Women's World Chess Championship 2012 Begins in Khanty-Mansiysk; No Upsets in First Round

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

The Women's World Chess Championship 2012 witnessed its first round on Sunday without any upsets. Earlier, on Saturday, Deputy Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation Pavel Kolobkov read a congratulatory telegram from the Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko. Then FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, after his welcome speech, declared the championship officially open.

The opening ceremony was attended by Natalia Komarova, the Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Area – Ugra, and Evgeny Redkin, director of the Department of Physical Education and Sports of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Area – Yugra. 

Drawing of colors was an important technical aspect of the ceremony. For that purpose Chief Arbiter Hal Bond (Canada) and the reigning Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan (China) went up to the stage. Hou Yifan chose one of the two proposed chess boards and found a white pawn. This means that Hou Yifan and all participants with the odd numbers will have white pieces in the first game.

The opening ceremony continued with the colorful theatrical show. Participants and guests of the championship saw the performances of the artists of dance theater “Ugra-Classic”, an ensemble of wind instruments, dance group “Courage”, illusionist Yevgeniy Kaverzina, dance theater “Show-karapuz”, and the program was completed with the fantastic vocals and music of “AngeliQuie and The Band”. The official part was followed by a banquet.

Here are the first round results:
Berezina, Irina Sebag, Marie ½-½
Bodnaruk, Anastasia Javakhishvili, Lela 1-0
Castrillon Gomez, Melissa Kosintseva, Nadezhda 0-1
Cmilyte, Viktorija Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid ½-½
Cori T., Deysi Ushenina, Anna ½-½
Danielian, Elina Khukhashvili, Sopiko 1-0
Dembo, Yelena Khurtsidze, Nino ½-½
Foisor, Cristina-Adela Muzychuk, Mariya ½-½
Frick, Denise Koneru, Humpy 0-1
Ghader Pour, Shayesteh Cramling, Pia 0-1
Girya, Olga Rajlich, Iweta ½-½
Gunina, Valentina Gu, Xiaobing 1-0
Hou, Yifan Ranasinghe, S D 1-0
Ju, Wenjun Pourkashiyan, Atousa 1-0
Khotenashvili, Bela Arribas Robaina, Maritza 1-0
Khoudgarian, Natalia Zhao, Xue 0-1
Kosintseva, Tatiana Davletbayeva, Madina ½-½
Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina Galliamova, Alisa ½-½
Krush, Irina Li, Ruofan ½-½
Lahno, Kateryna Mona, Khaled 1-0
Lujan, Carolina Zatonskih, Anna ½-½
Mkrtchian, Lilit Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 1-0
Muzychuk, Anna Mezioud, Amina 1-0
Ovod, Evgenija Hoang, Thanh Trang ½-½
Pogonina, Natalija Matveeva, Svetlana ½-½
Romanko, Marina Stefanova, Antoaneta 0-1
Shen, Yang Huang, Qian 0-1
Skripchenko, Almira Socko, Monika 0-1
Soumya, Swaminathan Harika, Dronavalli ½-½
Zhu, Chen Ziaziulkina, Nastassia 1-0
Zhukova, Natalia Guo, Qi ½-½
Abrahamyan, Tatev Kosteniuk, Alexandra ½-½

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