In the return game of the semi-final clash, Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) lost against Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) and was eliminated from the Women’s World Championship. Harika Dronavalli (India) made a comeback by winning an epic battle against Tan Zhongyi(China).
It seems Alexandra Kosteniuk didn’t manage to recover after Thursday’s loss. In a must-win situation she decided not to exchange queens after the seventh move and ending up in a worse position that her opponent.
Anna Muzychuk increased her advantage and won the game to become the first finalist of the World Championship.
In the other semi final, Harika committed a major blunder when she decided to exchange the Queens, not realizing that she had missed a potential chance to check-mate the opponent.
Although the Indian won the queen thanks to the extra pawn piece, it was immediately negated by Tan’s knight and it looked like she had lost the initiative.
With both players having gotten into time trouble, the pressure was immense as to how they would cope but remarkably, the Indian held her nerve as she went about breaking Tan’s defence. But eventually Tan had the better of Harika and won the semi final
The Final round , that will decide the new world champion will finish on 3rd March.
