Battle of the Sexes 2022

Although a ridiculous, contrived tournament like this one is regrettable and forgettable, it does contain a nice website with many beautiful pictures, such as this:

https://www.gibchess.com/

A much better format would have been the top ranked male players versus the top ranked female players. The tournament could be a regular, yearly event. Sure, the females would be completely devastated, but Chess aficionados would be able to gauge the progress made by the women players over time as they were continually drubbed.

Nino Batsiashvili (GEO)

Reserve Player: Nino Batsiashvili (Georgia). GM, rating 2491, aged 35. Nino had two outstanding achievements in 2015: winning a team gold medal with Georgia in the Women’s World Team Championship in China; and in December 2015 she drew with world champion Magnus Carlsen in the first round of the Qatar Masters. She qualified for the grandmaster title in 2018. She played in the four most recent Gibraltar Masters tournaments. She scored 6/10 in 2017, and again in 2018, 5½ in 2019 and again in 2020. She has a number of scalps of higher rated players, including Hou Yifan in the Isle of Man in 201https://www.gibchess.com/player-bios-20227.

vs Gillan Bwalya (ZAM)

Gillan Bwalya (Zambia). IM, rating 2410, age 33. Gillan learnt chess aged 11. He made his Olympiad debut in 2010 and scored a creditable 7/10 on board 3 for Zambia at the 2012 Istanbul Olympiad, including a win against Australia’s IM Alex Wohl. He followed this by winning the African Zonal tournament, gaining him the IM title. This qualified him for a first round pairing in the 2013 FIDE World Cup in Tromso with ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik, which was quite an experience. Since then most of Gillan’s OTB chess has been played in the growing number of tournaments held in Africa, with steadily improving results. In May 2021 he finished 5th equal with GM Bilel Bellahcene and others in the Pan-African Championship in Lilongwe, Malawi, on 6/9 behind joint winners GMs Ahmed Adly and Bassem Amin and two other Egyptian GMs. He has not played previously in Gibraltar. https://www.gibchess.com/player-bios-2022

Gibraltar Chess Festival | Battle of the Sexes 2022 round 05
A80 Dutch

1. d4 f5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 d6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. h3 h6 7. g4 g5 8. Bg3 Bg7 9. gxf5 exf5 10. d5 Ne7 11. Bc4 a6 12. Nd4 b5 13. Bb3 b4 14. Nce2 Bd7 15. Ne6 Bxe6 16. dxe6 O-O 17. h4 d5 18. hxg5 hxg5 19. c4 bxc3 20. Nxc3 c6 21. Qf3 Ra7 22. Be5 Qc8 23. Bd4 Rb7 24. Na4 Rb5 25. Nc5 Qe8 26. Qg3 Qg6 27. Qc7 Re8 28. f3 f4 29. Nd7 Qf5 30. O-O-O Qxe6 31. Nxf6+ Bxf6 32. Rh6 Rf8 33. Rdh1 Rxb3 34. axb3 fxe3 35. Bxf6 Rxf6 36. Rh8+ Kg7 37. R1h7+ 1-0
   https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2022-gibraltar-chess-festival-battle-of-the-sexes/05-Batsiashvili_Nino-Bwalya_Gillan

1.d4 f5 2. Bf4 (After having played the Dutch defense for decades I have never faced this move anywhere, at any time, in any Chess game. 365Chess.com shows over 400 games; the Chessbase database contains 287 games. Stockfish 14.1 @depth 53 considers 2 Bg5 the best move) 2…Nf6 (This, by a wide margin, has been the most often played move. The move of the Kings Knight has 271 examples in the CBDB. The second most popular move, 2…e6, shows 56 games in the CBDB. The move Stockfish considers best, 2…d6, shows only 13 games) 3. e3 (This move has been the most popular choice, with 263 games in the CBDB, and it is the choice of Deep Fritz. 3 Bg5 has been played in 217 games, while 3 Nf3, the choice of Rybka, has been seen in 185 games. There are 44 games in which 3 Nc3 has been attempted. There are three games with 3 h3; one with 3 c4. There are absolutely no games showing with the move Stockfish 14.1 considers best, 3 a3. Nor are there any games with 3 a3 at 365Chess.com. The AW has a feeling things will change after this salvo is fired…) 3…d6 (3…e6, the choice of Komodo and Fritz 17, has been the most often played move. Stockfish 14.1 @depth 42 plays the move played in the game) 4 Nc3 (Houdini would play 4 c3. The are two games with the move contained in the CBDB , both losses. Stockfish 13 @depth 50 would play the most often played move, 4 Nf3. SF 14.1 @depth 39 plays the second most often played move 4 Nc3) 4…e6 5. Nf3 (The CBDB contains only 2 examples of this move in action, but it is the choice of Fritz 17; SF 14, and SF 060720. 365Chess contains nary an example of 5 Nf3) 5…Nc6 (Three different Stockfish programs all play 5…Be7, and so should you. There are no examples of the move played in the game, which can mean only one thing: Theoretical Novelty! The only game found with the best move, 5…Be7, can be found below. The game can be located in the Chess Base Database))

GM Rameshbab Praggnanandhaa 2608 (IND) vs IM Stefan Pogosyan 2442 (RUS)
RUS-Gurukul U16 Online Battle
A80 Dutch
1.d4 f5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 d6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Nf3 Be7 6.h3 O-O 7.Bd3 b6 8.Bh2 Bb7 9.O-O c5 10.Nd2 Nc6 11.dxc5 bxc5 12.e4 fxe4 13.Ndxe4 Nxe4 14.Bxe4 d5 15.Bd3 Nb4 16.a3 Nxd3 17.cxd3 Bd6 18.Qe2 Bxh2+ 19.Kxh2 Qd6+ 20.Kg1 Rf6 21.Rae1 Raf8 22.Qe5 Qb6 23.Re2 Ba6 24.Rd1 Rg6 25.Rdd2 Rf5 26.Qh2 h6 27.h4 Kh7 28.Qh3 Qd6 29.b4 Rh5 30.bxc5 Qf4 31.Qh2 Qd4 32.g3 Qxc3 33.Re1 Qxd2 0-1