Two Russians in, two Georgians out

Women's World Championship Ekaterinburg, Russia, March 10–27, 2006 The World Women's Championship is being held from 10-27 March 2006, in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The knockout event has 64 participants, with reigning world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria defending her title. Click for further information.

The quarterfinal games in Ekaterinburg (photo FIDE)

Alisa Galliamova vs Nino Khurtsidze (photo FIDE)

Alisa Galliamova of Russia simply outplayed her Georgian opponent Nino Khurtsidze in both their games, fairly convincingly, to advance to the semifinals, where she will face Viktorija Cmilyte.

Aren't we Georgians supposed to win these things? Nino Khurtsidze (photo FIDE)

IM Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania

Viktorija Cmilyte vs Maia Chiburdanidze in the quarterfinals (photo FIDE)

The Lithuanian IM Viktorija Cmilyte lost her first game against veteran former women's world champion Maia Chiburdanidze in a double-rook ending, only to come back stongly in the second game after her opponent misjudged a pawn sacrifice (with 27...Nb4?) and Cmilyte was able to win the endgame with rooks and opposite coloured bishops on the board. She went on to win bot rapid games and advance to the semis.

35-year-old Svetlana Matveeva drew her first white game against 19-year-old French talent Marie Sebag, but took the second, a French Tarrasch with the black piece, to advance. Her opponent in the semifinals will be the last remaining Chinese player, Xu Yuhua, who played two draws in the regular games against Russian Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, the runner up of the 2004 women's world championship. Xu won the first rapid chess game, and came close to winning the second as well (38...Rf3 would have done it). The draw was enough to advance into the semifinals.

Top Chinese WGM Xu Yuhua (photo Pufichek)

Results of round four

• All games so far in zipped PGN

Schedule

Links

• Official web site
• Games (PGN or replayable)
• All ChessBase reports