World Mind Sports Games, women blitz

results, standings, and photo report by GM Grivas

The World Mind Sports Games has started with the first games in the Women Blitz section. There were multiple problems with a Russian sponsor right before the start of the games, however, very strong participants turned up at the competition thanks to a fast FIDE reaction and free tickets from Air China.

The first 11 rounds of the Women Blitz chess competition were played on the 4th of October. The event started in a bombastic way with only 2 draws round 1, Nisha Mohota - Elizabeth Paehtz and Atousa Pourkashiyan - Qian Huang. The biggest intrigue, however, came in round 6 where the World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and the WWCC finalist Yifan Hou has to meet each other at the board. In a very tense game Yifan Hou managed to take the victory and showed her aim for the top world competitions has just started with the Nalchik final. This victory practically decided the outcome of the competition, as Yifan Hou had full score at the start of round 7, and the major competitors were more than a point behind. Without too much pressure Yifan Hou grabbed the first place, exactly 1 point ahead of Alexandra Kosteniuk. Here are the standings and round by round results before tomorrows semi final.

Standings after 11 rounds

1. Yifan Hou 9,5/11

2. Alexandra Kosteniuk 8,5/11

3-5. Antoaneta stefanova, Zhao Xue, Huang Qian 7,5/11

6-11. Harika Dronavalli, Joanna Dworakowska, Jovanka Houska, Tania Sachdev, Li Ruofan, Xu Yuhua 7,0/11

Results

Round 1 / Round 2 / Round 3 / Round 4 / Round 5 / Round 6 / Round 7 / Round 8 / Round 9 / Round 10 / Round 11

Full participants list

Top seeded as expected is Yifan Hou, one of the stars of Spartak Vidnoe for the upcoming European Club Chess Championship. She has a strong competition at the World Mind Sports games as here is her rival from Nalchik, the World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, and the ex world champion Antoaneta Stefanova, the Hungarian Olympic team leader Hoang Thanh Trang, the World Junior Chess Champion Harika Dronavalli, Yelena Dembo, Irina Krush, etc.

1 WGM Hou Yifan CHN 2578
2 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2548
3 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra RUS 2525
4 GM Zhao Xue CHN 2518
5 GM Hoang Thanh Trang HUN 2483
6 GM Xu Yuhua CHN 2477
7 WGM Pogonina Natalija RUS 2474
8 IM Gaponenko Inna UKR 2473
9 IM Paehtz Elisabeth GER 2471
10 IM Harika Dronavalli IND 2461
11 GM Peng Zhaoqin NED 2455
12 IM Krush Irina USA 2452
13 WGM Shen Yang CHN 2450
14 IM Dembo Yelena GRE 2446
15 WGM Muzychuk Mariya UKR 2436
16 IM Socko Monika POL 2434
17 WGM Huang Qian CHN 2430
18 WGM Li Ruofan SIN 2426
19 IM Tania Sachdev IND 2425
20 WGM Zdebskaja Natalia UKR 2419
21 IM Houska Jovanka ENG 2399
22 WGM Kovanova Baira RUS 2379
23 WGM Zawadzka Jolanta POL 2378
24 IM Vasilevich Tatjana UKR 2368
25 IM Dworakowska Joanna POL 2363
26 IM Vasilevich Irina RUS 2354
27 WIM Dolzhikova Kateryna UKR 2351
28 FM Schuurman Petra NED 2324
29 WGM Shahade Jennifer USA 2322
30 WGM Swathi Ghate IND 2320
31 WGM Mohota Nisha IND 2311
32 WFM Pham Le Thao Nguyen VIE 2304
33 WIM Sukandar Irine Kharisma INA 2303
34 WIM Gomes Mary Ann IND 2298
35 WIM Le Kieu Thien Kim VIE 2291
36 WGM Golubenko Valentina CRO 2273
37 WFM Ozturk Kubra TUR 2254
38 WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram VIE 2250
39 WIM Pourkashiyan Atousa IRI 2241
40 CM Zenyuk Iryna USA 2237
41 WFM Borosova Zuzana SVK 2234
42 WIM Hernandez Guerrero Yadira MEX 2228
43 WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre TUR 2219
44 WFM Marshall Abby USA 2194
45 WFM Tagnon Nicole FRA 1956
46 Ju Wenjun CHN 2397

GM Efstratios Grivas, Federal Trainer of the Turkish Chess Federation, sent us a couple of photos from Beijing:

Opening ceremony inside the Beijing Convention Center

The famous Bird's Nest is across the playing hall

Inside the playing hall (blitz event)

Beijing Convention Center entrance

The Turkish Delegation: GM Efstratios Grivas, WIM Betul Cemre Yildiz, FM Ozgur Solakoglu, WFM Kubra Ozturk, GM Mikhail Gurevich

See also WGM Jennifer Shahade's blog on Arrival in China