Stefanova Wins North Urals Cup
The Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova (pictured) has won the North Urals Cup in Krasnoturinsk. She won three games against Marie Sebag, Humpy Koneru and Natalija Pogonina and only lost one - to Pia Cramling.
The event was the strongest all-women event ever held, with an average Elo rating of 2522. However, the top ranked player, Humpy Koneru of India, had a poor tournament. After losing the first 2 games, she never really had time to recover in this relatively short event, but she will be back to fight again another day.
The final standings were:
| 1 | Stefanova, Antoaneta | BUL | 2550 |
* | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 4½ |
| 2 | Ushenina, Anna | UKR | 2476 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 4 |
| 3 | Sebag, Marie | FRA | 2530 | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 4 |
| 4 | Xu Yuhua | CHN | 2483 | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 3½ |
| 5 | Koneru, Humpy | IND | 2622 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3½ |
| 6 | Cramling, Pia | SWE | 2544 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | * | ½ | ½ | 3 |
| 7 | Muzychuk, Anna | SLO | 2504 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | 3 |
| 8 | Pogonina, Natalija | RUS | 2469 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 2½ |
Here is Stefanova's 5th round win against Marie Sebag.
