This traditional French rapid festival starts today. There main event is a 16 player affair that is broken into two groups of eight for all-play-all prelims. The top four then match up with the top four from the other group in two-game elimination matches. Time control in all games is 25'+10". Blitz tiebreaks are used in both the group and elimination phases. The official site has a live games page I haven't had much success with so far. Radjabov and Harikrishna won their first games. R1 results are appearing here.
The three teen wonders are in action. Radjabov, Carlsen, and Karjakin. The field also includes Bacrot, Harikrishna, Volokitin, and the latest Indian wonderboy, Parimarjan Negi. Did I forget to mention Cap regular Anatoly Karpov? There are also six female invitees, including Kosteniuk and Koneru, although it will be an upset if any of them make it to the knock-out phase. My ear-pulling pal Almira Skripchenko is one of them, however, so root for an upset.
I will always root for Almira, who was supposed to be my wife, but something went wrong somewhere along the line....
Zhao Xue beat Karpov in the second round. Nat blundered a back-rank tactic and lost a pawn.
[Event "7 Cap d'Agde Groupe B"]
[Site "Cap d'Agde FRA"]
[Date "2006.10.27"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Karpov, A."]
[Black "Zhao Xue"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E05"]
[WhiteElo "2668"]
[BlackElo "2467"]
[PlyCount "132"]
[EventDate "2006.??.??"]
[EventType "rapid"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8. Qxc4
b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bd2 Be4 11. Qc1 Ra7 12. a4 b4 13. Bg5 c5 14. dxc5 Rc7 15.
Bxf6 Bxf6 16. Nbd2 Bb7 17. Nb3 Nd7 18. Qc2 Qa8 19. Ne1 Bxg2 20. Nxg2 Nxc5 21.
Nxc5 Be7 22. Qb3 Rxc5 23. Rac1 Rfc8 24. Rxc5 Bxc5 25. Nf4 Bd6 26. Qd3 Be5 27.
Rb1 Bxb2 28. Ng2 Bc3 29. Ne3 Rd8 30. Qc4 Qc8 31. Qe4 h6 32. h4 Rd2 33. Kf1 a5
34. g4 Qc7 35. Qa8+ Rd8 36. Qe4 Qh2 37. h5 Bf6 38. Qf3 Qe5 39. Kg2 Qc5 40. Qe4
Rb8 41. Rb3 Bd4 42. Nd1 Rc8 43. Rd3 Bf6 44. f4 Qc2 45. Kf3 Qxa4 46. Nf2 Qc6 47.
Qxc6 Rxc6 48. Ne4 Be7 49. Rd7 Kf8 50. Ra7 Bd8 51. g5 b3 52. Ra8 Ke7 53. Ra7+
Rc7 54. Rxa5 Rc3+ 55. Nxc3 Bxa5 56. Na4 Kd6 57. Ke4 Kc6 58. Kd3 Kb5 59. Nb2 Kb4
60. Nc4 Bd8 61. gxh6 gxh6 62. e3 Bf6 63. e4 Bc3 64. Nd6 f6 65. Nf7 Ka3 66. Kxc3
b2 0-1
Amazingly, no one scored 2/2. Three of the ladies started 0/2, including femme favorites Koneru and Kosteniuk (who was killing Negi but lost her way and the game. 26..Rxe4! wins a piece). The former lost to Skripchenko in the second round.
I think Zhao has 2/2 after beating Skripchenko and Karpov.
Yes, you're right. Database has her name spelled two different ways.