It appears our Chinese heroine is having an uphill battle just to stay alive (at least according to Susan's Blog entry).

GM Kosteniuk (2510) - GM-elect Hou (2557) [B45]
WWC - Nalchik, 14.09.2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Be2 Be7 8.0–0 a6 9.a4 0–0 10.f4 Qc7 11.Kh1 Bd7 12.Nb3 b6 13.Qe1 Bc8 14.Qg3 Bb7 15.f5 Kh8 16.Rad1 Rae8 17.fxe6 fxe6 18.Qh3 Bd8 += 19.Nd4 Nxd4 Black has 3 choices here. The one Hou played or Qe7 or Bc8. The one Hou played is fine.

20.Rxd4 This is a dangerous position for Hou. She seemed to have difficulties coming up with the right plans in complicated middlegames in the first 3 games. Black is spending quite a bit of time here.

20...e5 Another option is 20.Rf7 or 20...d5 which is riskier.

21.Rc4 Qb8 21...Qf7 is also playable. Even though White is a little better due to better space advantage, there are still plenty of play left in this game.

22.Rd1 Black can make things complicated now with 22...b5 23.axb5 axb5 24.Nxb5 Nxe4. Black is down by about 16-17 minutes on the clock.

22...b5 Hou was spending a lot of time for this move. She is trying to complicate things since she needs a win. White has no choice but to capture.

23.axb5 axb5 White has 2 choices: 24.Nxb5 or Rb4

24. Nxb5 Nxe4 25. Bd3 Nf6 26. Rh4 e4 27. Be2 Bc8 += 27...Ba6 is also playable. If White plays 28.Qg3 then Ba6

28.Qg3 Another fine option would be g4

28...Ba6 29.c4 Bxb5 30.cxb5 += Bb6

Thanks to Chessbase I'm still on the road but getting a major update on the WWCC. It's now round five and the stars of the show are Alexandra Kosteniuk and Hou Yifan. Yifan is doing great against Humpy Koneru and no matter who Alexandra's opponent is she owes the success to me.

That's right ... I gave Alexandra some advice around round 2 or 3 and she's following it. Can't guess what my advice was? I told her to quit talking to strange people on facebook and focus on winning the championship. She apparently took that advice because I haven't seen her on facebook in awhile ... she'll owe her success to me.