Evgenij Miroshnichenko (born 28th of December 1978), or "Miro", as he likes to be called, is international Grandmaster since 2002, two times Ukrainian Champion (2003 and 2008) and a winner of numerous international tournaments. Growing expert of women chess, as you can remember his reports and comments during the World Women Team Championship, 2012 European Womens Individual. Also 2012 Chess Olympiad and many others. Evgenij is going to provide us with analysis of the most interesting moments happened in the games during the WJCC as well.

You can follow his comments below;

I wonder what kind of tournament that is!? They don’t waste any time for warming-up but prefer to battle each other right from the start, and it becomes harder and harder for me to predict who’s going to finish on pedestal. Well, you’d say it’s still 11 rounds to go (and you’ll be absolutely right!), but let me try to explain what I mean – it looked much easier to me before the start – ratings, titles, everything in order. But after just a couple of starting rounds I can assure you – rating are irrelevant, the same are titles, and sometimes it looks like objective quality of play is not what exactly matters… It’s a will to win, readiness to take risk and even gamble sometimes (some luck of course is needed), and an ability to withstand the rising tension round after round till the very end – that’s what makes U20 World Champions. Let’s see what happened in the second round, and I promise you a lot of excitement!

Martinez, Romero Martin - Ipatov, Alexander

Another example of creative chess executed in style by defending U20 World Champion. I have to admit suspicious opening choice albeit it worked quite well in this particular game. 1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Nc3 e6 



4.h4?! Unusual (not to say weird) to see rook's pawn move as early as at move 4, especially taking into account Black didn't even play g6. 4...Bb4 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Bg5 [In case of 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 d5 (I suspect this is the move Alex planned to play) 8.e5 Qd7 play transposes into French defense-like position. White should be better with the precise play, although Black's counterchances shouldn't be underestimated.] 6...Be7 7.Nf3 h6 8.Bf4 Nf6 9.e5 Ng4 



New era chess - no center, no development - Black doesn't care much! After all, chess is a game of calculations. :) 10.h5 Hoping to win the knight on g4. 10...d6 11.Qe2 Qd7 12.0–0–0 0–0–0 There might be slight improvements here and there on both opponents play, but at least previous sequence of moves looks consistent. Now it was a moment to develop initiative, but White comes up with the wrong choice. 13.Nh4?! [Black would've regretted his opening experiments after the correct 13.Bb5! with a terrible lot of threats. Actually an engine claims 13...a6 to be the best move there, so you may easily guess I wouldn't recommend this set-up for Black. After 14.Bxa6 Bxa6 15.Qxa6+ Kb8 16.exd6 Bxd6 17.Bxd6 Qxd6 18.Nb5+- Black's suffering shouldn't last for long.] 13...f5 14.Bb5?! Bad plan is better than no plan, but mixing two plans together is worse than no plan at all! White had simply overlooked the tactical trick by playing this and (especially) the next natural moves. 14...Bxh4 



15.Rxh4? The real mistake, after which White's position could hardly be saved. [Much more complicated would've been 15.d5! Nxf2 (15...exd5 16.e6 Qe8 17.Rxh4 d4 18.Rxg4 fxg4 19.Nd5 is quite messy as well, but I'd prefer White to be honest.) 16.dxc6 Bxc6 17.Bxc6 Qxc6 18.Rxh4 Nxd1 19.Nxd1 d5 and it's not obvious that Black has something serious there. ] 15...dxe5 16.Bxe5 Qe7! Nice intermediate move, unpinning the knight. 17.g3 Ncxe5 18.dxe5 Qc5! 19.f4 Rxd1+ 20.Nxd1 Qg1?! Wins the game in fact, as White panicked and gave up the material, but in reality Black should've preferred [20...Rd8 bringing the last piece into action. White's rook on h4is still out of play, so Black's win is just a question of time.] 21.Rxg4? [Much more stubborn would've been 21.Qf1 Qxg3 22.Rh3 Qg2 23.Qxg2 Bxg2 24.Rg3 Bb7 25.Ne3 Nxe3 26.Rxe3 with some chances to survive.] 21...fxg4 22.Qxg4 



22...Rd8 The rest is clear - Black has not only extra exchange, but continues his attack. 23.Qxe6+ Kb8 24.Qg4 Qd4 25.Bd3 Be4 26.Qxg7 Bf3 27.Qe7 Rg8 28.e6 Rxg3 29.f5 Qf4+ 30.Kb1 Rg1 31.a3 Rxd1+ 32.Ka2 Bd5+ 0–1

Turkish youngster Cemil Can Ali Morandi had no difficulties to achieve a draw against one of the top seeded Nils Grandelius from Sweden; nevertheless I have to admit his quite modest opening choice against Berlin defense.

