Round 4 Women's event at the 42nd Chess Olympiad

the pairings in fourth round resulted in interesting matches involving strong teams. ukraine, serbia, russia , kazakhstan remained teams 4 match victories. russia narrowly beat hungary on top match board draws on first 3 boards , single win natalija pogonina on anita gara. game on first board between hoang thanh trang , alexandra kosteniuk may have directly affected match outcome russian closely escaped inferior position pawn down in endgame. on second match board, ukraine faced france, had arrived @ chess olympiad without top 2 players marie sebag , almira skripchenko. french team additionally weakened match, because highest rated player in tournament sophie milliet given day off. under these circumstances, ukrainian team snatched convincing 3½-½ victory wins muzychuk sisters , natalia zhukova on first 3 boards. serbia , kazakhstan started tournament 27th , 31st seeds, respectively continued perfect match score in fourth round join ukraine , russia on top. serbia s jovana rapport lost pia cramling on board 1 teammates dominated on other boards give team 3-1 win against sweden. kazakhstan closely won clash lithuania 2½-1½.

following surprising tie vietnam in previous round, chinese team bounced minimal win against latvia wins white pieces ju wenjun against laura rogule , guo qi against elina otikova. however, biggest attention in match , perhaps whole day overall attached first board, current minister of finance of latvia dana reizniece-ozola outplayed current women s world champion hou yifan. world champion out of inertia , committed herself mistakes brought hopeless position, leaving opponent kingside attack not stopped (see diagram). prior olympiad, latvian modestly commented in interview chances @ olympiad:

what can expect it? have shoot stars moon. however, objective assessment of situation we’re not ready win medals, we’ll work common goal – represent latvia strongly, sincerely , vigorously. remember rule doesn’t disappoint: if you’ve done in power, deserve fortune.

in other matches contested teams had perfect match scores in first 3 rounds, india unexpectedly drew israel azerbaijan-1 romania, leaving 4 teams unbeaten after 4 rounds.