Ju Wenjun retains World Championship Crown
Ju Wenjun retains the Women’s World Chess Champion title in an exciting rapid play-off. She defeated Aleksandra Goryachkina with a score of 2½-1½.
For Russian chess aficionados, it was another painful loss. The last Women’s World Champion from Russia was Alexandra Kosteniuk who reigned from 2008 to 2010.
Shanghai and Vladivostok were the host cities over the past two weeks. The classical part of the competition ended in a tie (6-6), with three victories each and six draws.
Game 12
Goryachkina pulled off a fantastic comeback when she won the 12th game to force the match into the Rapid play-offs. It was reminiscent to the 1987 Kasparov-Karpov final match. Kasparov had to win the 24th game to retain his title.
Aleksandra Goryachkina v Ju Wenjun
Rapid play-offs
The Rapid play-off took place in the Blue Hall Amphitheatre of the Far Eastern University of Vladivostok. It consisted of four 25-minute rapid games.
Goryachkina was very close to the victory in the first game but failed to win.
Ju Wenjun v Aleksandra Goryachkina
Rapid 1
In the second game, Goryachkina dominated but was unable to convert her advantage once again.
Aleksandra Goryachkina v Ju Wenjun
Rapid 2
On the third assault, Ju Wenjun followed the same opening as in the first game, but she introduced an improvement that allowed her a more aggressive approach. The Chinese Champion achieved a victory that put her ahead in the scoreboard for the third time in this match.
Ju Wenjun v Aleksandra Goryachkina
Rapid 3
Goryachkina, with the White pieces, in the final game had to win, the 4th Rapid game to take it into the Blitz play-offs. However, this time she failed to pull out a miraculous win, as she had done two days ago.
The Challenger played an audacious line that implied sacrificing a pawn in exchange for activity, and she managed to get the initiative. But the World Champion returned the material and managed to keep the balance, taking the game to a draw that was good enough to retain her crown.
Aleksandra Goryachkina v Ju Wenjun
Rapid 4
Summary of the match
Game One ended in a draw after a marathon 97 move game while the Game Two was a short draw. Game Three ended also ended in a draw after 85 moves.
Ju Wenjun won Game Four while Aleksandra Goryachkina won Game Five. Game Six and seven both ended in a draw.
Aleksandra Goryachkina won Game Eight and grabs the lead. Ju Wenjun won Game Nine and equalises.
Ju Wenjun won Game Ten while Game Eleven was a draw. Aleksandra Goryachikina won Game Twelve.