Six White wins!

The leader, Hou Yifan, was facing a possible e3-e4 expansion and so aimed to complicate matters on the kingside. However this led to Kateryna Lahno obtaining strong threats, which then led to her opening Black's kingside. Her queen proved to be too strong for Hou Yifan's rooks.

Ekaterina Kovalevskaya chalked-up her first win after Humpy Koneru met the Russian's non-descript opening with the optimistic ...g5 followed by ...d5. This rebounded on her as the whole board opened up and Humpy Koneru's king proved to be too vulnerable.

Tatiana Kosintseva is now in second place after achieving her third win. White had the slightly better structure but, after Antoaneta Stefanova attempted to activate on the kingside, Black had weaknesses on every front. A tactical shot rapidly ended Black's resistance.

Nadezdha Kosintseva made it 2/2 for the Kosintseva sisters with a win over fellow Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk. In a complex middlegame, Kosteniuk angled to win a piece, but this led to her having kingside weaknesses which Nadezhda profited on after obtaining sustained pressure.

Elina Danielian had great activity plus the bishop pair as compensation for the pawn that she sacrificed in the opening. Lacking space, Alisa Galliamova aimed to create some freedom for her knights, and then boldly captured a second pawn, but this met with a tactical refutation.

Anna Muzychuk beat Ruan Lufei in a long Knight versus Bishop endgame. At one point, the players manoeuvred around with little progress being made, but Muzychuk found a way to grind down her opponent.

Round 9: