Photo credit: Vladimir Barskij, Etery Kublashvili / commons.wikimedia.org (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
Russian chess player Alexandra Kosteniuk has become the winner of the women's section of World Rapid Chess Championship. Russian Valentina Gunina became third, the top five included three representatives of Russia, TASS reports. Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusatorov has won in the men's section by defeating the defending champion Magnus Carlsen.
Kosteniuk's victory became a landmark for Russian chess, since national chess players haven't achieved such high results recently. Alexandra scored nine points in 11 rounds. In the final match, Kosteniuk drew with the Russian Ekaterina Lagno, who eventually became 4th in the championship.
In the course of her long chess career, 37-year-old Kosteniuk became the world champion 12 times, but it was the first time she conquered the world championship in rapid chess. In previous years, the Russian won silver awards three times. Among other titles of the chess player are three gold medals of the World Chess Olympiads as well as numerous awards from the World and European Championships as part of the Russian national team.
The 17-year-old Uzbek prodigy Nodirbek Abdusatorov became the youngest world rapid champion ever. The young man, who was qualified for the grandmaster title at the age of 13, previously managed to score a draw with then acting World's Champion Magnus Carlsen in the 2019 edition of the World Rapid Championship in Moscow.
Russkiy Mir
