The Women's World Chess Championship takes place from March 17 – April 7 in Sochi, Russia. The knock-out tournament is attended by 64 players, including the former World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), the three-time Russian champion Valentina Gunina, the World Vice-Champion Humpy Koneru (India), as well as other leading grandmasters. Unfortunately, the reigning champion Hou Yifan was unable to come for personal reasons, but as the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix she will still be able to challenge the new champion to a match.
The first five rounds consist of mini-matches of two games played at 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move. The final match will consist of four games.
In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by a series of tiebreak games: two rapid games of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the score remains equal, the players then proceed to two more games played at 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the score continues tied a final mini-match will be played of two blitz games of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move. Finally, an Armageddon game will be played to decide the winner in which White has five minutes and Black has four minutes, with a three-second increment per move after move 61. Black will be declared the victor if the game is drawn.
After a solid game with seemingly composed players, the weight of the moment began to show and it led to a game full of mistakes, imprecisions and thrilling combat. Perfection looks nice on paper, but in a spectator sport it is overrated.
The players managed to surprise each other, with Muzychuk playing a Ruy Lopez she rarely
ever does, and Pogonina playing the Breyer, a first in her career
It started with a highly theoretical Ruy Lopez Breyer, in which the players rattled off seventeen moves of theory. Well, perhaps 'rattled off' is a bit of an exaggeration. As will be seen in the game's notes, the times per move are also available, saved in the Playchess broadcasts, and several moves of well-beaten paths had the players thinking for many minutes before playing. Two, three, four, and five minutes, and while that might not seem like so much, they quickly add up. The first novelty of the game was played by Natalia Pogonina, but everything suggests it was not part of deep preparation as she labored over it for over seventeen minutes.
Pogonina played a Breyer for the first time and in a World Championship. Gutsy.
As of move 21.a5, Muzychuk made her intentions clear, by burning the queenside bridges, and the kingside attack became the only really option to play for the win. A strange 26....Nf8 by Black left the knight out of the game, and preventing the rook for taking up residence on a good defensive square, and rather than acknowledge it, it stayed they for better or for worse for the next 20 odd moves. To claim this is what caused her defeat, would be to overstate it, but it did not help.
Anna Muzychuk has been extremely supportive of her sister
The build-up of the attack was done with great care and attention, perhaps overly so, as the opportunity for more energetic measures presented itself more than once. While those using their engines for their eyes only saw question marks, for those following the drama, the question was whether Black would be able to put up a defense in time, before White finally broke in decisively.
It was hardly the most subtle approach, but Muzychuk's attack eventually became unstoppable
The question was answered with a no, unfortunately for Pogonina's many fans, as the position was already explosive and the number of winning shots threatened to outnumber the non-winners. Muzychuk launched he assault, and took home the first point.
(numbers in parentheses are thinking time in seconds):
Report by Albert Silver and Eteri Kublashvili
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili, Anastasia Karlovich, and Vladimir Barsky
| Player | Fed | Rtg | G1 | G2 | G3 | G4 | G5 | G6 | G7 | G8 | G9 | Pts |
| Pogonina, Natalia | RUS | 2456 | ½ | 0 | 0.5 | |||||||
| Muzychuk, Mariya | UKR | 2526 | ½ | 1 | 1.5 |
| Round 1 - 64 players | ||
| March 17 | Game 1 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 18 | Game 2 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 19 | Tie breaks | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| Round 2 - 32 players | ||
| March 20 | Game 1 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 21 | Game 2 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 22 | Tie breaks | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| Round 3 - 16 players | ||
| March 23 | Game 1 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 24 | Game 2 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 25 | Tie breaks | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| Round 4 - 8 players | ||
| March 26 | Game 1 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 27 | Game 2 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 28 | Tie breaks | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| Round 5 - 4 players | ||
| March 29 | Game 1 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 30 | Game 2 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| March 31 | Tie breaks | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| Rest day - April, 1 | ||
| Round 6 - 2 players | ||
| April 2 | Game 1 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| April 3 | Game 2 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| April 4 | Game 3 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| April 5 | Game 4 | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| April 6 | Tie breaks | 3:00 p.m. local time |
| April 7 | Closing Ceremony* | |
| *Closing Ceremony can be shifted to April 6 in the absence of tie breaks |
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LinksThe 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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