Women's World Blitz – Gunina on fire

by ChessBase
6/4/2012 – The reigning European champion in classical chess and blitz, Valentina Gunina, has scored a stunning 8.0/8 points on the first day of the Women’s World Blitz Championship, to take a two-point lead over the rest of the field. Her nearest rivals are IM Mariya Muzychuk and GMs Nana Dzagnidze, Anna Muzychuk and Natalia Zhukova. Results, video plus part two of our Rapid pictorial.

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Women’s World Rapid Championship Pictorial

By WGM Anastasiya Karlovich (pictures: Anastasiya Karlovich, Roman Danilenkov)

Women’s World Rapid Championship 2012 was held in Batumi, Georgia from 31 of May till 3rd of June 2012. The event was organized and conducted by the ACP and the Georgian Chess Federation and approved by FIDE. The total prize fund for the rapid championship is US $59,000. The organizers also provided the special conditions for the players with the Elo of 2500+ and nominees from all national federations. As a result 50 players from 18 chess federations took part in the tournament including five former world champions Nona Gaprindashvili, Maia Chiburdanidze, Zhu Chen, Antoaneta Stefanova, Alexandra Kosteniuk, current European champion Valentina Gunina and such strong GMs as Anna Muzychuk, Humpy Koneru, Zhao Xue, Nana Dzagnidze, Tatiana Kosintseva and others. The Blitz world championship is a 15-round Swiss played at a rate of 4 min + 2 second.


The leader of the Blitz World Championship: Valentina Gunina

GM Robert Fontaine and his video producer Gérard Demuydt have castled from the World Championship in Moscow to the Women's Rapid and Blitz in Batumi. They are producing video reports and interviews after each round for the French chess magazine Europe Echecs. We are grateful to receive these reports and that they include interviews with players and personalities.

Impressions from the first day of the blitz, provided by Europe Echecs

Standings after eight rounds (of fifteen)

Rk. Title Name
FED
Rtg
Pts.
 TB1 
 TB2 
 Perf
1 IM Gunina Valentina
RUS
2530
8.0
30.0
39.0
3253
2 IM Muzychuk Mariya
UKR
2456
6.0
30.5
40.0
2638
3 GM Dzagnidze Nana
GEO
2547
6.0
30.0
41.5
2635
4 GM Muzychuk Anna
SLO
2598
6.0
28.0
37.0
2646
5 GM Zhukova Natalia
UKR
2442
6.0
27.0
36.5
2681
6 WGM Huang Qian
CHN
2417
5.5
26.5
34.5
2615
7 WGM Batsiashvili Nino
GEO
2436
5.5
23.0
29.5
2610
8 WGM Cori T Deysi
PER
2386
5.0
28.0
40.0
2608
9 GM Stefanova Antoaneta
BUL
2518
5.0
26.0
36.0
2544
10 WGM Ding Yixin
CHN
2353
5.0
24.0
33.0
2530
11 GM Kosintseva Tatiana
RUS
2532
4.5
28.5
37.5
2465
12 GM Chiburdanidze Maia
GEO
2500
4.5
27.0
38.5
2462
13 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra
RUS
2457
4.5
26.5
34.5
2446
14 IM Matnadze Ana
ESP
2446
4.5
26.0
37.0
2465
15 GM Lahno Kateryna
UKR
2546
4.5
26.0
35.0
2471
16 GM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan
SCO
2426
4.5
24.5
33.5
2442
17 GM Zhao Xue
CHN
2549
4.5
24.5
33.5
2423
18 GM Danielian Elina
ARM
2484
4.5
24.5
33.0
2422
19 IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina
RUS
2417
4.5
24.0
30.0
2496
20 IM Lomineishvili Maia
GEO
2366
4.5
22.0
28.5
2506
21 GM Socko Monika
POL
2484
4.5
21.5
29.5
2437
22 IM Paehtz Elisabeth
GER
2491
4.5
21.0
27.0
2434
23 IM Khurtsidze Nino
GEO
2456
4.5
18.5
25.5
2407
24 IM Mkrtchian Lilit
ARM
2449
4.5
17.0
23.0
2427
25 WGM Tan Zhongyi
CHN
2430
4.0
26.5
35.5
2489
26 IM Ushenina Anna
UKR
2454
4.0
26.5
34.0
2454
27 IM Melia Salome
GEO
2410
4.0
24.5
33.5
2477
28 IM Purtseladze Maka
GEO
2348
4.0
24.0
32.0
2496
29 Wang Jue
CHN
2364
4.0
22.5
31.5
2490
30 GM Harika Dronavalli
IND
2508
4.0
20.5
28.5
2341
31 IM Khotenashvili Bela
GEO
2500
4.0
18.0
24.0
2357
32 IM Gvetadze Sofio
GEO
2338
3.5
27.0
36.0
2433
33 WIM Mammadova Gulnar
AZE
2345
3.5
26.5
36.0
2425
34 IM Javakhishvili Lela
GEO
2449
3.0
26.5
35.5
2355
35 GM Zhu Chen
QAT
2491
3.0
26.5
33.5
2364
36 WGM Charkhalashvili Inga
GEO
2334
3.0
25.0
34.0
2388
37 WGM Pogonina Natalija
RUS
2447
3.0
25.0
32.0
2353
38 WIM Bezgodova Svetlana
RUS
2120
3.0
24.5
31.0
2338
39 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko
GEO
2414
3.0
24.0
34.0
2358
40 GM Cramling Pia
SWE
2478
3.0
24.0
32.0
2297
41 WIM Arabidze Meri
GEO
2351
3.0
23.5
29.5
2347
42 GM Koneru Humpy
IND
2589
3.0
22.5
30.0
2279
43 IM Krush Irina
USA
2457
3.0
19.5
25.5
2260
44 IM Klinova Masha
ISR
2318
3.0
18.0
23.5
2320
45 WGM Guo Qi
CHN
2360
3.0
17.0
24.5
2321
46 WIM Janjghava Natia
GEO
2306
2.0
24.0
31.0
2209
47 WIM Mikadze Miranda
GEO
2323
2.0
20.0
27.0
2231
48 IM Gurieli Nino
GEO
2329
1.5
18.5
25.5
2091
49 WIM Umudova Nargiz
AZE
2231
1.5
16.0
21.5
2122
50 GM Gaprindashvili Nona
GEO
2356
1.0
20.0
26.0
2083

