Georgian chess player Bela Khotenashvili (2514) successfully finished participation in the third tournament of Women’s Grand Prix Series. The tournament was held in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. Khotenashvili earned 7.0 points in 11 rounds and took the second place.
In the last round the Georgian chess player defeated Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria (2496) on the 38th move with white pieces. Harika Dronavalli of India (2475) lost to Xue Zhao of China (2579) with black pieces.
Dronavalli earned 6.5 points. Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine (2532) took the third place. She beat Guliskhan Nakhbayeva of Kazakhstan (2307) and earned 7.0 points, like Khotenashvili.
Humpy Koneru of India (2607) won the Tashkent stage. In the last round Koneru played draw with Olga Girya of Russia (2439) and earned 8.0 points.
It is worth mentioning that Koneru and Khotenashvili won the most 6-6 games.
Koneru gained 160 points. As she won the Dilijan stage too, she has 320 points and is in the first place.
Like Lahno, Khotenashvili earned 120 points. Bela won the Geneva stage and earned 160 points. She took the last place in Dilijan and earned 10 points. Overall, the Georgian is in the second place with 290 points.
Grand Prix Series consist of 6 stages and world’s 18 best women chess players are participating in it. Each of them will compete in four stages.
Here is Top 5 after two stages of Grand Prix: 1. Humpy Koneru (India) – 320 points; 2. Bela Khotenashvili (Georgia) – 290; 3. Anna Muzychuk (Slovenia) – 250 points; 4. Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) – 220; 5. Tatiana Kosintseva (Russia) – 190;
Other three stages will be held next year. On 2-14 May Khanty-Mansiysk of Russia will host the tournament. Tbilisi of Georgia will host the tournamnet from 18 June to 2 July. The last tournament will take place in Erdenet of Mongolia from 24 August to 7 September.
Khotenashvili will hold her last tournament in Tbilisi. Nana Dzagnidze will play in Tbilisi and Khanty-Mansiysk.
Nana has 220 points. In Geneva she shared the third-fourth places with Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia. In Dilijan Dzagnidze shared the second-third places with Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia.
