World Women, Elista
Stefanova Crowned Tenth Champion

Top Seed Humpy Loses In Semis

By Arvind Aaron

It was one of the most lop-sided contests to decide a world chess title. Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria started as the seventh seed in the 64-player event held from May 18 to June 8 at Elista in Russia. In the end, she decimated her Russian opponent, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya 2.5-0.5 with a game to spare in the best of four series.

Koneru Humpy's maiden attempt in the women's championship ended in the semi-finals when she lost to Kovalevskaya quite unexpectedly after dominating the game. She started with some luck but then grew in strength. Humpy has to wait for the next event and she is going to take this experience from this contest into the next one.

Against Kosintseva she won the first game and lost the second. She however held her nerves to win the rapid tie-break. In the semi-finals, she lost the first game where she was winning via a 41st move blunder. She came back in the reverse game. In the tie-break she lost yet again and failed to equalise the second time around. Ill-luck fell on Humpy as she had a bishop and pawn more but could not win as it was a wrong coloured rook pawn. Humpy's path was wins against Van der Merwe (RSA) 2-0, Zhaoqin Peng (Ned) 1.5-0.5, Tatiana Kosintseva (Rus) 1-1, 2-0, Xu Yuhua (Chn) 2-0, lost to Kovalevskaya (Rus) 1-1, 0.5-1.5.

Stefanova is born on April 19, 1979 and with a rating of 2490 she is ranked 10th in the world among women. Her trainer at Chess City in Elista was GM Vladimir Georgiev, also from Bulgaria. After Humpy, she is the most active of women players in the top ten. She won her career best prize money.

She beat all seven opponents, Zhongyl Tan 2-0, Tatiana Vasilevich (Ukr) 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5, Natalia Zhukova (Yug) 1-1, 1-1, 2-0, Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 1-1, 1.5-0.5, Maya Chiburdanidze (Geo) 1.5-0.5 and Kovalevskaya (Rus) 2.5-0.5. All were knock out best of two games and the finals was a best of four.

Kovalevskaya, losing finalist won her highest prize purse and like all previous Russians lost. All two previous Russians who played for the world women's title and lost were Galliamova (to Xie Jun in 1999), Kosteniuk (to Zhu Chen 2001). Galliamova and Kosteniuk made early exits this time.

The other two Indians, WGMs Dronavalli Harika and Meenakshi Subbaraman ran aground to stronger opponents. Harika lost to Cmilyte (Ltu) 0-2 after missing a near winning chance in the black game (see the game in this article). Meenakshi drew a difficult opener with accuracy with the black pieces but lost falling a prey to Iweta Radziewicz in the opening with the light colour. Though this was disappointing for India, Humpy was there and kept the tri-colour flying until the semi-finals. No Indian had reached this stage for India in women's chess. Thus, it is an achievement. Although, for Humpy, who was the top seed by rating, she was expected to do more. It is a disappointment by her standards and achievement as far as Indian chess goes.

List Of World Women Champions

 1. Vera Menchik (Eng) 1923-1944*
 2. Ludmila Rudenko (USSR) 1949-1953
 3. Elisaveta Bikova (USSR) 1953-56, 58-62
 4. Olga Rubstova (USSR) 1956-58
 5. Nona Gaprindashvili (USSR) 1962-78
 6. Maya Chiburdanidze (USSR) 1978-91
 7. Xie Jun (Chn) 1991-96, 1999-01
 8. Zsuzsa Polgar (Hun) 1996-99**
 9. Zhu Chen (Chn) 2001-2004
10. Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) 2004-

* Moscow-born nine-time world champion represented USSR, the Czechoslovakia, then England. She tragically died on June 27, 1944 as world champion in a German air attack over London in the second world war.

** FIDE stripped her off the title when she refused to defend her title within months of birth of her first child.


Read Arvind Aaron's round-by-round coverage of the event:

Kovalevskaya v Stefanova

Kovalevskaya Shocks Humpy

Humpy In Semi-finals

Humpy Leads Xu Yuhua

Humpy Loses, Then Comes Back!

Humpy Wins Crucial Point

Galliamova, Kosteniuk Out

Humpy Leads Peng 1-0

Harika, Meenakshi Bow Out

Mixed Day For Indians  says Arvind Aaron




Back To News Page