In the first tie-break game Anna Ushenina, playing White, got an overwhelming position after the opening. Ju Wenjun had to sacrifice a piece in order to save her king from White’s attack. Black had some counterplay, but White calmly parried all threats, and soon the Chinese resigned.
In the second game Ju Wenjun got a better position, and Black sacrificed a pawn to avoid bigger trouble. White responded by sacrificing an exchange for two pawns, and had decent winning chances in the resulting position. However, she missed a number of winning continuations due to a time trouble, and Ushenina saved the game with accurate defending.
Replay the games with computer analysis
Anna Ushenina and Ju Wenjun in tie-break
Thus, Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) won the match against Ju Wenjun (China) and advanced to the World Championship final, where she meets Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria).
Semifinal results:
Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) – Harika Dronavalli (India) 1.5-0.5
Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) – Ju Wenjun (China) 2.5-1.5
Today, November 25, the bronze medals for Harika Dronavalli (India) and Ju Wenjun (China) were awarded. The prizes were presented by the mayor Khanty-Mansiysk, the President of Ugra Chess Federation Vassily Filipenko.
Bronze medals for Harika Dronavalli and Ju Wenjun
Tomorrow, November 26, is a rest day.
The final match begins on November 27. This is a best-of-four match. If the score after four games is 2-2, the players continue on tie-break. The tie-breaks begin with two rapid games: 25 minutes plus 10 second per move for each player. If the score is 1-1, they will continue with two quicker games: 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.
If the winner is still not determined, the players will proceed to blitz games: 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move. Finally, is the score remains equal, the Armageddon game steps up: White has 5 minutes, Black has 4 minutes, 3 seconds per move are added starting with the move 61, and a draw counts as a victory for Black.
