Anna Muzychuk claimed the title of the Women's World Blitz Champion after the strong run on the final day of the competition.

Muzychuk completed the event with 23/30 points, leaving the nearest follower 2,5 points behind.

Nana Dzagnidze took the silver medal with 20,5 points, while Tatiana Kosintseva won the bronze after the furious finish that brought her to 20 points.

The FIDE Women World Blitz Championship 2014 was held from 26th to 28th April at the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Entering the third day of the Championship, Anna Muzychuk and Nana Dzagnidze were tied on the first place with 15/20 points each.

Already in the 11th round Dzagnidze was held to 1-1 by Harika and Muzychuk beat Natalia Zhukova 2-0.

Muzychuk continued the winning row with 1,5-0,5 against Elisabeth Paehtz and 2-0 against Anna Ushenina. Meanwhile, Dzagnidze could not make more than 1-1 against Alexandra Kosteniuk and Marina Guseva, respectively.

Following the 14th round 1-1 tie with Marina Guseva, Anna Muzychuk secured the title of Women's World Blitz Champion with one round to spare.

This result is immensely important for the young Slovenian, who many times finished joint first or second in the official events, but never before took the trophy.

Dzagnidze still had to work to secure the silver and 1,5-0,5 against Inna Gaponenko in the 15th round was just enough to seal the 2nd place.

Tatiana Kosintseva defeated Guseva 2-0 to clinch the bronze medal.

34 female players from 13 countries competed for the title and prize fund of $50,000.

The Blitz Championship concludes a row of official events that lasted nearly two months in Khanty-Mansiysk! It all started early March with the FIDE Candidates Tournament, followed by the FIDE Women Grand Prix and the FIDE Women World Rapid Championship.

Official tournament website http://wwrbc2014.fide.com/

Muzychuk and Dzagnidze leading after the second day of Blitz Championship

The FIDE Women's World Blitz Championship 2014 continued today with rounds 6-10 being played at the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Anna Muzychuk from Slovenia, who was convincing leader after five rounds, slowed down a bit, but still played well enough to finish the day tied on the first place with 15/20 points.

Muzychuk is joined by Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia, who first had a flying start, then a couple of shaky displays, before making another surge forward.



Two points behind the leaders are Zhao Xue (China) and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria).
Full standings at http://wwrbc2014.fide.com/wp-content/uploads/results_blitz/results.html?l=en&tb=10_  

Blitz games are always exciting and already in the first game of the day A.Muzychuk blundered horribly to allow checkmate to Stefanova.

In the return game Muzychuk recovered and converted the advantage. In the next round she won a beautiful game with a knight sacrifice against the defending champion Valentina Gunina.

In the next three matches, however, Muzychuk could not achieve more than 1-1 against Tatiana Kosintseva, Zhao Xue and Alexandra Kosteniuk, respectively.

Dzagnidze defeated Irina Krush, Daria Charochkina and Kateryna Lagno by 2-0, and shared the points with Gunina and Kosintseva.

The event continues tomorrow at 3pm local time with the final five rounds.

Top round eleven pairings are: Harika – Dzagnidze, Zhukova – Muzychuk A, Kosteniuk – Zhao Xue, Stefanova – Gunina and Lagno – Kosintseva.

34 female players from 13 countries are competing for the title and prize fund of $50,000.

Official tournament website http://wwrbc2014.fide.com/

Anna Muzychuk convincing on first day of FIDE Women's World Blitz Championship

The FIDE Women's World Blitz Championship 2014 started today at the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk, with Mayor Vassily Filipenko making the first honorary move in the game A. Muzychuk - Cramling.

34 female players from 14 countries are competing for the title and prize fund of $50,000.

On the first day five rounds with ten games were played. Anna Muzychuk from Slovenia dominated the tournament arena, taking a convincing lead with 9,0/10 points, a full two points ahead of the nearest followers.

Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia had a furious start, winning first six games before going down 0-2 to A.Muzychuk in round 4. Harika Dronavalli also kept the pace before losing 0,5-1,5 to A.Muzychuk in round 5.

Antoaneta Stefanova recovered after the round two loss to Tatiana Kosintseva and played a string of good games to reach the 2nd place with 7,5/10 points.

Dzagnidze, Harika and defending champion Valentina Gunina (Russia) are sharing the third place with 7,0 points each.

The next 6th round will see the clash A.Muzychuk-Stefanova on the top board.

The FIDE Women's World Blitz Championships 2014 will be completed over three days, 26-28th April, with 15 double rounds (30 games) in Swiss format.

The time control is 3 minutes + 2 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1.

The prize fund is $50,000. Top three finishers will earn $12,000-9,000-6,000, respectively.

Official tournament website http://wwrbc2014.fide.com/