Chinese Yu Yangiy looks unstoppable so far as today he scored a nice victory.

Yu, Yangyi - Sunilduth, Lyna Narayanan



24.g4! Starting decisive attack on Black's king. 24...fxg4 25.Rxg4 Qd7?! [Was it good or bad, Black had to try 25...Bxg4 26.Qxg4 albeit it's hard to believe White won't find something decisive with such a concentration of forces.] 26.Rfg2!? [26.Rg6! followed by Rfg2 would've finished the game quicker, as 26...Bf5 runs under 27.e6! Qe7 28.Bxf5 Rxf5 29.Rfg2+-] 26...Rf7 [Once again the position after 26...Bxg4 27.Rxg4 is not attractive for Black whatsoever, but in the game White has the same attack for free!] 27.Ne4 [27.Rg6!?] 27...Bxg4 28.Rxg4



28...Rbf8? Missing White's next move. [Black's last chance was 28...Kf8 , although after 29.Ng3 Re8 30.Qe4! White's attack is hardly stoppable.] 29.c5! Ba7 30.Nf6+ Rxf6 31.exf6 Rxf6 32.Qe4 Now it's all over. 32...Bxc5 33.Qh7+ Kf8 34.Qh8+ Ke7 35.Qxg7+ 1–0

Best junior from UAE Salem AR Saleh so far shows very convincing play with a perfect score after two rounds. Here is an example:

Kurayan, Ruslan - Salem, A.R. Saleh



With a pair of bishops and a flexible central pawns formation Black certainly has compensation for a minimal material loss, but not more than that. 24.e4?! Strange decision to open up the position for opponent’s pair of bishops. I'm not quite sure about White's intentions at that moment, but he could've tried [24.N2f3 Re4 25.Nd2 with a possible repetition of moves.] 24...Rb8! 25.b3 Rbe8 26.exd5 cxd5 27.N2f3 a5! Calmly increasing influence on the queenside as rook on e5 is untouchable. 28.h3 [28.Nxe5+ fxe5 29.Kf3 exd4 30.Rxe8 Bxe8 31.cxd4 Bxd4 was obviously bad.] 28...Re4
 


29.g4? [29.Nd2!? R4e5 30.N2f3 would've forced Black to look for some more sophisticated way to improve his position.] 29...c5 30.Nc2 Bc6 Everything is ready for decisive breakthrough! 31.Nd2? [White had to play 31.Rhf1!? d4 32.Nd2 Rf4+ (Perhaps more chances is offered by 32...Rxe1 33.Rxe1 Rh8 , keeping a pair of rooks on the board.) 33.Kg3 Rxf1 34.Nxf1 Rxe1 35.Nxe1 dxc3 , where Black is obviously better but it's hard to say if it's enough for a win.] 31...Rf4+ 32.Kg3 Bc7 33.Rxe8 Kxe8 34.Re1+ Kf7



35.Ne3?? Final blunder in a bad position, as [35.Kg2 d4+ 36.Kg1 dxc3 37.Nc4 Be4 is winning for Black as well.] 35...Rf1+ 0–1

In girls section both top seed Alina Kashlinskay and Deisy Cori slowed down a bit by making draws (without much chances to win, at least it looks like), so one of the leaders became 15 years old Alexandra Goriachkina from Russia. She played quite tough game and had to overplay her opponent deep in the endgame

Goryachkina, Aleksandra - Enkhtuul, Altanulzii



Despite being two pawns up, White's task is not absolutely easy as black pieces are very active and the knight is known to be a tricky piece! 55.a4!? White correctly guessed she has to do something about Black's strong pawn formation in the center, but picked up not the most precise way to do so. [White misses nice tactical trick - 55.h6! Nxh6 56.Rxc5!+- Rxc5 57.Bxd4+ with an easy win.] 55...d3 [55...Rxa4!? 56.Rxc5 Rb4 57.Ke4 (57.Rc6+ Kg7 58.Ke4 Rxb2 59.Bxd4+ Nxd4 60.Kxd4 is drawish, as you may check with tablebase.) 57...Nd6+ 58.Kd3 Nf5 59.Rc2 and White still has to work to get the full point.] 56.Rd5 Rxa4 57.Bxc5 Rc4 58.Bb6 Nh4+ A start of nice tactical equilibristic, where both sides were quite inventive, although the result remained the same. 59.Kg4 Ng2 60.Rxd3 Rxf4+ [60...Nxf4? 61.Bd4+] 61.Kg3 Ne1



