Ju Wenjun Wins Dramatic Four-Horse Race To Secure Blitz Title
Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun secured the title of the 2023 Tata Steel Chess India Women's Blitz with 12.5 points after 18 rounds, outwitting her pursuers GM Harika Dronavalli, GM Humpy Koneru, and WGM Divya Deshmukh in the final two rounds.
It was an unfortunate final stretch for Harika as she scored only three draws in the last six rounds after establishing a whopping two-point lead over the field with a 9/12 score. In contrast, Ju scored 5.5 points in the final six games, and Humpy scored five points to finish first and second respectively.
After the end of the tournament and prize distribution, the draw of lots ceremony for the open rapid event was held, as the event is scheduled to start on Tuesday, September 05.
The Open Rapid tournament begins on September 5 at 5:30 a.m. ET / 11:30 CEST / 15:00 IST.
How to watch the Tata Steel India Chess Open Rapid & Blitz
You can watch the event live on Twitch, as well as our YouTube channels for Chess.com and Chess24. Keep up with all the details of the tournament on our live events platform, and follow the live games by clicking here.
The broadcast was hosted by GM Robert Hess and IM Soumya Swaminathan.
The tiredness of having played 18 games of rapid and blitz over four days seemed to have finally caught up with the players, as the initial rounds of the day featured numerous blunders and oversights, apart from running out of time in equal positions.
In the 10th round, Divya hung her queen against Harika.
Black had just captured on c3 when Divya blundered with 30.Rxc3??, after which she lost her queen to a knight fork with 30...Nf2+. In the diagrammed position, White needed to play 30.Qxd5+ and only then recapture the rook on c3.
In the 11th round, Humpy had conducted an adventurous game creating dangerous connected passed pawns in the queenside after sacrificing a piece, only to hang a rook completely free.
Another youngster, Savitha Shri, had the following unfortunate turn of events.
White was better, but the position was tense. White could continue applying pressure with 34.R7d2 and perhaps capture the knight on e6 with her bishop. Savitha played 34.Bxe6?? Bxb2+ 35.Kb1 Bxc1 and White resigned.
In the 12th round, Harika received a gift when Savitha once again overlooked a simple tactical detail:
White was a healthy pawn up and better, but Savitha triggered a quicker end with 15...Bg4 to lose a piece after 16.Bxe5 Qxe5 17.Bxg4, and White went on to win.
After this victory, the score table read featured Harika in first with nine points, followed by Ju and Humpy with seven points each, and Divya in fourth with six points.
This was the pivotal point of the tournament when Harika looked to be in the driver's seat with a two-point lead. It was also when the competitive pressure reached its peak, and the games got more and more combative.
GM Anna Ushenina played a steady game to outwit Harika in the 13th round, when fortune smiled on Ju, who was staring at defeat against IM Vantika Agrawal.
The 14th round produced the most dramatic game of the day—a wild tactical skirmish between Shuvalov and Ju, where the position was extremely sharp and both players were short of time. In a short span of a few seconds, Lady Luck smiled at the players alternatively, and Ju finally emerged as the winner.
36.Rd4! was such an unexpected resource that it was termed the "move of the tournament" by commentator Hess. Remarkably, it was found by Shuvalova on the board with just a few seconds remaining on her clock.
Meanwhile, Humpy scored three clean wins against IM Polina Shuvalova, GM Nino Batsiashvili, and Savitha.
With two rounds to go, Harika, Ju, and Humpy now had 10.5 points each, closely followed by Divya with 10 points.
Harika was uncharacteristically shaky in the remaining two games, finally succumbing to her tiredness, as she confessed during the previous day. She lost to Vantika in the penultimate round, which was an impressive effort from the youngster, and is our Game Of The Day, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao.
Harika followed with another disaster in the last round.
Black was threatening 33...h3+, and a panicked Harika replied with 33.Qc6??. After 33...Qxc6 34.Bxc6 Rc8, she went on to lose the game, being two pawns down. Instead, she could have held her position with 33.Bb7, with plenty of play still left.
Humpy escaped from defeat against Ushenina in the penultimate round, even though she was two pawns down and had to deal with an unsafe king.
In the final round, Humpy won her game when Divya's time ran out in a near-equal position.
White's time ran out here.
Both Harika and Divya were visibly upset after their games and sat back at the board for quite a while, the pain of such a finish showing plainly on their faces.
After scoring a comfortable win in the penultimate round against Savitha, Ju played a marathon 74-move game against Ushenina. After many twists and turns, the result was decided in the very last move of the game.
The dramatic end of this long game gave Ju the crown.
Queen of the Blitz: Ju Wenjun Reigns Supreme! 🔥
— Tata Steel Chess India (@tschessindia) September 4, 2023
In the fast-paced world of blitz chess, Ju Wenjun emerged as the undefeated champion at Tata Steel Chess India. Crown the queen of blitz! 👑🎉 #BlitzQueenJu #TSCI #tsci2023 #tatasteelchessindia #chess #kolkata #womeninchess pic.twitter.com/xq9eQsuMOz
After the prize distribution ceremony, the drawing of lots for the Open Rapid section was held, attended by all the players, along with tournament ambassador GM Viswanathan Anand.
Women's Blitz All Games Day 2
Women's Blitz Final Standings
The Tata Steel Chess India Open Rapid section starts on Tuesday, 05th September.
Rapid Open section: Pairings Round 1
The 2023 Tata Steel Chess India Men's and Women's Rapid and Blitz are two of India's most prestigious rapid chess events. The Women's event takes place before the Men's. Players compete in a 10-player round-robin in three days of rapid games with a 25+10 time control, followed by two days of blitz games played at a 3+2 time control.
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