World Women Chess Championship day 6 LIVE!

LIVE updates from Nalchik

Information about the World Women Chess Championship

Official website

General information / Results Round 1

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Live day 1 / Live day 2 / Live day 3 / Live day 4 / Live day 5

Photo gallery

11:00 CET

The defending champion Xu Yuhua was sent home yesterday by the legendary Russian player Svetlana Matveeva. Other decisive scores can be seen on the results page. There will be five tiebreaks today, Antoaneta Stefanova - Wenjun Ju, Elena Sedina - Nguyen Thi Thanh An, Nadezda Kosintseva - Viktorija Chmylite, Inna Gaponenko - Katherine Rohonyan and Harika Dronavalli - Anna Muzychuk.

11:30 CET

Games start at 13:00 CET, photos from yesterday's round are available at the Day 5 photo gallery. All the events from yesterday minute by minute are at the day 5 live coverage.

11:45 CET

One of the big questions of today is whether Stefanova will be able to survive the tiebreak against Ju. After yesterday's surprising elimination of the world champion, the ex world champion Stefanova will have to concentrate fully to try to stay in the competition.

11:50 CET

In round 2 of the World Women Chess Championship there was a lot of fighting chess. No player had total domination over the board and logically we witnessed surprises. The only one who qualified with full score 2,0/2 for the next round was the new leader of the Chinese Olympic team for Dresden 2008, Yifan Hou.

12:00 CET

Svetlana Matveeva after eliminating World Champion Xu Yuhua (score 1.5-0.5): "I am very happy to progress to the next round, because the game was hard, with many mistakes, unfortunately, but at the end I managed to make a draw and win the match. Without tiebreaks (laugh)."

Nadezda Kosintseva about tiebreak with Viktoria Cmylite: "We know each other evry well, but it is very hard to make predictions for the tiebreak. We have played blitz games already, but I am not sure about the result (Viktorija Chmylite saying that she can't remember either)."

Elena Sedina: My opponent and I don't know each other very well, we have played only one game and it was all the way back at the 2000 Istanbul Olympiad.

Nguyen Thi Thanh An: I remember I lost to Sedina at the Olympiad once and I hope to play better in the tiebreaks.

Elena Sedina: Italian Chess Federation does its best to support professional chess players. Italians are hoping that Fabiano Caruana might be a World Champion in the future.

12:15 CET

Humpy Koneru said that her next tournament will be ECC in Kalithea where she will be playing for Monaco again. They will try to defend the last year's title.
She was in Greece only once, when she won 2001 World Junior Championship, so she has good memories about the country.
She was supposed to visit Chegem waterfalls this morning, but the excursion is delayed for some other day. Koneru is free in the 2nd round, same as Kosteniuk.

12:45 CET

The games start in 15 minutes, stay tuned for fresh updates from the playing hall.

13:00 CET

And the games have started! First two games will be with rapid time control.

13:05 CET

3. 8. 3. Rules for rapid and blitz games
Play shall be governed by the FIDE Laws of Chess for Rapid and Blitz Games (Appendices B and C of the Laws of Chess), except where they are overridden by the specific provisions of these regulations:

a. Players need not record their moves. An Arbiter will record the moves (Article B3).

b. Once a player has completed ten (10) moves, no claim can be made regarding incorrect piece placement, orientation of chessboard or clock setting. In case of reverse King and Queen placement, castling with the King is not allowed (Article B4).

c. The player whose turn it is to move, may consult the Arbiter's score sheet, and, if her next move will produce a threefold repetition of position (according to Article 9.2a of the Laws of Chess), or the 50 moves rule (according to Article 9.3a of the Laws of Chess), she herself must write the intended move on the score sheet and claim the draw, if she wants. If the claim is found to be correct, the game is immediately ended as a draw. If the claim is found to be incorrect, the Arbiter shall add three (3) minutes to the opponent's remaining time and additionally shall deduct half of the claimant's remaining time up to a maximum of three (3) minutes.

d. The Arbiter shall call the flag fall (Article B6).

e. Article C3 does not apply.

f. In the case of an illegal move the Arbiter shall interfere with the game only after a claim by the opponent and shall reinstate the position immediately before the irregularity. For the first illegal move made by a player the arbiter shall give two (2) extra minutes to the opponent. For the second illegal move by the same player the arbiter shall declare the game lost by this player.

