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IM Polina Shuvalova and WGM Priyanka Nutakki earned their seats in the Julius Baer Women’s Speed Chess Championship 2023 after emerging on top of a two-day qualifier, which was a 14-round Swiss followed by a double-elimination knockout.
The main event begins on Monday, November 13. The first quarterfinal, GM Hou Yifan vs. Shuvalova, starts at 6:00 a.m. ET / 12:00 CET / 4:30 p.m. IST and the second, GM Valentina Gunina vs. GM Harika Dronavalli, starts at 10 a.m. ET / 14:00 CET / 8:30 p.m. IST.
The WSCC is back this year with a qualifier format that has become familiar in Chess.com events, a 14-round Swiss followed by a knockout with the top eight finishers. The two ultimate winners, from that field of eight, would join the star-studded main event.
Swiss
Sixty-nine players participated in the Swiss on Wednesday. The top-eight finishers, shown below, moved on to the knockout on Thursday.
Final Swiss Standings | Top 8
(Full standings here.)
WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova got off to the best start, winning all seven of her first games. As early as round five, she was already the only player with a perfect score.
IM Deysi Cori, meanwhile, lost in round two but won the next seven games in a row. Critical was the Cori-Tokhirjonova encounter in round eight, which ended the latter’s perfect streak. That game ended with a stylish checkmating attack after 25.Nf6!:
Cori went on to finish in clear first, but it wasn’t without a bit of luck. In round nine, she was staring down the barrel against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan but, in the final hour, was saved by her opponent’s mouse slip/queen blunder.
Tokhirjonova still managed to finish in fifth and also benefited from great fortune. In round seven, she won a game with a queen less:
The top board in the final round was dramatic as Priyanka won on time against the tournament leader to jump into fourth place with 10 points. We know now, of course, that she would end up winning in the knockout later on as well!
Knockout
The eight players were divided into two groups: the top four in the Winners Bracket and the bottom four in the Losers Bracket. The winner of each respective bracket would qualify without needing to play a Grand Final. The perk of starting in the first bracket was, of course, starting with “two lives.”
Knockout Final Standings
Each match was six games: two 5+1, two 3+1, and two 1+1, followed by an armageddon tiebreak if needed.
Winners Bracket
Shuvalova won two matches in the Winners Bracket, defeating IM Anastasia Bodnaruk 3.5-2.5 in the semifinals and then Priyanka 4-2 in the final.
The first match was closer than the second and was only decided in the recent IMSCC champion’s favor in the final bullet game, where the key judgment to trade her bishop for a knight paid off.
Against Priyanka in the Winners Final, Shuvalova lost just one game. She won the first two and the last bullet game to secure her qualification spot. Their final game was a 32-move demolition, where even a draw would have sufficed. Can you find the flashy finishing blow yourself?
Losers Bracket
Undeterred, Priyanka made the most of her second life in the Losers Bracket. She jumped straight to the Losers’ Final, where she played Bodnaruk.
Bodnaruk, on the other hand, had to beat WGM Dinara Wagner and IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham to get to this match. It ought to be mentioned that the latter eliminated Cori earlier in what we can call the strangest game of the day.
Deysi Cori won yesterday’s Swiss, but is now out after losing a second armageddon — with a bizarre finish of blunder, mouse-slip, and premature resignation! https://t.co/NqpPveGP69 #WSCC pic.twitter.com/fpIqF1Xhtj
— chess24.com (@chess24com) November 9, 2023
Back to Priyanka vs. Bodnaruk, the first three games of their six-game match ended in draws—something we rarely see in speed chess. Priyanka won the second 3+1 game thanks to a miscalculation by her opponent but then dropped a point right back in the first bullet game.
The final bullet game, which decided the match, was a crazy, opposite-side castling brawl, and the 21-year-old Indian WGM correctly judged that her attack, starting with 10…c4!, would be faster.
Both winners also earned $500 each. Of course, it only gets harder from here. Shuvalova will face the highest-rated woman in the world on Monday, while Priyanka will have her turn at three-time Women’s World Blitz Champion GM Kateryna Lagno on Tuesday. Fasten your speed belts—we’re in for a ride.
The 2023 Julius Baer Women’s Speed Chess Championship (WSCC) is an online competition featuring some of the strongest women chess players in the world. The event’s qualifier happens on November 8 and 9 at 9 a.m. ET/15:00 CET, with the main event starting on November 13. The WSCC features a $75,000 prize fund.
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