Europe's rapid and blitz champs: Muzychuk and Kosteniuk

Rapid and blitz in Monte Carlo

Monaco was host to the European ACP Women's Rapid and Blitz Championships, played between October 20th and 24th at the Novotel Hotel in Monaco. The rapid competition saw the participation of 91 women, a bit more than completed the blitz 77. The favorite in both disciplines was the current World Rapid and Blitz champ, Anna Muzychuk (rapid Elo 2594 and blitz 2663), of Ukraine, followed closely by the former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (rapid Elo 2612 and bitz 2477), of Russia.

Other notable grandmaster names included the former European Champion Valentina Gunina, Kateryna Lagno, former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova and current European Champion Nana Dzagnidze.

Almost a stone's throw from the Mediterranean Sea

The tournament was held under the auspices of the European Chess Union (ECU), however the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) increased the prize fund by € 5,000 (euro) and thus became the main sponsor of the championship. And there's a catch — only premium members (annual dues of € 100) of the ACP (functioning a bit like a players union) could benefit from the extra prize money.

The rapid tournament, including the ACP bonus yielded the following top three prizes:

1st prize: € 2,000 
2nd prize: € 1,400 
3rd prize: € 1,000 

The blitz tournament meanwhile had a prize fund of € 5,800 euro, with € 1,250 for the first place.

Muzychuk's moment

Muzychuk's impressive final tally in the rapid was 9 points out of 11 games, played at a rate of 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move for the whole game. The Ukrainian gave up four draws, against Almira Skripchenko, Marie Sebag, Monika Socko and Olga Girya — three of them coming in a row in the middle of the tournament. As a result, after the fourth draw in the 7th round, she had fallen back as far as eighth place. Valentina Gunina had leaped out to a lead with 6½ from 7 after winning her first five games. Natalia Pogonina followed with 6 points.

Alexandra Kosteniuk, started poorly. After dropping a half point against WGM Pauline Guichard in the second round, she then then lost in very direct fashion to the young and little known Estonian WIM Mai Narva, in the third round. After a further draw against Andreea-Cristiana Navrotescu and with that, Kosteniuk was already far behind in the race for the title.

Expect to hear more about Mai Narva in the near future. The 18-year-old was the U16 European champion in 2016 and won the Estonian Women's Championships in 2014, 2016 and 2017. She is now the best player in her country. Her father is a FIDE master, her mother a correspondence chess Grandmaster. Other prominent victims of Narva in Monaco were Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant and Alina Kashlinskaya. Narva finished in 20th position.

Behind Anna Muzychuk, Kateryna Lagno was second a half point back. Russian rising star Aleksandra Gorychkina, with 8 points, finished third ahead of against Pauline Guichard and Alexandra Kosteniuk. For Frenchwoman Guichard, whose starting rank put her at number 24, this is a raid success.

Standings after 11 rounds (top 40)

...91 players

All games

The Modern Pirc

The Modern Pirc is actually a mixture of the Caro-Kann and the Pirc. In many lines Black combines the ideas of the classical Pirc in which the fianchettoed bishop is important with the Caro-Kann idea to fight for the center with c6-d5.

Kosteniuk tops Russian blitz trio

Alexandra Kosteniuk was the top seed in the Rapid category, yet Anna Muzychuk won. The Blitz Championship reversed the roles. Anna Muzychuk was the Elo favorite, by some distance, ahead of Kateryna Lahno. Kosteniuk was ranked just seventh, and yet she won the title.

This time it was a 13 rounds Swiss (just two more than the rapid competition) played at a rate of 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move for each game. The top places went to the troika of Russian champions Alexandra Kosteniuk, Kateryna Lagano and Valentina Gunina.

Kosteniuk took 10½ out of 13 possible points and only dropped a single game.

Video highlights

Final Standings

All games

Rocket Repertoire: The Four Knights

Like a fine wine, the Four Knights only improves with age, establishing itself as an extremely effective way of meeting 1...e5. On the outside this opening seems deceptively quiet, yet apparently natural moves can often lead to some devastating attacks.

Live commentary

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

Links

• European Chess Union
• Association Internationale Des Echecs Francophones
• Full rapid results (Chess-Results)
• Full blitz results (Chess-results)