Karpov Beats Xie in Third Encounter

Chinese Xiejun Lost 3rd Round of Chess King and Queen Competition

Russian grand master Anatoly Karpov finally eked out a victory over women's world champion Xie Jun of China in their third encounter of the six-game cross-sex chess tournament in Guangzhou on Tuesday.

Former world champion Karpov, who played to a brace of draws against double world champions Xie, won with the white pieces after a gruelling three-hour-and-forty-minute labor.

The Russian opened with the queen's pawn, and Xie Jun responded with her best strategy the king's Indian. The first eight rounds were the same as Saturday's game, finished within only two minutes.

As predicated by Xie's coach Ye Jiangchuan, Karpov had a much stronger will to win today's game. "he will try to find some change in the game to win," as the coach, Ye Jiangchuan said.

Karpov initiated an exchange of queens at in the 16th round with a same move of Qf2 again, to which Xie accepted. Hence the game was led into an endgame, a situation Karpov wanted to have as he did in the first game.

In the endgame, Karpov's white chessmen were at an obvious advantage over black and he found a solid defense on the kingside while having a powerful attack on the queenside. After his 29th ove, Xie Jun finally admitted failure seeing no chance to tie.

The pair are to continue their cross-sex battle tomorrow, the ever first kind of the chess history, in the fourth game of the tournament.