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fourth round review by IM Elisabeth Paehtz |
 The quarterfinal was one of the most crucial rounds of this tournament. With Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk the last two top favorites had to leave the tournament.
However this I would not even consider the only surprise of that round. The last remaining Russian hope Natalia Pogonina managed to strike back with black pieces in her classical game and eventually kicked out the last and by-the-way her third Chinese "victim" of this championship - Zhao Xue.
The only girl which escaped the tiebreak was Harika Dronavalli from India who was able to beat her opponent, and so far one of the biggest phenomenons of this tournament, Meri Arabidze from Georgia.
There is only one girl of the top 15 remaining in this tournament - Marya Muzychuk - the younger sister of Anna. She had the toughest pairing of this round, facing Indian top seed Humpy "the unbeatable" Koneru, who won up to that moment, frankly speaking, all her games in a very convincing manner!
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