Valentina Gunina Leads Race at FIDE World Blitz Women's Championship
Six players are heading the open section.
The FIDE World Blitz Championships began Friday, December 29, in Samarkand. It is played to the Swiss system with 3+2 time control, with 21 rounds in the open section and 17 in the women's section.
On day one, Valentina Gunina of Russia grabbed the lead in the women's section, giving away only half a point to her opponents in nine games. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Switzerland), Harika Dronavalli (India), Anastasia Bodnaruk, Leya Garifullina, and Kateryna Lagno (all Russia) are one and a half points behind her. Two other Russians, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Anna Shukhman, have scored 6.5 points each.
In the open section, Vladislav Artemiev (Russia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Nihal Sarin, Arjun Erigaisi (both India), and Alexander Riazantsev (Russia) have scored 9 points out of 11.
Unfortunately, the tournament course was marred by an unpleasant incident in round 11. Russian grandmasters Daniil Dubov and Ian Nepomniachtchi made a quick draw by playing with only their knights: after the queen's and king's knights swapped places the initial position arose again, and the Ng1-f3 move followed by the opponents agreeing to a draw. The Chief Arbiter Ivan Surovy did not appreciate this peculiar chess humour and awarded both opponents a zero. The grandmasters submitted an appeal, which took over three hours to review, but the Appeals Committee ended up leaving the arbiter's decision as is.
CFR President Andrey Filatov: "We always abide by the tournament rules and regulations, and we respect decisions by arbiters and the Appeals Committee and consider them final".
Dubov and Nepomniachtchi are now half a point behind the leaders. Another Russian, Volodar Murzin, is in the group of participants with 8.5 points.
Saturday, December 30, the final rounds of the World Blitz Championships are to be played in Samarkand - nine rounds in the open section and eight in the women's section. The games will begin at 12.00 Moscow time (one hour earlier than usual).
Tournament on Chess-Results
Photo album of Eteri Kublashvili
Official website
Tournament page
Photos by Vladimir Barsky
