WWch Rd1 tiebreaks: Watch the clock!

Tournament conditions

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), and other leading grandmasters. Unfortunately, the reigning champion Hou Yifan was unable to come due to personal reasons, but she will still have an opportunity to challenge the new champion in a match, as the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix.

The first five rounds consist of mini-matches of two games with 90 moves per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with bonus 30 seconds per each move. The final match consists of four games.

If the match score is tied, its winner is determined on tiebreak: two rapid games of 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move. If the score remains equal, the players proceed to another two games with a slightly faster time control – 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move. If these games do not determine the winner as well, then there are two blitz games: 5 minutes + 3 seconds per move. Finally, if the score is still even, there is an Armageddon game: White has five minutes, Black has four minutes, and a three-second increment per move after the move 61.

Round one - tiebreaks

The tie-breaks of the Women's World Chess Championship were played in SCC Galactica (Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana) on March 19. 11 pairs of players who tied their first round matches 1-1 came today to find out who advances to the next round.

The tiebreaks were thrilling and tense

The day started with two-game matches played at 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. Two of them ended with perfect 2-0 scores – Zhao Xue (China) defeated M. Zuriel (Argentina), and S. Melia (Georgia) defeated I. Sukandar (Indonesia).

When one terrible mistake changes the tide

A true chess tragedy occurred in Daulyte (Lithuania) – Socko (Poland). The Lithuanian player won the first game and achieved a huge advantage in the second one. In mutual time trouble Daulyte had a mate in one on the board to advance to the next round, however, she hung her queen instead and resigned immediately.

Daulyte - Socko

All White needed to play was 57.b6 mate! Instead she played 57.Qa5+??

This devastating blow swung the momentum completely, and Socko dominated in the following mini match, winning it 2-0.

Ju, Wenjun - Wafa, Shrook

Tactics abound in rapid and blitz. Ju Wenjun dispatched her opponent with
this shot. White to play and win.

Lujan, Carolina - Galliamova, Alisa

Though Argentina sadly lost their two qualifiers in the tiebreaks, they did
not leave without drawing blood of their own. White to play and win.

Marisa Zuriel fought valiantly to take her much higher-rated opponent to the tiebreak, but
succumbed in the end.

Galliamova, Alisa - Lujan, Carolina

It was the former Russian Champion's turn to strike, and strike she did.
White to play and win.

The two closest matches extended to blitz games: A. Goryachkina (Russia) – L. Mkrtchian (Armenia) and M. A. Gomes (India) – T. Kosintseva (Russia), but even these could not separate the players thus in both matches the spectators witnessed the ultimate game – an Armageddon. In this final breaker of ties White gets five minutes, while Black only gets four but a draw counts as a win for Black.

Goryachkina and Gomes won the drawing of lots and both picked White. Goryachkina obtained an advantage in the opening, piled up the pressure and won convincingly. Kosintseva got a very good position as Black, but then either blundered or unsuccessfully sacrificed a piece, not getting much compensation for the lost material. However, the Russian kept fighting, and eventually won on time in a hopeless position.

The last handshake of the last game. with ten seconds left on her clock, Tatiana Kosintseva
flagged her opponent in a dead lost position

Interview with Alexandra Goryachkina

After the final games of the day, press officer Anastasia Karlovich interviewed young Alexandra Goryachkina, playing her first Women World Championship.

Anastasia Karlovich: Please welcome Alexandra Goryachkina, the Russian player who just won the match with Lilit Mkrtchian. Alexandra, this is you first World Championship, what are your impressions?

Alexandra Goryachkina: Yes, this is my first Women's World Championship. I am very impressed of course. My goal was to win at least one match, and I achieved it. Perhaps I will keep moving forward.

The full interview conducted in its original Russian
AK - This was quite a hard match, you even had to play an Armageddon. What was the most difficult part?

AG - We were equal in classical games. Maybe I had some chances in the first game, but definitely not in the second one. As the time control was getting shorter, my confidence grew. However, I just could not hold as Black at all, no matter how well I played in the opening.

Losing the first blitz game was a heavy blow for me. I have a big problem with making comebacks – basically, I simply cannot come back after losing a game. However, here I somehow managed to equalize the score, with the opponent's help, of course. At some point I was a pawn down and resigned myself to losing the match, however, I got lucky again. Another lucky moment occurred during the drawing of lots in the Armageddon. My opponent had to choose the color, and she took Black. I had Black once in such situation, and it is very unpleasant, I tell you. White rules!

AK - The game itself went very easy for you – you never had a worse position. What did you feel during the game?

AG - I never had a worse position for sure, but the main factor was a very poor time management by my opponent. By the move 20 she already had almost no time left, while I had over three minutes. I even thought it didn't matter what moves I made, since I would simply flag her no matter what.

On the video feed, one could see the incomprehensible unfold. In an Armageddon game
with no increment before the 61st move, Black simply let her time run out.

AK - Who is your next opponent? Have you met her before?

AG - Anna Muzychuk. We played only once and it was a rapid game a very long time ago. Strangely, I won.

Solutions to positions:

Round one tiebreaks

Schedule

Report by Albert Silver and Eteri Kublashvili
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili and Vladimir Barsky

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.