3. 8. 4. Between the tiebreak games as well as before the start of the sudden death game there shall be a pause of at least 10 minutes, unless the Chief Arbiter decides otherwise.

Read the full rules here

13:10 CET

Tatiana Kosintseva in the playing hall to watch (or encourage) her sister. Paehtz caught a bad cold after two exhausting matches - her next tournament will be World Mind Games in Beijing.

13:11 CET

Photos from the start of the round will be available in a few minutes.

13:25 CET

Harika and Muzychuk are blasting moves and are already at move 25. The other games are about move 17.

13:35 CET

All round photos are available at the day 6 photo gallery

13:45 CET

Very interesting 19. Nxg7 from Kosintseva makes Viktoria Cmylite use large part of her clock.

13:50 CET

Third draw in a row between Harika and Muzychuk.

13:55 CET

Serious time trouble for Kosintseva and Cmilyte, both are with less than a minute. Ju is with 27 seconds on the clock against Stefanova at move 37.

13:57 CET

5 seconds for 9 moves for Cmilyte!

14:05 CET

All players survived time trouble and the games continue. Kosintseva though, has a significant advantage. Stefanova is a pawn up against Ju in a rook and pawns endgame.

14:10 CET

Kosintseva converts her advantage to a win.

14:11 CET

Sedina follows her and wins with white.

14:15 CET

Stefanova wins, while Rohonyan and Gaponenko draw their first tiebreak rapid game.

15:00 CET

After a slight interruption we are back with the live coverage from Nalchik

15:10 CET

Elena Sedina is through! She won her second game with black and Italy will have her representative in the next round!

15:15 CET

Cmilyte and Kosintseva are falling into time trouble again with less than 3 minutes for 10 moves. Cmilyte is obliged to go for the win.

15:20 CET

Opposite color bishops in Harika - Muzychuk game, yet the rooks are on the board and anything may happen if they are not precise in their moves.

15:25 CET

Today is the birthday of the WWCC participant Natasa Bojkovic. She lost in the first round, but is staying in Nalchik and enjoying the atmosphere there. Happy birthday from Chessdom.com!

15:30 CET

A victory by Gaponenko! She eliminated Rohonyan with a total score 1,5/0,5 in the tiebreak.

15:35 CET

2-0 for Stefanova and she is through! No surprise in today's tiebreak.

15:40 CET

Harika stuns Muzychuk! The World Junior Chess Champion wins with white and goes to the next round!

15:45 CET

Draw in Cmylite - Kosintseva and the Russian players advances. There will be no blitz games in the 2nd round tiebreak!

Kosintseva, Harika, Sedina, Stefanova, and Gaponenko qualify!

Stay with Chessdom.com as the game Ivanchuk - Carlsen starts in 1 hour with the commentary of GM Dimitrov.

15:50 CET

Hou Yifan about her match with Bathuyang Mongontuul:
"In the first game against Bathuyang Mongontuul I had a good counterplay after the opening and then I made a small mistake (Bc6) that might have dropped some of the advantage. Then in the mutual time-trouble, my opponent blundered by missing strong Rxb3 which forces pawn promotion."

About playing World Junior Championship in the boys group:
"I finished 6th. It was a great exercise that will help me raise my playing level."

Hou Yifan's next tournaments will be World Mind Games in Beijing and Corus 2009 Group B.

16:00 CET

Harika said that she is very happy to win against Anna Muzychuk, one of the strongest players in the Championship. She never played rapid tiebreaks before and thought that, no matter the result, this will be a good exercise for future challenges. Her next opponent is Lilit Mkrtchian.

Stay tuned for minute by minute the updates

LIVE tiebreak results game 1

Wenjun Ju - Antoaneta Stefanova 0-1
Elena Sedina - Nguyen Thi Thanh An 1-0
Nadezda Kosintseva - Viktoria Cmylite 1-0
Katherine Rohonyan - Inna Gaponenko 1/2-1/2
Anna Muzychuk - Harika Dronavalli 1/2-1/2

LIVE tiebreak results game 2

Antoaneta Stefanova - Wenjun Ju 1-0
Nguyen Thi Thanh An - Elena Sedina 0-1
Viktoria Cmylite - Nadezda Kosintseva 1/2-1/2
Inna Gaponenko - Katherine Rohonyan 1-0
Harika Dronavalli - Anna Muzychuk 1-0

Live from Bilbao: Aronian - Carlsen / Ivanchuk - Carlsen