playing 1.e4 and her opponent Ruan Lufei (pictured below)
played the very solid Caro-Kann Defense (ie. 1...c6) .This was a surprise because Lufei usually responds to 1.e4 by playing 1...e5. The players then played the following moves:
2.d4 d5 3.f3
I believe this variation is known as the "Fantasy" variation. Ruan Lufei gained the advantage of the two bishops in this game on move 16. Key moments in this game occurred on:
(a)Move 24, when Ruan Lufei temporarily sacrificed a pawn.
(b) On move 26, when Ruan Lufei played an exchange sacrifice (rook for Knight).
(c) On move 27, Yifan played a recapture to go up a pawn.
(d) On move 28, when Lufei captured Yifan's en-prise bishop, which created a position of material equality on the board (both had 24 points of material).
(e)On move 30 Yifan played a check which gained her a pawn,leaving her a pawn up. Luefei then decided to exchange queens to simplify the position.
(f)On move 44 Yifan went up a second pawn in material, which was lost on Lufei's 47th move.
(g)On move 60 Yifan again went up two pawns in material,however she lost this pawn on move 66 leaving her a pawn up.On move 73 Yifan decided to sacrifice this material leaving a position of material equality. At this point the players agreed to a draw.
Here are the moves of this game which you can play through for yourself:
The second game of the World Championship will be played tommorrow (Tuesday, December 21st), with Ruan Lufei having the white pieces.
