Anna Ushenina is New Women's World Chess Champion

After a 2-2 deadlock in the normal games, the stage was set for an exciting finale in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia and Ushenina came up triumph winning the second game under rapid time control after the first game had ended in a draw. The Ukrainian won 60000 USD for her efforts in the championship and gets to play the next World Championship against Yifan Hou of China next year as part of the new cycle in the women’s World Championship.

The 64-players championship ended in a tie-break much like the men’s World Championship earlier this year where Vishwanathan Anand won defeating Boris Gelfand of Israel in the rapid tie-break. The Indian challenge in the championship had lasted till the semi-finals where D Harika went down to Stefanova after an intense struggle.

Speaking about the match, Ushenina did not mince words while calling it a gruelling schedule. “The match was very interesting, but we were clearly tired and made many mistakes. In the third and fourth games we exchanged blows -- first I took the lead, then Antoaneta equalised the score. In the first tie-break game white stood better, but I held a draw. In the second game black was slightly worse, but Antoaneta was very short on time, defended inaccurately and gave me a chance to win,” said the new women’s world champion.

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Harika Exits World Chess Semis in Khanty Mansiysk after Great Show

KHANTY MANSIYSK (Russia): Grandmaster D Harika bowed out of the world championship after playing a draw in must-win second game with former Bulgarian world champion Antoaneta Stefanova in the semifinals, which she lost 0.5-1.5.

 

After losing the first game of semis as black, the Indian was under tremendous pressure to score a comeback victory and the situation did not help as Harika could not find anything worthwhile and stood worse when she signed the peace in the return game.

However, this was the best ever performance by Harika who had made it to the quarterfinals in the last championship. For her efforts, Harika will take home a prize purse of $16000 after FIDE's 20% deduction apart from some hard-earned rating points.

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Khanty-Mansiysk World Chess Semi-Finals: Harika Loses 1st Game to Stefanova

Harika vs Stefanova

Grandmaster D Harika’s title aspirations suffered a major blow as she lost to Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the first game of the semifinal of World Women chess championship in Khanty Mansisysk, Russia. Despite displaying top form so far, Harika could not get things moving well for her in the first game and went down rather easily. The next game is a must win for Harika as that’s the only way to proceed to the tiebreaker with some respite.

In the clash between Harika and Stefanova, there was a difference in approach as the Indian tried to make things happen, while the latter waited patiently for something to come her way. Eventually it did. Harika had slight initiative at the cost of a pawn. Normal play in the middle game would have yielded a decent result but in her bid to push for more, Harika went haywire with a piece sacrifice. The Bulgarian had to correctly calculate a few lines thereafter and she did not falter.

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