Lagno new World Rapid Champion

Without a moment to spare, Khanty-Mansiysk continues to host high level tournaments. The Women's World Rapid Championship has finished and it started only a couple of days after the end of the Grand Prix that wtas won by Hou Yifan. Tomorrow the Blitz World Championship will take place, also for Women, but let's take a look first at what happened in the rapids:

No event in Khanty-Mansiysk starts without a grand opening ceremony

Full of acrobats, dancers...

and singers, of course

Harika Dronavalli enjoyed the opening festivities

Everything ready for the games to start!

The format was a brutal 15-round tournament with a time control of 25+10. Many of the players were surely exhausted since they had just played in the Grand Prix and basically without rest they jumped into this tournament, but surprisingly none of them faltered and the top spots were all taken by players from the GP. Maybe practice was more important than rest?

The playing hall was a little more crowded than usual

Anna Muzychuk was one of the players that stayed for the event, she finished tied for third but fifth by tiebreaks

Many people came to watch the event, old and not so old

Continuing her string of successes: Olga Girya clinched the bronze medal

Maria Forminykh had played a strong rapid tournament
in Moscow earlier this month to prepare for this Championship

Mariya Muzychuk didn't do nearly as well as her sister, finishing at only 6.5/15

Russia's prodigy, Aleksandra Goryachkina, finished with 50%

Birthday girl! Kosteniuk turned 30 on the first day of the event.
She celebrated by tying for first, but getting second on tiebreaks.

No Rapid tournament goes without disputes...

A solid 8.5/15 for Zhao Xue, but tiebreaks did not favor her

Gunina eventually determined the winner of the event...

It was impossible to predict who would win the event. Even though Lagno started with 4.0/4 she was stopped in round five and many other players were also on fire, including Kosteniuk. In the final round the tournament could have potentially be won by any of Lagno, Kosteniuk, Girya, Stefanova or Muzychuk! Lagno had the best tiebreak, though and a win for her clinched first place no matter what, but she needed serious help for this to happen:

The first tiebreak was individual encounter, the second was amount of games won. Since Lagno (above) defeated Kosteniuk in round three she had the better tiebreak against the Russian and she won the gold medal!

Kosintseva finished with 9.5/15, better than she did in the Grand Prix for sure

"pssst, I think she blundered"

Liz Paethz, a strong Blitz and Rapid player, finished in the middle of the standings

Batchimeg Tuvshintugs was exhausted, surely, and she finished with 7.0/15

Some popular players!

Irina Krush traveled all the way from America for this, and she will return for the
U.S. Women's Championship that start on May 8th.

Had Stefanova beaten Khotenashvili in the last round she would have clinched at least third,
but that did not happen

Final Standings

Place	Name		Fed.	Total
1	Lagno, Kateryna		UKR	10.5
2	Kosteniuk, Alexandra		RUS	10.5
3	Girya, Olga		RUS	10.0
4	Stefanova, Antoaneta		BUL	10.0
5	Muzychuk, Anna		SLO	10.0
6	Kosintseva, Tatiana		RUS	9.5
7	Ushenina, Anna		UKR	8.5
8	Krush, Irina		USA	8.5
9	Khotenashvili, Bela		GEO	8.5
10	Zhao, Xue		CHN	8.5
11	Gunina, Valentina		RUS	8.5
12	Dzagnidze, Nana		GEO	8.5
13	Gaponenko, Inna		UKR	8.0
14	Bezgodova, Svetlana		RUS	8.0
15	Kashlinskaya, Alina		RUS	7.5
16	Guseva, Marina		RUS	7.5
17	Paehtz, Elisabeth		GER	7.5
18	Harika, Dronavalli		IND	7.5
19	Goryachkina, Aleksandra		RUS	7.5
20	Zhu, Chen		QAT	7.5
21	Cramling, Pia		SWE	7.5
22	Drozdova, Dina		RUS	7.0
23	Zhukova, Natalia		UKR	7.0
24	Batchimeg, Tuvshintugs		MGL	7.0
25	Muminova, Nafisa		UZB	7.0
26	Ambartsumova, Karina		RUS	7.0
27	Muzychuk, Mariya		UKR	6.5
28	Fominykh, Maria		RUS	6.0
29	Ubiennykh, Ekaterina		RUS	5.5
30	Charochkina, Daria		RUS	5.5
31	Shaydullina, Sandugach		RUS	5.5
32	Sukhareva, Evgeniya		RUS	5.0
33	Popova, Natalija		BLR	4.0
34	Sviridova, Vlada		RUS	2.0

We will bring you coverage of the Award Ceremony and of the Blitz World Championships, which start tomorrow!

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