The Final of the 72nd Ukrainian Women Chess Championship is taking place from 24th September to 3rd October at the Students’ Palace of National University “Law Academy Yaroslav the Wise” in Kharkiv.
Before the last round three players are in contention for the title of Ukrainian Woman Champion – Mariya Muzychuk, Anna Ushenina and Kateryna Lahno. But Mariya Muzychuk is a half point ahead, so evidently she has best chances.
Mariya Muzychuk beat the quite solid Tatiana Kononenko with Black pieces. She needed only 33 moves in the Dutch defence to make her opponent giving up.
Kononenko - Muzychuk
Another important win was achieved by Kateryna Lahno. At the first glance, she easily defeated the reigning Champion Kateryna Dolzhykova, but we understand that there is nothing easy in chess!
Anna Ushenina, playing Black pieces, got serious problems from the very opening against Irina Andrenko, but managed to hold the position and was happy to share the point.
Oksana Gritsayeva finally won her first game. She already had a few good moments but she lacked luck. Today everything worked well for Gritsayeva as she defeated Anastasiya Rakhmangulova.
Gritsayeva - Rakhmangulova
A quick draw was arranged in the game of two long-time friends Inna Gaponenko and Natalia Zhukova who had the same number of points. Only 15 moves were needed to sign scoresheets.
An interesting moment is that five members of the Ukrainian national team keep top 5 places in the standings with one round to go.
Lahno - Dolzhykova
Results of round 8:
Kononenko – Muzychuk 0-1
Andrenko – Ushenina 1/2
Gaponenko – Zhukova ½
Gritsayeva – Rakhmangulova 1-0
Lahno – Dolzhykova 1-0
Standings after round 8:
1. Mariya Muzychuk (Stryi, 2466) – 6
2-3. Anna Ushenina (Kharkiv, 2433) – 5,5
2-3. Kateryna Lahno (Donetsk, 2542) – 5,5
4-5. Natalia Zhukova (Odessa, 2442) – 4,5
4-5. Inna Gaponenko (Herson, 2404) – 4,5
6. Oksana Gritsayeva (Feodosia, 2319) – 4
7. Tatiana Kononenko (Kramatorsk, 2474) – 3,5
8-9. Anastasiya Rakhmangulova (Nikolaev, 2254) – 2,5
8-9. Irina Andrenko (Kharkiv, 2228) – 2,5
10. Kateryna Dolzhykova (Kiev, 2313) – 1,5
Pairings of round 9, Oct.3, 11:00 (UTC + 02:00):
Muzychuk – Gaponenko, Ushenina – Kononenko, Rakhmangulova – Lahno, Zhukova – Gritsayeva, Dolzhykova – Andrenko.
Report by GM Valeriy Aveskulov and Anatoliy Yavorsky
