Former women’s world champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria defeated the Peruvian WGM Deysi Cori 16.5-6.5 in the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship‘s round of 16. Stefanova was the winner in all three time controls.

The next match is on Friday, June 18, at 7:30 a.m. Pacific / 16:30 CEST between GM Irina Krush and GM Nana Dzagnidze.

The live broadcast of the match.

In April, Stefanova was elected into the Bulgarian parliament as a member of the party Ima Takav Narod (“There Is Such a People”). She is also running for the next elections on July 11. Becoming a politician isn’t stopping her from playing chess, though!

After participating in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Gibraltar, where she finished on 4.5/11 two weeks ago, the 2004-2006 women’s world chess champion is also a participant in the Women’s Speed Chess Championship as one of the eight seeded players.

In the first round, Stefanova was too strong for Cori, who had entered the Main Event by winning the seventh qualifier tournament on June 6. The 27-year-old WGM is the top female player in Peru and the sister of GM Jorge Cori.

Stefanova took a big lead right away in the five-minute segment, which she won 6-2 without losing a game. Needing more time on the clock, Cori committed some tactical mishaps here and there:

The first 3|1 game was also Cori’s first win in the match. Despite losing two games in the opening, she kept faith in her 3…Qd6 Scandinavian:

After this, Stefanova took full control again by winning all of the six remaining 3|1 games. With a 12-3 score, she was basically safe before the bullet segment had even started but she ended up winning that part as well: 4.5-3.5.

Besides being a pretty decent player, Stefanova’s preparation for the match might have helped as well. She revealed that she had been doing some rated puzzles on Chess.com, “to remember how the pieces move” and to “try to make my head work a little bit.”

Cori earned $1,000 for finishing 9th-16th whereas Stefanova moves on to the quarterfinals, where she will meet the winner of the match GM Lei Tingjie vs. WGM Vaishali R., to be played Saturday, June 19, at 4:30 a.m. Pacific / 13:30 Central Europe.

All games

The FIDE Chess.com 2021 Women’s Speed Chess Championship is an online competition for titled female players. The qualifiers for the event were held May 28-June 6, while the main event runs June 10-July 3. Players battle for their shares of a total prize fund of $66,000.

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