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Round 1, game1: Igor Levitin, adviser of the Russian President, made a symbolic first move of the Championship |
 The first round of the Women's World Championship (Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana), attended by 64 players from 28 countries, was played today at the CS Galactica.
Igor Levitin, adviser of the Russian President, made a symbolic first move of the championship in the game of the highest rated player Humpy Koneru (India).
In a first round of a knock-out tournament the top rated players face the lowest rated opponents, therefore many games were quite one-sided, and many favorites won without much trouble. Yet, there were a couple of upsets.
The ex-World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), playing White, barely held her game to a draw. Maria Muzychuk (Ukraine) and Alisa Galliamova (Russia) even lost to a much lower-rated opponents Yuan Yuanling (Canada) and Carolina Lujan (Argentina).
Results / Games / Photo Gallery
The leaders of the Russian national team Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Olga Girya confidently won their games.
Ekaterina Kovalevskaia, playing Black, quickly defeated the experienced Nino Khurtsidze (Georgia). The young Alexandra Goryachkina secured a hard-fought draw against Lilit Mkrtchian (Armenia).
Other Russian players also made draws in their games: Tatiana Kosintseva with Mary Ann Gomes (India), Baira Kovanova – with Huang Qian (China), Alina Kashlinskaya – with Shen Yang (China), Natalia Pogonina – with Guo Qi (China).
The second games of the first round are played tomorrow, March 18. If the matches are tied after two games, the winners will be determined on tie-breaks on March 19.
The tie-break begins with 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 5 minutes, Black has 4 minutes, 3 seconds per move are added after the move 61, and a draw counts as a win for Black. The tie-break for the final match consists of four rapid games.
Schedule: Round 1 – March 17-19, Round 2 – March 20-22, Round 3 – March 23-25, Quarterfinals – March 26-28, Semifinals – March 29-31, Finals – April 2-5.
April 1 is a day off. All games start at 15.00 msk.
Online broadcasting of the game with video is available in two languages (Russian and English) on the official site of the championship (http://sochi2015.fide.com) and the Russian Chess Federation website (http://ruchess.ru/).
For press credentials please contact the RCF Press Officer Eteri Kublashvili: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