62.Rd1 [Stronger was 62.Rd6+ Ke7 63.Kxf4 Kxd6 64.h6 and the pawn promotes.] 62...Re4 63.Bd4+ Kg5 64.Bc3 Nc2 65.Rd5+ Kh6 66.Bd2+ Kg7 67.Rd7+ Kg8 68.h6 Nd4 69.h7+ Kh8
 


70.Rxd4! Makes the life easier! White would still win after 70.Bc3 , but stalemate ideas would allow unnecessary complications: 70...Re3+ 71.Kf2 Rf3+ 72.Ke1 Re3+ 73.Kd1 Rd3+ 74.Bd2 and Black loses the knight.(74.Kc1?? Rd1+ is what I mean talking about complications :)) The rest wasn't totally essential... 70...Re8 71.b4 Kxh7 72.b5 Rb8 73.Rb4 Kg6 74.b6 Rb7 75.Be3 Kf5 76.Rc4 Re7 77.Bf2 Rb7 78.Rc7 Rb8 79.b7 Ke6 80.Ba7 1–0

Another example of how exciting women chess can be:
 
Bulmaga, Irina - Rakhmangulova, Anastasiya

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 g6 6.g3 



6...Bg4?! Strange mixture of two plans in the opening which is already known to be dubious itself - definitely a bit of too much, and that was more or less confidently proved by Irina Bulmaga. [Usual is 6...Bg7 ] 7.Bg2 Nc6 8.0–0 0–0–0 9.d5 Nb4 [9...Ne5 was bad as well in view of the following line 10.Bf4 Nfd7 (10...Nxf3+ 11.Bxf3 Bxf3 12.Qxf3 e5 13.dxe6 Qxe6 runs under the nice combination - 14.Nb5 Nd5 15.Nxc7 Nxc7 16.Bxc7 Kxc7 17.Qc3+ Bc5 18.Qxc5+ Kb8 19.Rfe1±) 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Bg7 13.Bg2 with stable advantage for White.] 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Qxf3! Qa6 [11...Nxc2 would've opened the c-file for white rook - after 12.Bf4 Qa6 13.Rac1 Black's position is falling apart.] 12.Bg5 h6 13.Bxf6 exf6 [13...Qxf6 Wouldn't be much better, as after 14.Qe4 Na6 15.Nb5 Kb8 White has 16.Nxc7! , getting decisive advantage.] 14.a3 Nxc2 15.Rad1 Now the knight on c2 is trapped and it's just a matter of time to win it. 15...Re8 



16.Bh1!? I'd say a bit artificial but nice move - white avoids fork from e1 in case of Rd2. [Actually 16.Ne4 would do the same job much easier, of course if White would've seen 16...f5 17.d6! which is crushing - 17...Bxd6 18.Nxd6+ cxd6 19.Rc1+-] 16...Bc5 17.Rd2?? Offering opponent sudden chance to escape! [Still thematic 17.d6 was winning on a spot - 17...cxd6 (After 17...Bxd6 Black loses control over d4 square, and therefore the knight after 18.Rd2+-) 18.b4 Nd4 19.Qxf6 Bb6 20.Rxd4+-] 17...Nd4?? Returning the favor, which is quite surprising as by playing Scandinavian defense one should accept the fact he supposed to take chances :) [17...Ne3! would be an unpleasant surprise fro White, where the best move is hard even to consider - 18.d6!! Qxf1+ 19.Kh2 Bxd6 20.Qxb7+ Kd8 21.Nb5 Qc1 only move, as White was threatening Qc7. 22.Rxd6+ cxd6 23.Bc6 Nf1+ 24.Kg2 Ne3+ with perpetual.] 18.Rxd4 Now White is winning again. 18...Bxd4 19.Qg4+ f5 20.Qxd4 Qb6 21.Qxb6 axb6 22.Rc1



White's position looks winning with the precise play. Perhaps at later stage Black could put some better resistance, but anyway she has already spoiled her best chance. 22...Kd7 23.Bf3 Re5 24.h4 g5 25.Bh5 Rc8 26.Bxf7 Rf8 27.Be6+ Kd8 28.f4 Re3 29.Kf2 gxf4 30.gxf4 Rh3 31.Rg1 Rxh4 32.Rg7 Rxf4+ 33.Ke3 Rc4 34.Rd7+ Ke8 35.Kd3 Rc5 36.b4 1–0