FIDE WSCC Round of 16: Harika eliminates Kosteniuk 14.5-12.5
Harika beat Alexandra Kosteniuk in a very exciting Round of 16 match to advance to the Quarter-Finals of FIDE chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship 2021. At the end of all three segments, the score was tied at 12.5-12.5, then Harika won the next two bullet games, winning the match by 14.5-12.5 to secure her place in the next stage. Last year Harika was eliminated by Kosteniuk in the Quarter-Finals of the same tournament but with a different format. Harika got her sweet revenge. She will now face the winner of the match between Anna Muzychuk and Julia Osmak. Vaishali will play against Lei Tingjie on Saturday 19th June. Photo: chess.com
Harika gets her revenge
Harika beat the former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in an absolute thriller of a match in the Round of 16. The match went to the tie-breaks after the score was tied at 12.5-12.5. The India no.2 among women won both Bullet tie-break games to win the match 14.5-12.5 and advance to the Quarter-Finals.
Blitz 5+1: Harika - Kosteniuk: 2.5-5.5
Harika was completely winning the first game against Kosteniuk.
Harika - Kosteniuk, Game 1
Find out the best continuation for White in the above diagram. Harika got a few more chances but eventually Black managed to equalize and Harika ran out of time.
Harika lost the fourth game, drew the next two, although she was completely winning in the endgame of the sixth game.
Kosteniuk - Harika, Game 6
One of the simplest win for Black was in the above diagram. With less than 10 seconds left on the clock, Harika missed it. What was the winning continuation?
Harika managed to salvage a draw in the seventh game from a tumultuous position and then she lost the next game, finishing the 75-minute 5+1 Blitz section with a three points deficit 2.5-5.5
Blitz 3+1: Harika - Kosteniuk: 8-7
Harika took lead by scoring 5.5-1.5 in the 45-minute 3+1 Blitz segment. She scored five wins, made one draw and suffered only one loss. That is really impressive considering she was down by 3 points in the previous segment.
Harika - Kosteniuk, Game 9
Kosteniuk blundered with 19...Bb4 as White has 20.Bxg7+ and the discover attack in the next move is absolutely devastating for Black.
Tenth game was the sole draw of this segment. Harika won Game 11 after Kosteniuk left her queen en prise and she won the next game too before Kosteniuk scored her sole win in Game 13 in this segment. Harika won both Game 14 and 15 with a brilliant play in the endgame.
Harika - Kosteniuk, Game 15
Find out why 44...Kd7 is a blunder and what Black should have played to make a draw.
Bullet 1+1: Harika - Kosteniuk: 14.5-12.5
The first three bullet games in a 25-minute segment ended up in draws. Thus, the score became 9.5-8.5. Harika lost the fourth bullet game and Kosteniuk leveled the score 9.5-9.5. Fifth bullet game ended up in a draw. Harika had quite a few opportunities in this one, but it's bullet, so we always have to remember that anything can happen. Score is now 10-10. Harika lost the next game and Kosteniuk took 10-11 lead. Harika drew the next and beat Kosteniuk in the following game to level the score 11.5-11.5
The next two bullet games ended up in draws, thus the score became 12.5-12.5. Tie-break was enforced and Harika won both of them to win the match 14.5-12.5 against Kosteniuk.
Replay all games of Harika - Kosteniuk
Humpy got eliminated by Assaubayeva
Humpy played the first match in the Round of 16 against IM Bibisara Assaubayeva. The Kazakhstan no.3 among women stunned Humpy as she beat her 14.5-7.5 to advance to the Quarter-Final stage.
Replay all games of Humpy - Assaubayeva
Results
Format of the Main Event:
• 16-player bracket.
• Invited players will be seeded 1 through 8 according to May 2021 FIDE Blitz rating.
• The eight qualifiers will be unseeded; a seed will be drawn against a qualifier at random.
• Games that start but "run over" the overall countdown clock will count toward the final score.
• The player who accumulates the most points wins the match.
• If a match is tied after the last 1|1 bullet game, players will play an additional four-game 1|1 mini-match.
• Players will play another two-game 1|1 mini-match if the match is still tied.
• If the match is still tied after the two previous tiebreaks, players will play a single armageddon tiebreak game, with the higher-seeded player choosing the color.
The matches for the round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals will consist of three segments:
• A 75-minute segment with a 5|1 time control
• A 45-minute segment with a 3|1 time control
• A 25-minute segment with a 1|1 time control
Matches for the final of the main event will consist of three longer segments:
• A 90-minute segment with a 5|1 time control
• A 60-minute segment with a 3|1 time control
• A 30-minute segment with a 1|1 second per move
Schedule
Round of 16: 12th - 20th June
Quarter-Finals: 24th - 27th June
Semi-Finals: 1st and 2nd July
Finals: 3rd July