The European Individual Women's Rapid Chess Championship was held on March 15 and 16 in the Anatolian Hotel in Gaziantep, Turkey. After day one, with six rounds of play, Nana Dzagnidze, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Tatiana Kosintseva were leading in the championship. Sensationally Turkish WGM Betul Cemre Yildiz had four points and shares fifth place. She managed to beat Nino Khurtsidze and Lillit Mkrtchian in the last two rounds and showed a 2585 performance. European Champion Valentina Gunina finished the day with 3.5 points and shared 15th place.

The second day brought the decision and saw Russian players on pedestal once again! Tatiana Kosintseva became the winner of the European Rapid Championship, and Alexandra Kosteniuk got the silver medal. German IM Elisabeth Paehtz, who defeated Antoaneta Stefanova in the last round, placed third. Nana Dzagnidze lost against Tatiana Kosintseva in the last round and shared the fourth place with Katerina Lahno, Anna Muzychuk, Nino Batsiashvili, Antoaneta Stefanova and Valentina Gunina.

Here some highlights – starting with a decisive encounter in the final round:

Here is another important final round game, one that gave German IM Elli Pähtz her bronze medal:

Here's a nice little incident from the second round:

And here's another incident from round one, involving the player who had just won the European Women's Championship in classical chess:

Top final standings (after eleven rounds)

• Full results with all 46 players here

Remaining schedule

All photos by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich, with kind permission of the TCF

Links Official tournament site Games in PGN: R01, R02, R03, R04, R05, R06, R07, R08 All games (zipped) Classical – Rapid 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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