Gibraltar Finale: Short Defeats Hou Yifan in Blitz Playoff to Take the Title
The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival didn't quite finish with the full fairy tale ending, but it was pretty close. Hou Yifan entered the last round with a half-point lead over her closest pursuers, and her reward was a game with second-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. They drew after a full and complicated fight, and that gave several other players the chance to catch up with 8/10.
The only one to succeed was Nigel Short, who defeated Krishnan Sasikiran with Black in a Modern Benoni. It was a gutsy choice that paid off (literally!), and after that it was on to a two game blitz (10 minutes + 5 seconds per move) tiebreak match. Short won the first game - convincingly - in a Grand Prix Attack, and he probably could have won the second game as well, but was content to allow Hou to draw by perpetual check.
So Short took first, but all the same it was an incredible performance by the 17-year-old women's world champion. She finished with a 2872 TPR, going +4 -1 =2 against 2700s (and beating everyone below that as well). Michael Adams, Mamedyarov, Viktor Bologan and Emil Sutovsky finished half a point behind, and then another 17 players (including Judit Polgar) finished with 7 points apiece.