Tournament conditions

The Women's World Chess Championship takes place from March 17 – April 7 in Sochi, Russia . The knock-out tournament is attended by 64 players, including the former World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), the three-time Russian champion Valentina Gunina, the World Vice-Champion Humpy Koneru (India), and other leading grandmasters. Unfortunately, the reigning champion Hou Yifan was unable to come due to personal reasons, but she will still have an opportunity to challenge the new champion in a match, as the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix.

The first five rounds consist of mini-matches of two games with 90 moves per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with bonus 30 seconds per each move. The final match consists of four games.

If the match score is tied, its winner is determined on tiebreak: two rapid games of 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move. If the score remains equal, the players proceed to another two games with a slightly faster time control – 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move. If these games do not determine the winner as well, then there are two blitz games: 5 minutes + 3 seconds per move. Finally, if the score is still even, there is an Armageddon game: White has five minutes, Black has four minutes, and a three-second increment per move after the move 61.

Round two - game one

32 participants of the Women's World Chess Championship returned today to the SCC Galactica (Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana) to play the first games of the second round.

Round two, and another nerve-wracking day

In the Russian clash between Valentina Gunina and Olga Girya a quiet opening turned into wild complications after White initiated a risky kingside expansion. Soon Gunina sacrificed a piece, playing in the style of Mikhail Tal – her sacrifice might have been unsound, but was very enterprising and led to a very sharp game. Girya did not find the correct response, and Gunina developed a winning attack.

All smiles and well-wishing on the surface between Olga Girya (left) and Valentina Gunina (right)

Olga Girya strolls between the tables, though her tranquility would soon be shattered

Valentina Gunina vs Olgar Girya

White also won in the second Russian derby – Alisa Galliamova vs. Tatiana Kosintseva. Galliamova got a small but lasting advantage in the opening, creating pressure against Black's weak pawns. Kosintseva replied with a pawn sacrifice, aiming at a rook ending with good drawing chances. However, Galliamova countered her plan, kept an extra pawn and carefully converted this advantage into a win.

Eteri Kublashvili working the shot

The ex-World Champion Alexandra Kosteinuk (Russia) defeated Shen
Yang (China) with Black pieces. In the middlegame Kosteniuk found a
great knight move deserving of the beauty prize!

Shen Yang vs Alexandra Kosteniuk

In this position, Alexandra Kostyeniuk had already built a solid advantage as
black, but after White's last imprecision, she pounces. Black to play and win.

Aleksandra Goryachkina drew against Anna Muzychuk

Victoria Cmilyte (Lithuania), playing with Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Russia), capitalized on her middlegame mistakes in the sharp Botvinnik variation.

The longest game of the day was Lei Tingjie (China) – Humpy Koneru (India): it took six
hours for the rating favorite to finally break the resistance of the young Chinese opponent.

Solutions to position:

Round two results

Schedule

Report by Albert Silver and Eteri Kublashvili
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili and Anastasia Karlovich

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.