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Harika Dronavalli advances to the Semifinals, six other players go to tie-breaks |
 The second games of the Women's World Chess Championship Quarterfinals were played in SCC Galactica (Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana) on March 27.
Yesterday Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine), playing White, defeated Humpy Koneru (India), Zhao Xue (China) won as Black against Natalia Pogonina (Russia), and two other games were drawn – Pia Cramling (Sweden) – Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), and Meri Arabidze (Georgia) – Harika Dronavalli (India).
Today's games were extremely tense and all exceeded four hours. Natalia Pogonina finished her game first, winning on demand against Zhao Xue and extending the match to the tie-breaks. Pogonina employed the Benko gambit, which brought her many victories in junior events. Zhao Xue responded with a very solid setup, keeping an extra pawn but giving up the initiative.
On the move 23 the Chinese made a serious mistake, which was left unnoticed by her opponent. Nevertheless, Pogonina kept looking for chances and was rewarded – Zhao Xue got into the time trouble, made several mistakes in a row and had to resign.
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