Hou Yifan still on a perfect score!

Kovalovskaya against Danielian © official site
Another convincing win, this time over former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, has given Hou Yifan a one point lead after three rounds. Following a day with five decisive results, Nadezhda Kosintseva and Anna Muzychuk are equal second on 2/3.

Apart from Hou Yifan, who exploited Kosteniuk's lack of a plan, the other four decisive results were with White.

Galliamova sacrificed several pawns for dangerous play and Stefanova never really solved her development problems.

Danielian had a nominal edge, due to a slightly better structure, but this was probably insufficient except that Kovalevskaya became too short of time and blundered.

Humpy Koneru didn't have a great deal, but kept plugging away and her young Chinese opponent went astray.

Muzychuk's kingside play proved to be more relevant than Lahno's chances on the queenside, and Black's king got into hot water rather quickly.

The round 3 summary:

White Rating Result Black    Rating Moves Opening
Humpy Koneru 2614   1-0 Ruan Lufei 2479    49 English Opening
Alisa Galliamova 2492   1-0 Antoaneta Stefanova 2524    29 Semi-Slav 5.g3
Alexandra Kosteniuk 2497   0-1 Hou Yifan 2575    35 QGD Ragozin
Anna Muzychuk 2538   1-0 Kateryna Lahno 2536    28 Scotch Opening
Nadezhda Kosintseva 2560  ½-½ Tatiana Kosintseva 2557    13 Spanish Exchange
Elina Danielian 2521   1-0 Ekaterina Kovalevskaya 2427    39 Tarrasch with e3

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