Ju Wenjun and Kateryna Lagno, aged 33 and 34 respectively, advanced to the semifinals of the Women's Speed Chess Championship by obtaining victories in their matches against Alice Lee and Valentina Gunina on Tuesday.
While Lagno is slightly younger than Gunina, Ju got the better of a player almost 20 years younger than her in their fast-paced online chess encounter. Despite the rating difference (the world champion is clearly higher-rated than Lee), chess.com's predictions gave Lee a 55% chance of beating Ju ahead of the match. Surely, this is a justified prediction based on the players' previous performances in online blitz and bullet games - but one should never write off a competitor of Ju's calibre.
In the match against Lee, the Chinese star obtained a few remarkable positional victories in the 5-minute and 3-minute sections to get a 4-point lead going into the bullet. Still, 15 minutes of 1-minute games were left to be played, and Lee has already shown that she is capable of showing her best in high-pressure situations - like in her match against Irina Krush at this year's American Cup. Ju managed to maintain her advantage, though, drawing the final section to get a 9½-5½ overall victory in the end.
Finally, the fourth quarterfinal of the event saw Lagno and Gunina trading 3-2 wins in the blitz sections to go into the bullet with a tied score. However, Lagno was clearly stronger than her compatriot in the last 15 minutes of play, especially in the handling of the clock - perhaps the most crucial factor in 1-minute games (in this case, with 1-second increments per move).
Ju and Lagno will face off in the semifinals, and the winner of their encounter will play in the final against the winner of the Vaishali Rameshbabu v. Polina Shuvalova matchup.
5-minute game
