Alexandra Kosteniuk certainly has had a wonderful reign as World Championship. She has done so much work trying to raise awareness of chess in our World, and promote the game, both online and in traveling so much despite having a family. Such a sacrifice needs to be recognized! She has also done an incredible job of getting more children, girls,women and men to play chess. I wish Alexandra all the best in the future, in her personal life and her chess career!
In other matches in the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship, Chinese GM Hou Yifan defeated former World Champion Zhu Chen by a score of 2.5-1.5. Yifan and Chen had to play a playoff, due to the fact that both players won one game of their match at the regular-time control. The first game of the playoff was drawn, and Hou Yifan moved on to the next round by winning the second rapid playoff game. France's Almira Skripchenko won her way into the 4th-round of play in the Championship. Skripchenko won a marathon 6 game match against Lithuanian Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania. The two players drew their first two games at the regular time control, then played 4 rapid chess games before Skripchenko won the match. Skripchenko won the last two playoff games to finish the match off by a score of 4-2. A playoff also determined the winner of the other match which was finished today. Dronavalli Harika of India and Mariya Muzychuk of the Ukraine drew the first two games of their match at regular-time control. The two then entered a playoff. Harika won the first game of the playoff, however Muzychuk was able to tie the match again by w inning the second game of the playoff. to force a blitz playoff to see who would move on to the fourth-round of the Championship. Harika proceeded to win both games of the blitz playoff to move onto the fourth-round! You can read more about today's matches by going to the FIDE website link: http://wwcc2010.tsf.org.tr/en/component/content/article/1-news/107-tie-breaks-3 Video concerning these matches is at: http://wwcc2010.tsf.org.tr/en/video
http://wwcc2010.tsf.org.tr/en/component/content/article/1-news/107-tie-breaks-3
Here are the moves of the game which ousted Alexandra Kosteniuk from the Championship. Ruan Lufei certainly played well in this game:
Here are the results from all the matches of round 3:
| Round 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Name | FED | T | Rtg | G1 | G2 | Rp1 | Rp2 | Bz1 | Bz2 | SD | Total | |||||||
| Round 3 Match 01 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kosteniuk, Alexandra | RUS | GM | 2507 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1½ | ||||||||||
| Ruan, Lufei | CHN | WGM | 2480 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 2½ | Round 4 | |||||||||
| Round 3 Match 02 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Koneru, Humpy | IND | GM | 2600 | 1 | ½ | 1½ | Round 4 | |||||||||||
| Zatonskih, Anna | USA | IM | 2478 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ||||||||||||
| Round 3 Match 03 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hou, Yifan | CHN | GM | 2591 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 2½ | Round 4 | |||||||||
| Zhu, Chen | QAT | GM | 2477 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1½ | ||||||||||
| Round 3 Match 04 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Zhao, Xue | CHN | GM | 2474 | 1 | ½ | 1½ | Round 4 | |||||||||||
| Dembo, Yelena | GRE | IM | 2454 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ||||||||||||
| Round 3 Match 05 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cmilyte, Viktorija | LTU | GM | 2514 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||
| Skripchenko, Almira | FRA | IM | 2460 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4 | Round 4 | |||||||
| Round 3 Match 06 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lahno, Kateryna | UKR | GM | 2522 | 1 | ½ | 1½ | Round 4 | |||||||||||
| Huang, Qian | CHN | WGM | 2402 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ||||||||||||
| Round 3 Match 07 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Muzychuk, Anna | SLO | IM | 2530 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ||||||||||||
| Ju, Wenjun | CHN | WGM | 2524 | 1 | ½ | 1½ | Round 4 | |||||||||||
| Round 3 Match 08 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Harika, Dronavalli | IND | IM | 2525 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | Round 4 | ||||||
| Muzychuk, Mariya | UKR | IM | 2462 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |||||||
