"VAN" (Sports Desk - 10.09.2023) :: France was one of the first teams to secure their qualification for the Semifinals of the FIDE World Women's Team Championship, with a double victory over the home team, Poland. The first match was one-way traffic: Klaudia Kulon won again in the fourth board, extending her successful run to a remarkable 4½/5, but all her teammates succumbed against “les bleus”, leaving the score of the first clash at 3-1. Despite the pressure of being forced to win, the Polish squad played better in the second round, which was much closer, but France always had the match under control. This time, it was Klaudia who took even more risks than usual and lost her game, and with it, the match (2½-1½). France has been greatly reinforced with the incorporation of Mitra Hejazipour in the third/fourth board, and demonstrated once again to be a very competitive squad, on par with the big guns, despite the poor form of Natacha Benmesbah (1/4).
Georgia-China was probably the closest match of the Quarter Finals. In the first round, Meri Arabidze grinded her way with the black pieces to achieve a very fine victory over Kaiyu Ning, a result that was enough to give the victory to her team (2½-1½), as all the other three games ended in a draw. In the second clash, China had very good chances to hit back. While the games in the three lower boards seemed pretty equal, Yuxin Song managed to build an advantage with White against Bella Khotenashvili, and she was in fact very close to winning. However, Song let her advantage slip, and in the end, she could have even lost. The relief on the faces of the Georgians was blatantly obvious when Bella and Yuxin shook hands and signed the draw, sealing the advance of Georgia to the Semifinals.
The USA won both matches against Ukraine, on both occasions by the minimum margin. The Ukrainians demonstrated their resilience and gave the Americans a run for their money, but the USA was the better team and its victory was a fair result. Young prodigy Alice Lee drew both her games against Anna Ushenina on the first board, but the USA victory was cemented on the lower boards, where Tatev Abrahamyan and Atousa Pourkashiyan won both their games. In the second clash, Anna Zatonskih blundered still in the opening (23…dxc4?) and lost on the spot against Buksa, but this lone victory was not enough to change the fate of the qualifying.
The clash between Kazakhstan and Germany was probably the most exciting of the day. The first game between Paehtz and Assaubayeva was a relatively quiet draw in 25 moves. The exchange of blows happened on boards two and three, where Alua Nurmanova gave no chance to Josefine Heinemann, and Meruert Kamalidenova made a dubious pawn sacrifice that Dinara Wagner punished ruthlessly. With a draw on the scoreboard, everything was at stake in the second match, where all four games reached a decisive result. Nurmanova won again against Heinemann, and so did Kairbekova on the fourth board. However, the lucky Germans still had hopes for yet one more miracle, as Elisabeth Paehtz got a clear advantage out of the opening in her game against Bibisara, while Dinara Wagner was building an attack. However, the blunders caused by the time trouble struck again in the game between Paehtz and Assaubayeva, and the advantage changed sides with almost every move during the final stage of the game. In the end, it was the Kazakhstani the one who makes the second-to-last mistake, inflicting a painful defeat on Paehtz. It didn’t change anything that Dinara finally won her game.
The matches in Semifinals will be Kazakhstan-France and USA-Georgia, where none of the four teams seems to be a favourite. As in previous days, the first of the Rapid matches is played at 15:00 local time, and the second, at 18:00.
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