The second day of the Women's World Chess Championship 2010 was really horrible for Russian participants - 5 out of 6 players were eliminated and only reigning champion Aleksandra Kosteniuk continues to play tomorrow with Sopiko Khukhashvili in the tie-break.

Among the promoted players are Humpy Koneru, Hou Yifan, Yelena Dembo, Anna and Maria Muzichyk, Harika Dronavalli, Ju Wenjun, Zhao Xue and Anna Zatonskih. Seven matches will be decided after the tie-breaks tomorrow.

After the unfortunate start of the 2nd round, Viktorija Cmilyte and Huang Qian won their games and equalized the score in the matches against Elisabeth Paehtz and Antoaneta Stefanova respectively.

Playing with black pieces Tatiana Kosintseva had to win today against Yelena Dembo after the unlucky first game. She was close to success but lost the chance to activate her pieces under the time pressure and had to accept a draw.

Update (9th Dec): Seven matches were decided in rapid tie-breaks today. Katerina Lahno, Zhu Chen, Ruan Lufei, Aleksandra Kosteniuk, Elmira Skripchenko and Huang Qian confidentially won their matches with 2:0 and joined the players who had already promoted to the next round.

Viktorija Cmilyte, who made a draw in the first game against Elisabeth Paehtz, succeeded to win in the second game.

The most remarkable was the result of Huang Qian who kicked the former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova out of the tournament. In the first game Huang Qian got advantage from the opening and converted it into a full point. In the second one the Bulgarian player had a comfortable position and chances to equalize a score in the match but didn't succeed.

Report (edited) and photos from the official website