowed the swindle knight takes f4 i can't adam and eve it oh and after king takes f4 you don't lose a piece because of bishop h6 check king f3 and bishop takes c1 and this position is losing because the pawns are separated by three there is still there no with the extra pawns it doesn't matter if it's a queen square or not the pawns separated by three files and this is an unbelievable unbelievable moment this is why this is why you never accept a draw there is black you fiddle around for 50 moves why are you so happy about him winning i mean i'm just excited in general i'm not necessarily happy about him winning but it puts an entirely different um context and situation on the board because now uh you know um but the chances have just decreased massively fantastically no no no i mean this this is just this is just phenomenal and and and the boys they'll be watching this celebrating champagne parties at the hotel no no no not yet oh my goodness i can't believe it i actually can't believe she fell for it and she'll be she'll be sick no but she'll be sick and it's the second game it has happened it's the second game she'll be sick she's got her hand on it she can't believe it and she's wearing the mask the only good thing is she's able to hide her emotions because she'll be sick she's gonna try and play on bishop bishop g8 but now this is just the king comes to see free and it's game over yeah it's just well yeah i'd say you have to be a little bit careful i think oh so suddenly i have to be careful you are saying it's game over well it is but you have to just be precise for example if you go king d4 i go bishop h7 right and what about f4 f4 king g4 and suddenly you lose your age pawn mm-hmm but it's still winning king e3 it's still an easy win the pawns are probably probably but you know you you don't want to see ghosts i mean there's just no need to do that right so you reposition the bishop on g5 right you like put it i don't you are still not protecting both pawns right sorry after bishop g5 what is the difference i play bishop f7 let's say and after king d4 bishop g6 anyway and after f4 i have king g4 attacking the bishop ah but then the two pawns are running yeah then the two pawns are running and also i can i can also put the bishop on g3 for example yeah and then and then bring the king put the pawn on f4 and then i don't lose any pawns yeah there is no no ray of hope here no hope no hope lots of ways to win just i'll double check but it's yes just it's over wow and leandro just needs to hold his concentration just for a few more moments he does go king d4 okay he's probably seen the same variation you did he's probably seen the same variation king d4 she's gonna go bishop e6 same idea wow what a fantastic will to win i should say by leandro yeah and how he handled this it was literally the last little trick in the position the only one amazing so he has to go f he can go king e5 he might go back with the king actually get some time on the clock f4 is good enough f4 is good enough of course no he he goes back he's he's a professional player leandro you know he's just gonna double check not make sure make sure bishop g8 and now he wants to see if there's a slightly more precise way of doing it which is which is great leandro so what does that mean so if leandro wins that means the girls will only have one by one point is it is it one two two points two points plus two meaning the boys will have plus three meaning the last round the girls need seven out of ten to make a tie seven and a half huh six and a half six and a half to make a tie yeah and seven to win yeah six and a half out of ten hey that's that's that's that's let's go back to well actually no let's let's stay here because we want to see leandro and he does play bishop g5 i see somebody in the chat saying that erik and dolga should do dinner tonight well they have both missed big chances today definitely i'm again sad you know what after what i thought would be a great day for the ladies team it's still a good day but it's not a great one and now i don't know i might lose my appetite for tonight's dinner actually king d4 what yeah you're not gonna eat just why are you sad it was it could have been you're much better than than this it's still it's still good it's still good it's still good it's still action tomorrow we still got it's not an anti-climax yeah but it's gonna be tough plus plus to score plus three but actually it's what they did in the second round exactly they scored plus three with all black pieces anything is possible they might all get coronavirus tonight hold the guys yeah yeah that's chance they might all test positive okay let's not hope for that no let's not hope for that fingers crossed of course oh okay king d4 bishop e6 of course she can play bishop e6 why isn't she playing bishop e6 it's a good try yeah i mean she played it before leandro plays king c3 then she can take on f5 and it's a draw yeah so she plays bishop e6 of course i think he's gonna go back calculate you know a little bit and play f4 you i mean but you don't want to go f4 here right king g4 but still king e3 oh you just want to do it like this sacrifice the bishop and f3 f3 you cannot hold both points f2 bishop c4 and b3 yeah that's actually very simple but but she might not go for king g4 after f4 basically probably that's really maybe she can just play something like bishop f7 and wait for the king to go on c3 and then play ah it's lost but now you just go b3 yes now you can't even now you now you now you got two runners yeah it's really lost it's really lost yeah leandro does go f4 goes for it nothing to lose let's see what she does i mean yeah even even if the men's team will have a party tonight it will definitely be after the testing they won't have any parties i can tell you that look no no parties well look let's be honest for people who are just tuning in seven and a half thousand pounds if the men win for most of these players and i would actually if i had to bet none of these players have ever won seven and a half thousand no that's not true that's not the case and try not to know in the men's team ah all right in the men's team no in the also maria was world champion no no no no the women's team most of them have won that but in the men's team i don't think seven and a half they've ever won i spoke to joe gallega he's won like five thousand rosen never of course sabino maybe has i don't expect bobby has billel definitely hasn't i spoke to him jillian hasn't hussain hasn't i spoke to him and ravi has to be the biggest price and biggest price in their lives in chess half of them aren't professionals that's the other reason right right so they don't get the they don't play candidates or anything like this so it's a huge prize plus maybe a small fee when they started so it's a massive deal i mean definitely let's put things into perspective for somebody like jillian who lives in zambia i don't know how much of a yearly salary seven and a half thousand pounds is