Ju Wenjun Wins the Women's World Championship - Again
(That's twice in one year, which is ridiculous. (FIDE's fault, but thankfully they're putting an end to the idiocy.))
Congratulations to Chinese GM Ju Wenjun, who had to win game 4 with Black against Kateryna Lagno just to force tiebreaks. She passed that test with flying colors, and then this morning it was on to tiebreaks. The first two rapid games finished in draws, in both cases thanks to opposite-colored bishops (which also saved Lagno in the third classical game), and the third tiebreak game should have been drawn in the same way as well. For whatever reason (ambition? pessimism about the opposite-colored bishop ending?) Lagno rejected that defensive approach, and lost the ending rather badly. (23.Bxb2 drew on the spot, and then 27.Bb2 was closer to a necessity. Technically White was only lost after 36.Ba5 - 36.Bd6 probably still held - but by then the degree of difficulty was unnecessarily high.) In game 4 Ju had White and obtained a big advantage, but let it slip away, perhaps because she wanted to be solid first in the de facto draw-odds situation. The position was about equal until Lagno's 34th move, which was an incredibly one-move blunder: 34...Qg6?? hung the queen. (The games of the final match can be replayed here, without notes.)
An anticlimax, but overall very much a deserved and well-earned victory in the women's world championship tournament to complement her 5.5-4.5 women's world championship match victory over Tan Zhongyi this past May.