Dear Colleagues!
The 4th stage FIDE Women Grand Prix officially came to a close in Kazan on 22 June, 2012
After 11 rounds Slovenian player Anna Muzychuk and Indian player Humpy Koneru became winners of the championship. According to the regulations of Grandprix in the case of any tie in any tournament, the Grand Prix ranking points and prize money will be split equally.
Before the last round three players shared first place: Viktorija Cmilyte, Anna Muzychuk and Humoy Koneru. In the 11th round Humpy Koneru sacrifieced a piece and managed to defeat Alisa Galliamova with black pieces. Anna Muzychuk used a mistake of Nadezhda Kosintseva and won the game as well while Viktorija Cmilyte made a draw against Antoaneta Stefanova.
As a result, 2 players finished on the top, followed by the current world champion Hou Yifan (China) and Lithuanian Viktorija Cmilyte with 7 points. In her last game in Kazan, Hou Yifan has secured a confident win over Elina Danielian, who was leading during the tournament but lost three last games.
Elina Danelian from Armenia and Russian Alexandra Kostenyuk collected 6 points each to share 5th – 6th positions. Ex-world champion defeated Betul Yildiz and sufficiently improved her ranking. One more Russian Tatiana Kosintseva defeated Ukrainian Katerina Lahno and finished seventh with 5.5 points. Lahno consequently ranked one spot lower half a point behind.
Nadezhda Kosintseva and Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova finished on the 9th – 10th places with 4.5 points, Russian Alisa Galliamova showed 11th result with 3 points, followed by Betul Yildiz from Turkey with 2.5 points.
The closing ceremony took place in the Korston Hotel and was attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Minister on Affairs of Youth, Sport and Tourism of the Republic of Tatarstan Rafis Burganov, players, officials and spectators.
The winners Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru were awarded with big wooden chess pieces and all the participants of FIDE Grand Prix in Kazan were awarded with flowers and presents. Viktorija Cmilyte received a special prize devoted to 100 years anniversary since the birthday of Rashit Nezmetdinov. Her victory against World Champion Hou Yifan was chosen by the organizing committee as the best game.
At the closing ceremony FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has made a surprising gift for the Chess Federation of the Republic of Tatarstan – a set of electronic boards, in which participants played!
The official tournament web page http://kazan2012.fide.com/
Videos with press-conferences after the games are here http://kazan2012.fide.com/video-gallery/2.html
Photos from the 11th round and closing ceremony are here:
http://kazan2012.fide.com/images/stories/gallery/Round%2011/index.html
http://kazan2012.fide.com/images/stories/gallery/Closing%20ceremony/index.html
If you use our pictures please give a reference: “photos by Rashit Shiriyazdanov and Anastasiya Karlovich with kind permission of FIDE” and put the link to the official website.
P.S. Thank you for following Grand Prix and publishing news!!
Best regards,
Anastasiya Karlovich
FIDE Press officer
Happy to see these ladies did well.