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The first round of the Women's World Championship ended in Sochi |
 The tie-breaks of the Women's World Chess Championship were played in SCC Galactica (Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana) on March 19. Eleven pairs of players who tied their first round matches 1-1 came today to find out who advances to the next round.
The day started with two-game matches with rapid time control – 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. Two of them ended with the perfect 2-0 score – Zhao Xue (China) defeated M. Suriel (Argentina), and S. Melia (Georgia) defeated I. Sukandar (Indonesia).
Three matches ended 1.5-0.5 – M. Muzychuk (Ukraine) won against Yuan Yuanling (Canada), Shen Yang (China) won against A. Kashlinskaya (Russia), and Huang Qian (China) defeated B. Kovanova (Russia).
A true chess tragedy occurred in Daulyte (Lithuania) – Socko (Poland).
The Lithuanian player won the first game and achieved a huge advantage in the second one. In the mutual time trouble Daulyte could deliver a mate in one and advance to the next round, however, she hung her queen instead and resigned immediately. Such a blow changed the momentum completely, and Socko dominated in the next 2-game match, winning it 2-0.
The second stage of the tie-breaks (10 minutes plus 10 second per move time control) also gave victories to A. Galliamova (Russia) over C. Lujan (Argentina), L. Javakhishvili (Georgia) over S. Guramishvili (Georgia), and M. Arabidze (Georgia) over E. Paehtz (Germany).
Two closest matches advanced to blitz games: A. Goryachkina (Russia) – L. Mkrtchian (Armenia) and M. A. Gomes (India) – T. Kosintseva (Russia). Their blitz matches also ended in draws 1-1, and in both of them the Russians lost the first games, but won the second ones.
Thus in both matches the spectators witnessed the ultimate game – a so-called Armageddon (White gets 5 minutes, Black gets 4, bonus 3 seconds are added for each move starting with the 61st, and a draw counts as a win for Black).
Goryachkina and Gomes won the drawing of lots and both picked White. Goryachkina obtained an advantage in the opening, piled up the pressure and won convincingly. Kosintseva got a very good position as Black, but then either blundered or unsuccessfully sacrificed a piece, not getting much of a compensation for the lost material. However, the Russian kept fighting, and eventually won on time in a totally hopeless position.
The second round begins on March 20. The pairings:
Koneru (India) – Lei Tingjie (China), Galliamova – Kosintseva (both Russia), M. Muzychuk (Ukraine) – Socko (Poland), Stefanova (Bulgaria) – Gaponenko (Ukraine), Cmilyte (Lithuania) – Kovalevskaya (Russia), Marrero Lopez (Cuba) – Arabidze (Georgia), Kosteniuk (Russia) – Shen Yang (China), Dronavalli (India) – Krush (USA), Jun Wenjun (China) – Pogonina (Russia), Ushenina (Ukraine) – Sebag (France), Zhao Xue (China) – Melia (Georgia), Khotenashvili (Georgia) – Huang Qian (China), A. Muzychuk (Ukraine) – Goryachkina (Russia), Tan Zhongyi (China) – Javakhishvili (Georgia), Gunina – Girya (both Russia), Cramling (Sweden) – Arakhamia-Grant (Scotland).
The games start at 3 pm Moscow time.
Online broadcasting of the games 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:
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