but i imagine it's a lot definitely you know it's a lot of money definitely now it will be a still of course a huge fight tomorrow but yeah the chances have decreased and the king is already on c3 and i feel gutted for olga i really do so when king c3 uh king e2 king e2 and actually i see somebody saying that being a chess player is like having an art degree yeah i could see the similarities actually yeah so b3 king d1 b2 uh bishop g6 f3 roadrunners but uh wait after f3 yeah play king e1 king e1 okay i'll go uh one last bishop f4 king oh sorry bishop e3 sorry bishop e3 sorry let me not blunder my pawn yeah bishop e3 okay bishop f5 bishop f5 okay now i will give the check king e2 king e2 and now i'll come here bishop b1 and you're gonna try and uh yeah okay and i can come around here as well that's so unlucky that i can aim for this pawn probably so okay maybe i can just do this king okay let's just stay use b1 let's say let's uh come around here king f1 okay king g2 okay now i'll come here bishop c2 and i'll now now i'll come in yeah there are probably million ways to do it but ultimately the point is you can't really not do it because you just by process of elimination right uh you get there even without the h pawns he has played king b2 which is actually probably just king b2 much better king b2 because the king wants to go to c1 oh no this is this or a one right yeah no no this is this is a game over yeah oh wow actually the girls are winning today but only with a plus two score we were hoping i mean i was definitely hoping for it to be a plus three because olga's game looked uh like it would end in a draw but then she literally felt for the only remaining trick in the game but we have to say that they were both very low on time so yeah it's a shame but that that that is why you know that's what grandmasters do they and then and then that moment where you have to find the trick and yeah this is just over for olga she she can resign now she's shaking her head gutted for her apps she put up a marvelous defense and yeah poor olga just feel gutted for her yeah she's shaking it's time time to hang up the gloves for this game it's it's there's nothing to do now huge win for the andrand huge win for okay i can say huge win for the men's team um little little win no but this win this win is just so huge yeah it gives the men an extra bit of room for tomorrow to have a mistake here are the results from today two winners for the men leandro chris are after a brutal mistake by olga winning balash chonka the most reliable guy for the men so far but look at those wins for the women yovanka winning antonette's are winning pure winning jhansaya winning right meaning after today the results are that the women have got plus two there is a three-point deficit with one game to go one round to go tomorrow so it means that tomorrow out of 10 games the women's team has to score three wins and the other games should be drawn and then it will be an even match yeah so if they get three wins it's an even match if they get four wins they win right the pairings again for tomorrow eric against iran sabino against jhansaya jillian against gunay hussein against pier and maria against billel against marie uh leandro against maria musichuk ravi against olga joe against antonetta bobby against yovanka and balash against marcelle and i wonder if now sabino is gonna talk to ravi and say hey buddy she's just played a six and a half hour game five and a half six hour because she's exhausted she's blundered twice in a row keep the game going because she's gonna be really a target yeah i believe that that might be the case and actually uh the fun is not over yet are we gonna get the team captains here i believe so yeah i i we may very well do so what we'll do is we'll take a short break and then we'll have yes we do have the team captain so we'll be back in just one minute where we'll get the reactions from both captains today about this dramatic end what an end today is round i'm out of breath right let's hear from them in a moment and we'll see you soon in a couple of minutes at the battle of the sex is uh round nine wrap up with the team captains grandmaster pia crumbling and grandmaster sabina brunello so a great a great day today by the ladies team a plus two win finally such a long awaited victory what are your thoughts thoughts about today's match oh i do it was great how the girls played so i'm very very happy and it it shows that when anta annetta has come back it has given an injection to the whole team and so yeah it's a very good match yes it's a pity we needed to make it a little bit earlier so we still have still minus free so it's still very difficult but okay we have been fighting very well today and you yourself went won a very instructive rook end game yes i mean it was uh rook endings are normal and it was a draw but probably this is just for for for my opponent to give the a pawn but black wanted to defend it and then i had more active pieces but i think that that would be the normaliest to activate the rook and let me take on a seven right uh what about your thoughts sabina how are how is your mood today your team lost by two points but you still are in the lead by three points what are your thoughts about today's match about the situation overall yes it was a very tough tough day for us i'm not very happy of course we knew it was going to be a hard round black pieces so close to the end of the tournament and yes i hope we can do better tomorrow because i think we we need to write definitely tomorrow uh the man will have all whites and the women's team will have all blacks the ladies need to score three victories a plus three score uh what do you think sabina i think it's great that leandro managed to win this final ending it's great for the mood it's an extra half point well deserved the thing because he he had an advantage throughout the game he played great chess and yes i'm very happy what about you pia what are your hopes do you think do you think the ladies can make it tomorrow we will have to try we have to play a good round and then we'll see what we will do but at least it's the situation is better than it was before so so we just can yes just try our best tomorrow and just one last question the round tomorrow starts at 11 a.m so four hours earlier than usually um what are the feelings of your teammates about this fact i didn't ask what about you pia do you think the girls will be up for for a fight so early in the day or they will have to they will have to but i think just play is normally we don't like so much morning rounds we like to have the schedule the same as every day but but this is how it is in lots of tournaments you have to play the last round earlier right so thank you very much for your thoughts i definitely hope we will see a great fight tomorrow so don't forget tomorrow 11 a.m we will have the last round of the battle of the sexes so for now thank you very much and have a nice race rest see you tomorrow thank you