The second round review by GM Ilya Smirin |
In the second round of the Women’s World Championship the pairings were more evenly matched and the quality of play visibly improved. Among the first games only 5 out of 16 were decisive - in this sense it looked more like a men's super-tournament!
There was interesting development in the first clash of two friends and strong Russian grandmasters - Valentina Gunina and Olga Girya. In this innocently looking position Valentina Gunina played the provocative.
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