Kharkiv native becomes Ukraine’s first women’s world chess champion
Dec. 1, 2012, 4:06 p.m. | Sports — by Mark Rachkevych
Anna Ushenina became Ukraine’s first woman to win the world women’s chess championship on Dec. 1 after defeating Bulagarian Antoaneta Stefanova in a tiebreaker in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
The 27-year-old Kharkiv native emerged victorious in a 64-player knockout chess tournament that started on Nov. 10.
The two emerged tied 2-2 after playing four final matches on Nov. 27-30.
Today, Ushenina won the two-match tiebraker with a 1.5-0.5 score after drawing the first game with the black pieces, and winning the second match with white. The tie-breaker time control was 25 minutes, with an addition of 10 seconds per move.
According to Ushenina’s profile on FIDE, the world’s chess governing body, her rating is 2452, and she carries the title of International Master and Woman Grandmaster.
“This bright success was made possible thanks to Anna’s hard, daily work through the years, and her strong personal qualities…Ushenina…is the pride of Ukraine!” exclaimed Viktor Kapustin, president of the Ukrainian Chess Federation.
Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov became the country’s first and only men’s world chess champion in 2002.
Source: http://www.kyivpost.com
You have to truly admire anyone who could have emerged victorious after the physical and emotional pressure of a competition like this.
The loss of a single game could determine survival.
I wonder what the legendary players of the game’s history would have thought of formats like this.
Could a Capablanca or Tal have produced their memorable games in an environment like this?