Personally, Pogonina I trodde was in a best position in the last game, must-win situation with Black. If I were in that position, I would have all of the confidence Muzychuk was in the position to have to draw with White, so most logical is to play something extra-sharp.

Even if she did not know Muzychuk in terms of chess, in the fourth game she knew that she had to win after having some experience already playing her three times just before. I would think that if anyone is in that position, they have to go all-in and throw their dice. I werkly do not see the difference between trying to scrape a draw in a must-win position if a draw is a tournament loss. To care about rating would be my only possibility that would be the reason, and I doubt that either player would care much about rating losses in exchange for winning the final.

Is it too early to speculate on the upcoming match between Mariya Muzychuk and Hou Yifan? I can't help but wonder if there's any truth to an idea that suggests Mariya Muzychuk can't be taken seriously as the Women's Champion until or if Mariya Muzychuk validates her victory at Sochi with her upcoming match with Hou Yifan in October?

1...e5 is already a broadening of the repertoire though; I thought Pogonina was a Dragon and Benko specialist.

But that view is likely a few years out of date. I didn't have time to follow the world championship either, sadly.

DenVerdsligeRejsende wrote on 04/09/15 at 03:55:40:


But of course ...0-0-0 as a serious possibility in the Exchange by far predates Berg.  I recall Konca and Przewoznik advocating such play in a book a couple of decades ago.  Reuben Fine gave 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.ed ed 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Bd6 6.Nf3 Nge7 7.O-O Bg4 8.Re1 Qd7 9.Nbd2 O-O-O (I seem to recall Berg outplaying a younger countryman from a perhaps equal position in this line in the 2000s) as leading to equality about 70 years ago.

You mentioned the French and I was really curious to see how Mariya Muzychuk would have responded to that. I think she would have gone for the French Exchange assuming she hadn't been fully prepared to fight it out on the Winawer. Ironically, Mariya Muzychuk's choice to use the Four Knight's Scotch would have helped her had Natalia Pogonina gone for the Sicilian. I think the reason is because Mariya Muzychuk could have transposed to the Classical Sicilian line since she wouldn't have replied to Black's d6 with d4 and simply answered with Nc3. Muzychuk's Four Knight's Scotch would also have come in handy had Pogonina chose the Modern/Pirc move order as well since Nc3 transposes to the classical setup in the Pirc.

I'd like to discuss a few things about this match that recently concluded at Sochi, Russia. Congrats to newly minted GM Mariya Muzychuk on her victory to becoming the new Women's World chess champion. But my questions about the match involves the choice of opening used in the second game...the decisive one.

I was very surprised that Mariya Muzychuk chose the Ruy Lopez. Specifically I was puzzled by her decision to choose the e4 opening. It was a bold move for sure but it was also very risky. She risked facing a surprise from Natalia Pogonina who might have responded with say, the Sicilian Defense, the French, the Caro-Kann, or even the Philador or the Pirc/Modern. 

My question is this: did Mariya Muzychuk base her opening choice on psychology or an informed decision specifically chosen to deploy against Natalia Pogonina just for this match? For instance, Mariya Muzychuk could have transposed immediately to the Four Knight's Scotch Game with 3.Nc3. If she had done that I wouldn't have faulted her decision had she taken that route...because Mariya Muzychuk is known for liking to play the Four Knight's Scotch as White. But she chose the Ruy Lopez instead.

This brings up another question...specifically Natalia Pogonina's decision to respond by playing the Brayer variation. Was this opening choice just a coincidence because if I'm not mistaken...World Champion Magnus Carlsen also likes using the Brayer variation when facing the Ruy Lopez. In this case, my question about Natalia Pogonina's choice is whether or not her opening reply was prepared before the match started regardless of who she might have faced in the final?