10th European Individual Women's Championship,
Saint Petersburg 2009

The 10th European Individual Women's Chess Championship took place from March 7 – 21, 2009, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The venue was the Park Inn Pulkovskaya Hotel (Pobedy or Victory Square 1) in a huge Soviet style playing hall. The rate of play was 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move number one. The prize fund was 87,500 Euros, with € 10,000 going to the winner, € 7500 for second place, € 6000 € for third, etc., with € 1000 going to the twentieth place.

At the end of the tournament two participants were tied for first: IM Tatiana Kosintseva, Russia, and IM Lilit Mkrtchian, Armenia, both with 8.5/11 points. They were followed by seven players with 8.0 points each, and then ten players with half a point less. A number of tiebreak matches were thus required.

Tiebreaks

First of all there was a match for the Championship title between Mkrtchian and Kosintseva, with two 15 minute + ten seconds rapid chess games, followed by two 5 min. + 2 sec. blitz games if requires, and finally the dreaded Armageddon finish (White gets an extra minute but must win). The title was decided in the rapid games:

Congratulations to the new European Champion 2009 Tatiana Kosintseva

There was a seven-player tiebreak for the bronze medal, once again with knockout matches at the rate of 2 x 15+10, 2 x 5+2 and Armageddon:

In the second round the three winners were joined by GM Monika Socko of Poland, who had finished third on tiebreak points. The matches proceeded as follows:

And in the final was won by Natalija Pogonina, who thus got the bronze medal:

There was also a tiebreak for the 14th place in the next Women's World Championship. Since four players had already qualified it was between last two players who shared 7.5 points in the main event.

Below you have a link to the games of the tiebreak. Pictures are currently not available, but you are welcome to go back to our previous report, where there are enough to satisfy the heart of any chess fan.

Links Official tournament site All available games in zipped PGN (collated by TWIC) Tiebreak games The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.