After 15 (of 30 rounds), GM Lahno of Ukraine (married to my friend GM Robert Fontaine of France, an excellent reporter/journalist for Europe Echecs, the #1 French chess media source) is leading the 2010 Women’s World Blitz Championship, 1 point ahead of former WWC Stefanova, and 3.5 points ahead of WWC Kosteniuk. This is considered a huge upset to some chess fans because Kosteniuk led the poll before the final and she started out with the score of 5/5!
Lahno is a very strong and talented player. Unfortunately, she does not receive the recognition she truly deserves. Maybe this will be a breakthrough event for her. However, just keep in mind that no lead is safe in blitz and anything can still happen tomorrow with 15 more games to play.
Here are the full standings at the half:
| No. | Title | Name | Fed. | FIDE | Local | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Lahno, Kateryna | UKR | 2539 | 2539 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11.5 |
| 2 | GM | Stefanova, Antoaneta | BUL | 2551 | 2551 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | = | 1 | = | 0 | 0 | 10.5 |
| 3 | GM | Kosintseva, Tatiana | RUS | 2573 | 2573 | 0 | 0 | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9.5 |
| 4 | WGM | Gunina, Valentina | RUS | 2465 | 2465 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9.0 |
| 5 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | IND | 2593 | 2593 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 9.0 |
| 6 | GM | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | RUS | 2524 | 2524 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | = | = | 1 | 1 | 8.0 |
| 7 | IM | Gaponenko, Inna | UKR | 2469 | 2469 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | = | 1 | 0 | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8.0 |
| 8 | IM | Muzychuk, Anna | SLO | 2535 | 2535 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | = | X | = | 0 | = | 0 | = | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8.0 |
| 9 | GM | Sebag, Marie | FRA | 2499 | 2499 | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | = | X | 1 | 0 | = | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7.5 |
| 10 | IM | Krush, Irina | USA | 2490 | 2490 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | = | 7.0 |
| 11 | IM | Skripchenko, Almira | FRA | 2464 | 2464 | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | = | 1 | 1 | X | 0 | = | 1 | 1 | = | 6.5 |
| 12 | IM | Kosintseva, Nadezhda | RUS | 2565 | 2565 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 1 | = | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | 0 | = | 1 | 6.0 |
| 13 | IM | Muzychuk, Mariya | UKR | 2464 | 2464 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | = | 1 | 0 | = | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5.5 |
| 14 | WGM | Paikidze, Nazi | GEO | 2376 | 2376 | 0 | = | 0 | 1 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 1 | 0 | 5.0 |
| 15 | GM | Zhukova, Natalia | UKR | 2499 | 2499 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 5.0 |
| 16 | WGM | Nebolsina, Vera | RUS | 2360 | 2360 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | = | = | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 4.0 |
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Congratulations!
The games this morning have been very exciting. What a joy to see the games online. Irina Krush’s victory over Alexandra Kosteniuk was a blitz crusher. This is so much fun!!!
Lucy
Nice job by Lahno. Very nice.
If you look at the official website, they basically gave Kosteniuk the blitz crown before the event started. Everything on the site is Kosteniuk, Kosteniuk, Kosteniuk and just about no one else. Such bias by the Russian organizer. Shame!
Wow! I’ve never seen a decisive result between the Kosintseva sisters before.
I predicted her to win. Keep the good work Katya!
Thank you for bringing this coverage to your blog.
Jan Newton
Hey, look at the game between the Kosintseva sisters: at move 43 the white king remains under the bishop’s attack!