Picture gallery from the Rapid (part two)

By WGM Anastasiya Karlovich (pictures: Anastasiya Karlovich, Roman Danilenkov)

After eleven rounds of tough and uncompromised fight Bulgarian GM and former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova became the Women’s World Rapid Champion-2012. On the last day of the tournament she made two draws against Anna Muzychuk and Harika Dronavalli and finished the tournament half a point ahead of the closest pursuers. Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk is second and Indian player Humpy Koneru placed third. See full table below.


ACP President Emil Sutovskiy and Gennady Nesis follow the final round game
between GMs Harika Dronavalli and Antoaneta Stefanova


Deputy arbiter and General Secretary of ECU Sava Stoisavljevic, assistant arbiter Stephane Escafre

WIM Anastasiya Sorokina came from Australia for the event. Being an arbiter and also a player of the national team of Australia in the past, she had stopped her arbiter and chess carrier few years ago, but decided to come back in the chess world. She started with the women world championship in Batumi and hopes to be an arbiter in other women events.


David Sturua, Emil Sutovsky (standing), Evgeniy Surov and Mark Dvoretsky,
discussing the games in the press center


Blitz match between David Sturua and Merab Gagunashvili brought a lot of attention


French reporter GM Robert Fontaine prepares his great video reports for Europe Echecs


WIM Sophie Nikoladze, press attaché of Georgian Chess Federation


Players, journalist and organizers during a night-time excursion around night Batumi.
The organizers and government of Adjara prepared many interesting excursions for participants.


Batumi's famous musical fountains...


…and another original fountain in the centre of the city


IM Lilit Mkrtchian, 2449, GMs Kateryna Lahno, 2546, and Elina Danielian, 2484, in front of...


... the Batumi Piazza, which you can explore very nicely in panorama here (very cool!)


GM Zhao Xue, 2549, Georgian IM Nino Gurieli, 2329, and WGM Huang Qian, 2417


One hour before the start of the tenth round a number of participants attended...


... a spectaculare dolphin show in the Batumi Dolphinarium


Apparently the animals are quite happy and perform their tricks with enthusiasm


Our photographer Anastasya Karlovich (and Anastasia Sorokina) at the dolphin show


Video reports from the Rapids by Europe Echecs

Press Conference with Stefanova, Kosteniuk, Humpy

Interview with Anastasia Sorokina

Remaining schedule

5 June Blitz (rounds 9-15), 15:00, 15:30, 16:00, etc... Closing Ceremony.
6 June Departure

Links

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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