Georgian chess player Maia Chiburdanidze reached leadership in the 5th stage of FIDE Grand Prix which takes place in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
Chiburdanidze defeated Turkish Betul Yildiz with black pieces in the 8th round. She collected 5 points and now she is only half-point away from Indian leader Humpy Koneru who beat Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova with white pieces.
Like Maia four chess players have 5 points: Russian Tatiana Kosintseva (played draw with Chinese Yuhua Xu), Chinese Xue Zhao (was beat with black pieces by Chinese Shen Yang), Stefanova and Chinese Yifan Hou. The result of yesterday match of Yifan is not known on the official website of FIDE. Georgian chess player will play with white pieces with Yifan in the 9th round.
Other couples will look like this: Chen Zhu - Shen Yang, Munguntuul - Yildiz, Stefanova - Sebag, Kosintseva - Koneru, Xue Zhao - Yuhua Xu. Outsiders French Marie Sebag and Mongolian Batkhuyag Munguntuul held a match in the 8th round. Sebag defeated Munguntuul with white pieces.