LEI vs DZAGNIDZE – FIDE WOMENS WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 ROUND 2

Nana Dzagnidze

This game is from round 2 of the 2018 FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship. It is between Tingjie Lei with White against Nana Dzagnidze with Black.

This game features a Sicilian Najdorf. To learn more about the Sicilian Najdorf, here is the best instruction book I could find on Amazon.

Lei,Tingjie (2457) - Dzagnidze,Nana (2516)

FIDE WCC 2018 Khanty-Mansiysk (2.2), 07.11.2018

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 e5 7.Nde2 h5 B90: Sicilian Najdorf: Unusual White 6th moves, 6 Be3 Ng4 and 6 Be3 e5 [7...b5 8.Ng3 Nbd7 9.Bg5 h6 10.Be3 Bb7 11.Bd3 h5 12.Bg5 g6 13.0–0 Be7 14.a3 h4 15.Nge2 Nc5 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 1–0 (48) Dominguez Perez,L (2739)-Vachier Lagrave,M (2779) chess.com INT 2018] 
8.Nd5 Nxd5 9.Qxd5 Nc6 10.Qd1 Be6 11.Nc3 Be7 12.Nd5 Rc8 13.c3 Bg5 

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14.Bxg5N [14.h4 Bxc1 15.Rxc1 1/2–1/2 (42) Chandra,A (2490)-Swiercz,D (2636) Atlantic City 2016] 
14...Qxg5 15.Ne3 0–0 16.h4 Qg6 17.Bd3 Ne7 18.Qf3 Qh6 19.0–0 

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19...Qf4 [19...Rcd8=] 
20.Qxh5± g6 21.Qg5 Qxg5 22.hxg5 Kg7 23.Rfd1 Rh8 24.Be2 Rc6 25.Rd2 Rd8 26.c4 

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26...Rb8 [26...f5± might work better.] 
27.Rad1+- Nc8 28.g3 b5 29.b3 bxc4 

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30.Bxc4 [Don't play 30.Nxc4 Rc5+-] 
30...a5 31.Bxe6 fxe6 32.Nc4 a4 33.Nxd6 Nxd6 34.Rxd6 Rxd6 

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35.Rxd6 Endgame KR-KR 
35...Kf7? [35...axb3 36.axb3 Kf7 37.Rd7+ Kf8] 
36.Rd3 axb3 37.axb3 Ke7 38.Kg2 Rb4 39.Kf3 Ke8 

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40.Ke3 White is clearly winning. 
40...Ke7 41.f3 Rb8 42.Kd2 

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42...Rc8 [¹42...Ke8 43.Kc3 Rc8+ 44.Kb4 Ke7] 
43.b4 Rc4 44.Rb3 Kd7 45.b5 Ra4 

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46.b6 Threatening mate with b7. 
46...Kc8 47.b7+ Kb8 48.Rb6 Ra3 49.Ke2 Ra2+ 50.Kf1 1–0