Other Events: Women's World Championship Reaches the Quarterfinals; Plus, the Russian Championship
After a day of tiebreaks, the quarter-final matchups are set at the Women's World Championship. There were two especially noteworthy tiebreak results: defending women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk lost, which means that no Russians are left in the competition. The number two seed, Hou Yifan, almost lost, but prevailed in an Armaggedon game, as did Dronavalli against Maria Muzychuk. (Both Muzychuks were eliminated in this round.) So here are the quarter-final pairings:
Ruan Lufei - Harikra Dronavalli
Humpy Koneru - Wenjun Ju
Hou Yifan - Kateryna Lahno
Zhao Xue - Almira Skripchenko
After two rounds of the Russian Championship, five players lead: Grischuk, Tomashevsky, Karjakin, Nepomniachtchi and Peter Svidler. The second round was quite lively, especially in contrast with round 1. In the first round there was only one decisive result (in six games); in round 2, there were only two draws. (I'd add that in addition to the entertainment value of the event, it's worth keeping an eye on it for its theoretical happenings. Interesting opening ideas are bound to arise with such strong and creative players.)
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