Koneru, Kosteniuk To Face Off In Women's Speed Chess Grand Prix Leg 4 Final
GM Humpy Koneru and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk will play in Sunday's final of the fourth leg of the FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix. The two grandmasters beat GM Hou Yifan and IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh respectively, who will play the match for third place.
The finals of this fourth leg of the Women's Speed Chess Grand Prix start on Sunday, July 19 at 5:30 a.m. Pacific / 14:30 Central Europe with expert commentary on Chess.com/TV.
Grand Prix Leg 4 | Results Semifinals
| Date | Time (PT) | Time (CEST) | Fed | Player | Score | Fed | Player |
| July 17 | 05:30 | 14:30 | Hou Yifan | 5-6 | Humpy Koneru | ||
| July 17 | 07:00 | 16:00 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 7.5-3.5 | Sarasadat Khademalsharieh |
Given the current overall standings, a win in Sunday's final would make Kosteniuk the winner of the Grand Prix as she'd gain the maximum amount of 12 GP points to reach 24. She would play the Superfinal on Monday against runner-up GM Anna Ushenina.
If Koneru wins, Monday's Superfinal will be played between Ushenina (as the winner of the Grand Prix) and GM Valentina Gunina, who is currently in second place on tiebreak: the number of total game points scored in the three GP legs.
FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix | Top Standings
| Rank | Fed | Name | Rating | Leg 1 | Leg 2 | Leg 3 | Leg 4 | Score |
| 1 | Anna Ushenina | 2387 | 12 | 8 | 2 | X | 22 | |
| 2 | Valentina Gunina | 2608 | 8 | 12 | X | 2 | 22 | |
| 3 | Kateryna Lagno | 2476 | 2 | 6 | 12 | X | 20 | |
| 4 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2521 | 6 | X | 6 | 12 | ||
| 5 | Hou Yifan | 2601 | X | 2 | 8 | 14 | ||
| 6 | Sarasadat Khademalsharieh | 2431 | X | 5 | 5 | 10 |
On Friday, Koneru was the first player to reach the final after winning an incredibly close match against Hou. Neither player was ever leading by more than one point in a match that didn't see a single draw.
It was Koneru who was leading 4-3 after the 3+1 segment, but Hou leveled the score straight away in the first bullet game. Taking into account Koneru's clock handling earlier in the match, Hou seemed to be the slight favorite now—especially after what happened in the second bullet game.
Hou more or less returned the favor with her premature f-pawn push in the next game. Allowing an octopus on e6 was inadvisable and too hard to deal with, especially at this time control—even though Black was in fact winning for a short while after that!
With time running out, the following bullet game would be the last if it ended decisively. Hou went into the endgame with a slight edge (the bishop pair) but somehow got outplayed and suddenly mated:
Hou-Koneru | All games
The first half of the second semifinal was a pretty close affair as well. Both players won their first two white games and then drew three in a row before Kosteniuk won the final 3+1 game. Khademalsharieh slipped in a difficult endgame:
Kosteniuk then won all three bullet games as well, despite a recent comment that it's her least favorite time control. In the first, she adopted an Evans Gambit, but things were not decided in the opening.
"I was not too happy with my play. Early on, in the first games, I missed a lot of small tactics. That made me worried. But all's well that ends well," said Alexandra Kosteniuk about her #SpeedChess semifinal match against Sarasadat Khademalsharieh.
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 17, 2020
đź“· by @photochess pic.twitter.com/r9dTyMuAtg
Kosteniuk-Khademalsharieh | All games
Each Grand Prix leg is a 16-player knockout and lasts five days, including one rest day after the semifinals. Each leg has a total prize fund of $10,300 with $3,000 going to the winner.
In these tournaments, every player scores cumulative Grand Prix points according to her position in the final standings. The two players who score the highest number of cumulative Grand Prix points in all three Grand Prix legs qualify for the Super Final on July 20.
More information about the FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship can be found here.
Links to results pages & news
