WWch Rd2 tiebreaks: the hand of fate

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), 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 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 decided 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 winner if the game is drawn.

Round two - tiebreaks

The beautiful Grand Hotel Polyana where the competition is taking place
As a quick reminder, starting with an almost leisurely 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move in the first mini-match, the next, if necessary, is sped up to 10 minutes + 10 seconds and if that doesn't do it, then there are two blitz games: 5 minutes + 3 seconds per move. Finally, if the score is still tied up, an Armageddon game is used as a last resort means to decide the players' fates.

At the start of the round a certain panic spread around the room as former world champion Anna Ushenina failed to appear on time and lost the first game due to the zero-tolerance rule. 

Anna Ushenina explains with a wry smile the cruelty of fate

She had been seen at lunch a bit earlier and everything seemed fine, so what could have happened? A call to the hotel uncovered the trivial yet tragic incident that led to the forfeit of her first tiebreak game: her mobile phone had switched off, and after powering up had reset the clock back to the Ukrainian time zone, which is one hour behind Sochi. Ushenina didn't notice the difference and consequently missed the round's start.

Ushenina gets ready to battle

The Ukrainian showed up few minutes later and then patiently waited in the media room for her turn to play the second game. With white Ushenina soon achieved a significant advantage and won a pawn, but the French GM Marie Sebag Sebag defended stubbornlu and eventually earned a draw, qualifying for the next round.

Marie Sebag was not about to squander her golden opportunity and held

Another former world champion, Antoaneta Stefanova, also had no luck with white, and Inna Gaponenko easily held a draw, but she struck back in the next game as the Bulgarian pulled a powerful performance and showed the tremendous potential of the Berlin-like pawn structure. White's majority on the kingside counted for nothing and Black steamrolled the enemy's queenside, thus Stefanova made it to the third round.

Antoaneta Stefanova (left) showed how to use the Berlin to win

In her tiebreak match against Irina Krush, Harika Dronavalli started with a win. However, in the second game, she nearly botched it when she tried to exchange too many pieces with white, nervously hoping to simplify, but getting into trouble. The Indian was graced with a little bit of luck as Krush failed to find the way to increase her advantage and the game soon fizzled into a draw. 

Harika Dronavalli beat Irina Krush to go to the third round

“I made up my mind that today somehow I am going to win. I came with this idea”, Harika said after the match. She is set to play former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in the next round.

Mariya Muzychuk convincingly outplayed Monika Socko 2-0, but during the games Muzychuk
looked quite nervous. She later explained, "I was very afraid to miscalculate, to blunder
something. Also the fact that Monika had won an absolutely lost position in the first round
tiebreak also affected me."

The most closely contested was the match between Bela Khotenashvili (Georgia) and Huang Qian (China). After having drawn both their standard games, the players proceeded to draw their four next rapid games in the tiebreak, taking it to the blitz games.

Bela Khotenashvili broke the deadlock with a black victory in the first blitz game, but the
return game had everyone in the press room on the edge of their seats

The commentators Evgeny Miroshnichenko and Elisabeth Paehtz

It looked completely equal, with a symmetrical pawn structure, but Huang stepped up the pace and broke through on the queenside, winning a piece and reaching a completely won position. She had plenty of time on the clock, more than one minute compared to Khotenashvili’s meagre 20 seconds. Huang Qian was going to equalize and take the match to the Armageddon game. Suddenly, the Chinese player experienced some form of mental blackout...

Bela Khotenashvili vs Huang Qian

In this position, Black played the incredible ...Rxc3?? squandering a won game

After many adventures the game was finally drawn and Khotenashvili advanced to the third round where she will play Zhao Xue.

Report by Albert Silver and Eteri Kublashvili
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili, Anastasia Karlovich, and Vladimir Barsky

Round two results

Schedule

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.