Women's World Championship, Game 5
A fairly easy win for the champion gives her her first lead of the match.
Both players have had their troubles with the black pieces in this match, and this game was no different. Tan Zhongyi went for a Kan Sicilian today, varying from her 4…Nf6 in game 1, and was lost after just 13 moves. While I’m not a fan of her 9th move, her reaction over the next couple of moves to Ju Wenjun’s 10.c5 wasn’t very good, and she was immediately in a deep hole.
Ju’s subsequent play wasn’t perfect, but she kept a serious advantage until 16th and especially 17th moves. Had Tan played 17…Qc7 18.Be3 e5 19.f5 Nf4 she would have been back in the game and probably equalizing; instead, her 17…f5? prevented White from playing f5 but came at too great a cost. She was clearly losing again several moves later, and while she did a good job of complicating the game the champion managed to neutralize Black’s counterplay and win the game. Ju now leads the best-of-12 game match 3-2.
Here’s today’s game, with my comments.