A couple hearts were broken this Valentine's Day as two marathon endgames ended unexpectedly. Wenjun Ju brilliantly outplayed Nana Dzagnidze, but gave away her entire advantage with a single blunder in time pressure.
With the players fresh off a rest day, Round 6 produced two thrilling decisive games. Carissa Yip took down defending champion Valentina Gunina in a fiery tactical battle and Humpy Koneru managed to grind down Alexandra Kosteniuk in a long technical endgame.
In the bloodiest round of the Cairns Cup thus far, a remarkable five out of five games ended decisively. Every game produced intriguing fireworks as players were able to give it their all before the rest day.
With the rest day soon approaching, some players were keen on conserving energy while others were adamant about fighting until the bitter end. Round 5 produced two decisive games as Wenjun Ju defeated Valentina Gunina, and Alexandra Kosteniuk took down Carissa Yip.
Going into Round 3, the fight for first was tightly contested with four players tied atop the leaderboard. After a number of topsy-turvy battles and dramatic time pressure situations, Nana Dzagnidze emerged as the clear leader with 2.5/3.
Today’s round was filled with excitement as chess fans got to witness heartbreaking blunders, jaw dropping tactics, intense time pressure situations, and one marathon endgame. It seemed like the games produced continual drama as there were multiple unexpected turn-arounds.
At the Cairns Cup opening ceremony last night the players expressed gratitude and excitement to be part of such a strong and historic event. They promised to deliver dynamic and exciting chess for this event and maybe even produce more decisive games than the Sinquefield Cup.
