GM Hou Yifan’s crucial victory in the 6th game of the Women’s World Championship 2016 has helped her take a two-point lead over reigning Women’s World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk. With only four more games to go, the Chinese GM seems pretty much on the course to regain the title of the Women’s World Champion.
Game 5:
The 5th game took off with Hou Yifan opting for the Reti opening. While Hou Yifan’s intention may have been to obtain a meaty middlegame, nothing of that sort happened – a lot of pieces were exchanged and the game fizzled out to a draw on move 33.
Game 6
Everything seemed to be going well for Mariya Muzychuk as an easy draw in Game 5 was followed by an opening success in Game 6. By move 20, the Ukrainian indeed had the more comfortable position. However, she suddenly went astray and lost her advantage. From that point on, everything went downhill for Mariya as Hou Yifan started outplaying her move by move. The Challenger’s advantage soon became overwhelming and Mariya decided to call it a day on move 38.