Natalia Pogonina (Russia) and Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) will fight for the title of FIDE World Women’s Champion in Sochi. They qualified for the final match after a stunning tiebreaks day. At earlier stages Pogonina and Mariya Muzychuk were encouraging and supporting each other, and on April 2nd they will face each other for the highest women prize in chess.
Natalia Pogonina will defend the honor of the hosts and Olympic gold winners Russia. She qualified after a dramatic 116 move thriller against Pia Cramling (Sweden).
Mariya Muzychuk made a miraculous save in rapid game 3 and eliminated Harika Dronavalli (India).
The tiebreaks were a climax point for the online audience. During the second game a total of 30 000 simultaneous viewers collected across the ChessArena.com viewers, making the FIDE World Championship in Sochi possibly the most viewed women chess event in history.
See the video of the tiebreaks day with commentary by GM Miroshnichenko and IM Paehtz and replay the games with analysis
Official website / Full list of participants / Live games with analysis / Videos with commentary
