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7th round press conference |
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Tuesday, 04 May 2010 |
 Leader
of the Nalchik’s tournament Tatiana Kosintseva and leader of the Grand
Prix series Zhao Xue were invited to the press center today. The first
question was about their today’s games.
Kosintseva: - My opponent gave me a big surprise today in the opening by
choosing the Tchelyabinsk variant in the Sicilian defence. She never
played like that before. I opted for a sacrifice variant. She made a
strong move on 24..Крh8, and I made a mistake by playing 25.d7. I should
have played positionally after 25.f4 f6 26. fe fe. My position became
worse after 25.d7 but my opponent played wrong as well, and so the game
ended in a draw.
Xue: - I was lucky today. There was a Queen gambit accepted in the opening. The position was uncllear, nothing special.
At some point my opponent just sacrificed her queen, and that was the
wrong choice. I’m really happy because this is my first win at the
tournament.
- Tatiana, the tournament began with a silence minute: the ex-president
of FIDE, Florencio Campamanes, had passed away. Did it affect your
playing in any way?
- The news reached me just as it was announced at the tournament. It’s
such a sad thing to hear. I didn’t know him but still I’m very sorry. He
was president of FIDE for many years.
 As a matter of fact, no, it didn’t influence my play. I came here to do
my job, and it’s very important to carry on playing no matter what
happens.
- Xue, have
you ever met Florencio Campomanes?
- I’m also very upset over this. Yes, I did meet him at the men’s
team world cup in Israel in 2005, and I have a photo of him together
with our team.
- Tatiana, do you have a certain strategy of wisely retaining your
current position or are you going to play each game to win?
- I’m going to try and keep playing the same way as I’ve played so far
and give all I’ve got to win each game because the gap isn’t really
that large. I’ll try not to think about points and just play.
- Xue, do you think your win today has made you more confident? How
high do you expect to wind up in this tournament?
- I’ll try to forget about the results and simply do all I can to
succeed.
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