Ju Wenjun wins the world title again (Photo by Eteri Kublashvili & Michael Friedman)
Chinese Grandmaster Ju Wenjun retained her Women’s World Chess Championships title after winning the playoff against the challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina.
The championships came to a dramatic finale with four 25-minute rapid tiebreak games following Goryachkina’s dramatic win in the final classical games on Thursday.
After battling during two weeks in a series split between Shanghai and Vladivostok, the classical part of the competition ended in a 6-6, with three victories each and six draws.
The Elo gap between the players is significantly higher in the rapid format with Wenjun having n a 114 point edge (2613 to 2499). As the 2018 World Rapid Champion, Wenjun also went into the final with added confidence.
The playoff started off with a pair of draws, but Wenjun struck first with a win in the third game. But unlike in the classical game, her Russian rival was not able to equalize the score and force the tiebreak into the blitz phase. Wenjun hung on for a draw, winning the tiebreak, the match and sealing the title.
Goryachkina was very close to the victory in the first game, and she also dominated the second, but the failed to convert her advantage on both occasions.
In the third game, Wenjun followed the same opening as in the first game, but she introduced an improvement that allowed her a more aggressive approach. Wenjun developed a safe and solid edge on the white side of a Reti. Goryachkina adopted a triangle Slav set-up as she had in the first rapid game, but gradually lost control of the position, which finally became critical after 39…Rg5:
The Chinese champion achieved a victory that put her ahead on the scoreboard.
In the final game, Goryachkina, with the white pieces, was faced with a must-win situation, but this time she failed to pull out a miraculous win. The challenger played an audacious line that implied sacrificing a pawn in exchange and she managed to get the initiative. But Wenjun managed to keep the balance, taking the game to a draw that was good enough to retain her crown.
Wenjun qualified for her first world championships in 2006 after finishing third in the Asian championships. She failed to make her mark at the championships and despite qualifying in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017, it was in 2018 that she had finally landed the world crown. She had defeated the then reigning champion Tan Zhongyi in the final.
She retained the title defeating Russian Kateryna Lagno and now with her win over Goryachknia, the 28-year-old is now a three-time world champion.
While her previous two wins were in on a 64-player knockout tournament, this year’s championships is the first time it was being held in line with the men’s competition. Wenjun qualified automatically for the finals while her Russian rival had to qualify from the Candidates Tournament held last year.
The tournament also the prize money being increased to Eur 500,000 for the first time, with Wenjun taking home Eur 275,000 purse.
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