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Humpy Koneru: In India we have coverage in all newspapers |
 Humpy Koneru continued her winning row in the FIDE Women's World Championship. After defeating former Alisa Galliamova the Indian player arrived to the media room to analyse the game.
Anastasia Karlovich: Dear chess friends, welcome to the press center of the Women’s World Chess Championship. Our guest today is Koneru Humpy of India. Humpy has just won her first game against Alisa Galiamova. But I would like to ask first about her two previous matches. How does it go so far for you?
Humpy Koneru: Obviously my first match was quite easy; I was playing with the last seed. My first game of the second match was very interesting. I had a pawn up in the endgame. I could not convert it into win. So, my opponent had a lot of chances to make a draw. It was quite an interesting endgame with a lot of tricks. Finally I managed to win it.
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Russian disaster in the 3rd round of the World Championship |
 The 3rd Round of the Women's World Chess Championship was played in the SCC Galactica on March 23. Only 16 out of 64 participants are remaining in contention for the title.
This was a disastrous day for the four Russian players still competing in Sochi. Alisa Galliamova played Black against the top seed player of the championship Humpy Koneru. After the opening Galliamova started playing very aggressively – she left her king in the center and launched a kingside pawn attack. Koneru replied with a pawn sacrifice, fighting for the initiative. Black did not dare to accept it; soon her attack evaporated, and she was unable to hide king or connect the rooks. Eventually Galliamova was forced to transpose to a very difficult ending. White rooks invaded the 7th rank, and Humpy Koneru prevailed.
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Children visiting the championship venue again |
 A group of 15 pupils from Moscow school #1243 with their parents and teacher visited the Women's World Chess Championship on March 23.
As usual the visit started with an excursion around the SCC Galactica, after which the tournament director Alexander Tkachev showed the guests the chess points of interest.
First they visited Vasya the Robot, who received a lot of attention from the children. Then the group came to the press center to see journalists at work, and to the playing hall to see the first minutes of the round.
They also examined the exhibition of the RCF Chess Museum brought from Moscow, and listened to the online stream commentators Sergey Shipov and Ilya Smirin. In the end Alexander Tkachev gave children memorable gifts.
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The second round review by GM Ilya Smirin |
 In the second round of the Women’s World Championship the pairings were more evenly matched and the quality of play visibly improved. Among the first games only 5 out of 16 were decisive - in this sense it looked more like a men's super-tournament!
There was interesting development in the first clash of two friends and strong Russian grandmasters - Valentina Gunina and Olga Girya. In this innocently looking position Valentina Gunina played the provocative.
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The troubles of digital age |
 Following the 2nd round with the classical time control, the sixth day of the FIDE Women's World Championship (Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana) was reserved for the tie-breaks with rapid and blitz games.
Five pairs were to settle the score in this format.
A reminder about the tie-break regulations:
It starts 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.
At the start of the round the panic spread around the room as former world champion Anna Ushenina failed to appear on time and lost the first game according to the zero-tolerance rule.
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