| Sep-11-13 | | notyetagm: A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou, 2013 http://www.chessvibes.com/hou-yifan... <The first game saw Ushenina fall prey to a blistering attack on her king. After a Nimzo-Indian, White's queenside pawns and activity were both stifled. Later, White's army huddled on the home rank. By the time they were freed, Black's activity, punctuated by a devastating knight sortie to f3, was too much. Ushenina resigned one move before being checkmated.> |
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| Sep-11-13 | | amosianboy: Good game by Hou. |
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| Sep-11-13 | | John Abraham: What a terrible game by Anna, all white's pieces in the final position are terribly uncoordinated. Despite being 9 years older than Hou and being born in the Soviet Union, Anna once again (and probably not for the last time in this match) demonstrates her lack of knowledge and experience and the superiority of the Chinese school over the Russian school of chess. But this is no surprise when most Chinese athletes in the Olympics are underaged and abused as children |
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| Sep-11-13 | | Kikoman: Bravo Yifan Hou! :D
nice start! |
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Sep-12-13
 | | JointheArmy: <the superiority of the Chinese school over the Russian school of chess.> What??
Ushenina is Ukrainian not Russian.
Not to mention, Russia wins and they don't even send their A team. You can even argue they didn't even send their B team. A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou, 2013 |
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| Sep-12-13 | | Kanatahodets: Join; what a senseless talk. Who don't send A or B team and where? Who wins and where? China has more top rated players than Russia in top 10 - 3 vs 1 see http://www.2700chess.com/women |
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| Sep-12-13 | | Kanatahodets: John, what an empty and senseless topic. Who is abused? Who is under-aged? Do they follow the rules? Where are proofs? All are just stupid speculations. |
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| Sep-12-13 | | xanadu: In my opinion, Ushenina should avoid this kind of openings, where the strategy (fighting for the center) is superpossed with several tactical shots using open diagonals and columns by Black. I should choose a closed Queen-pawn, semislav or any other Q-pawn opening but not Nimzo. In fact, Ushenina had several bad results using Nimzo and few wins. Moreover, 10Nb5 has not been explored very much and with bad results for White. The novelty of Hou 13...d6 seems interesting since prepare the advance of central pawns, driving the game towards the favourite side of Hou: tactics. Ushenina should avoid tactical complications in the midddle game, closing the center, and wait for the moment when Hou try to force the position in an excess of optimism. |
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| Sep-12-13 | | dx9293: It is clear from the ChessVibes report <notyetagm> referenced, that they didn't watch the game as it happened (as I stayed up to do) and just made comments based on the moves themselves. Hou was in some trouble in this game. Not to say she would have necessarily lost, but she was in an unpleasant situation. The problem was that starting at move 12, Ushenina began using unreasonable amounts of time for nearly every move, so that by the time the critical 26th move came about, where she had the chance to obtain a  advantage, she had less than five minutes left until move 40. You saw what happened after that.
<John Abraham>'s comment is completely wrong on so many levels. Of course Ushenina's pieced were scattered at the end of the game. That happens to the loser of nearly every chess game! If anything, I think this game showed that Ushenina has <more> chess understanding than does Hou, but Hou is the more talented player (though she is not a genius). The Chinese School of Chess has come a long, long way since Liu Wenzhe vs. Donner in the Buenos Aires 1978 Olympiad, producing several world-class players. I am huge fan of Ding Liren's chess, actually, and love how he plays. But if anyone thinks the Chinese School is superior to the Soviet School of Chess (where Ushenina's trainers received their chess education) they're living in a dream world. Ushenina's team of Khalifman, Korobov, Krugovoi, and I don't know who else is better than whoever Hou Yifan has from China, I can guarantee you that. <xanadu> I think Ushenina's highly experienced team knows better than any of us what openings she should be playing... |
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| Sep-12-13 | | kupton: All of blacks active pieces were on the white kings side at the end of the game. All of whites were in no mans land. |
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| Sep-12-13 | | xanadu: It is also harder for Ushenina to calculate tactical variations, so she finally gets into time trouble. |
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| Sep-12-13 | | xanadu: dx923: but it does not forbid to make critics. Otherwise, critics (well intentioned I mean)could not be done in any field. For instance, you could say, by analogy, that "Obamas´s experienced team knows better than any of us what to do about invading Syria or no" |
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| Sep-13-13 | | dx9293: <kupton> Of course, that's what happens in a chess game between the winning and losing side. It's nothing particular to just this game. <xanadu: It is also harder for Ushenina to calculate tactical variations, so she finally gets into time trouble> I agree with this completely. Hou is the more talented player; Ushenina knows this, it's why she was working 6-8 hours daily training for this match. That's why I think her opening choices in the first two games were good: both ended up in positions with a Boleslavsky hole (e4 vs. d6-e5), which tends to more strategic play. Alekhine was more talented than Euwe, but Euwe was better prepared in the openings in their matches and this was often too much to overcome for Alekhine. It is nearly impossible to always overcome a situation in the opening, if you are facing someone only a little worse than you. Gelfand managed to deal with the "talent gap" rather well in his match with Anand, and outplayed Vishy in the tiebreaks too overall. But the difference in playing (talent) eventually showed itself in the faster time controls. Ushenina needs to continue playing the same way she has in Games 1 and 2, but she needs to bail out and steer the game towards a draw at the first sign that the TYPE of position arising is likely to better suit her more talented opponent (i.e., tactics predominate). It's why there were so many short draws in the Gelfand match...many spectators hated it, but it was the ONLY WAY for Gelfand to have a chance to win. He lost Game 8 because he loosened up the play when he thought Anand was off-form to try to get a 2-point lead to ride to the title. When Anand showed that his tactical sharpness was intact, Gelfand did not take such risks again. |
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Feb-28-20
 | | WTHarvey: Ends with a Black mates in 3.
click for larger view40. …? |
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Aug-30-24
 | | Honza Cervenka: This game was not so bad from Ushenina's part. In fact, from the opening to the early middlegame she had the upper hand, for example 26.Nxb5 Qxb5 27.Nxe7+ Kh7 28.Nd5 was a chance to secure significant advantage of white. She apparently lost the thread of the game after the 30th move, tempting 31.Rc7 was a mistake just helping black to develop her KS attack, after 31.gxf4 Bf5 32.Qb2 Rxe3 33.fxe3 Bxc2 34.Qxc2 exf4 35.exf4 Qe3+ 36.Kh1 white seems to be OK, and 34.Qc2 was a howler inviting obvious 34...Bf5 with decisive advantage (34.Be4 was still playable). |
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Kibitzing
sac: 39...Qg6