2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship: GM Hou Yifan Wins

GM Hou Yifan won the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship after defeating GM Harika Dronavalli in the final match of the event. Harika was just one point behind Hou in the last game of the match, but the Chinese grandmaster managed to win the game to guarantee first place.

The FIDE Chess.com 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship was an online competition for titled female players. The qualifiers for the event were held May 28-June 6, while the main event was held June 10-July 3. Players battled for their share of a total prize fund of $66,000.

• Broadcast
• Players
• Bracket
• Schedule
• Prizes
• Format
• Qualifier Results
• Streamer Prize Winners
• Rules
• How To Participate
• Fair Play

Broadcast

Fans kept up with the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship by going to our Events page. Chess.com also broadcast matches of the event with expert commentary on Chess.com/TV and our Twitch channel.

Players

• GM Kateryna Lagno

• GM Hou Yifan

• GM Lei Tingjie

• GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

• GM Anna Muzychuk

• GM Antoaneta Stefanova

• GM Humpy Koneru

• GM Irina Krush

Bracket

Schedule

Below you can find the schedule of the qualifiers and main event of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship:

Qualifiers

• Qualifier I: Friday, May 28 (7 a.m. Pacific Time/16:00 Central European Time)
• Qualifier II: Saturday, May 29 (7 a.m. Pacific Time/16:00 Central European Time)
• Qualifier III: Sunday, May 30 (7 a.m. Pacific Time/16:00 Central European Time)
• Qualifier IV: Thursday, June 3 (7 a.m. Pacific Time/16:00 Central European Time)
• Qualifier V: Friday, June 4 (10 a.m. Pacific Time/19:00 Central European Time)
• Qualifier VI: Saturday, June 5 (10 a.m. Pacific Time/19:00 Central European Time)
• Qualifier VII: Sunday, June 6 (10 a.m. Pacific Time/19:00 Central European Time)
• Qualifier VIII: Sunday, June 6 (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European Time)

• Round of 16 Match 1: Saturday, June 12 at 7 a.m. PT/16:00 CEST - GM Humpy Koneru vs. IM Bibisara Assaubayeva 7.5-14.5
• Round of 16 Match 2: Sunday, June 13 at 7 a.m. PT/16:00 CEST - GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Valentina Gunina 11.5-10.5
• Round of 16 Match 3: Wednesday, June 16 at 7:00 a.m. PT/16:00 CEST - GM Alexandra Kosteniuk vs. GM Harika Dronavalli 12.5-14.5
• Round of 16 Match 4: Thursday, June 17 at 7 a.m. PT/16:00 CEST - GM Antoaneta Stefanova vs. WGM Deysi Cori 16.6-6.5
• Round of 16 Match 5: Friday, June 18 at 7:30 a.m. PT/16:30 CEST - GM Irina Krush vs. GM Nana Dzagnidze 10.5-13.5
• Round of 16 Match 6: Saturday, June 19 at 4:30 a.m. PT/13:30 CEST - GM Lei Tingjie vs. WGM Vaishali R. 14-6
• Round of 16 Match 7: Saturday, June 19 at 8:00 a.m. PT/17:00 CEST- GM Anna Muzychuk vs. IM Iulija Osmak 17.5-4.5
• Round of 16 Match 8: Sunday, June 20 at 4:30 a.m. PT/13:30 CEST - GM Hou Yifan vs. IM Gulnar Mammadova 15-6
• Quarterfinals 1: Thursday, June 24 at 7:30 a.m. PT/16:30 CEST - GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Nana Dzagnidze 14-8
• Quarterfinals 2: Friday, June 25 at 4 a.m. PT/13:00 CEST - GM Hou Yifan vs. IM Bibisara Assaubayeva 13.5-9.5
• Quarterfinals 3: Friday, June 25 at 7 a.m. PT/16:00 CEST - GM Harika Dronavalli vs. GM Anna Muzychuk 13.5-8.5
• Quarterfinals 4: Monday, June 28 at 4:30 a.m. PT/13:30 CEST - GM Lei Tingjie vs. GM Antoaneta Stefanova 11-9
• Semifinals 1: Thursday, July 1 at 7 a.m. PT/16:00 CEST - GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Harika Dronavalli 13-14
• Semifinals 2: Friday, July 2 at 4:30 a.m. PT/13:30 CEST - GM Hou Yifan vs. GM Lei Tingjie 11.5-9.5
• Final: Saturday, July 3 at 4:30 a.m. PT/13:30 CEST - GM Hou Yifan vs. GM Harika Dronavalli 15-13

Prizes

The total prize fund of the event was $66,000, divided as follows:

Main Event

• 1st: $20,000
• 2nd: $12,000
• 3rd: $5,000
• 4th: $5,000
• 5th-8th: $2000
• 9th-16th: $1000

Qualifiers

• Swiss event winner: $250
• Knockout winner: $500

Chess.com also awarded $250 to the top streamer in each qualifier. Streamers could only win the prize once.

Format

Below you'll find the format for each part of the event.

Qualifiers

• The qualifiers consisted of eight Titled Swiss Tournaments open to all titled women players (WCM/WFM/WIM/WGM/CM/FM/IM/GM) and eight Knockout Playoff Qualifiers.
• The top eight finishers from each Titled Swiss Tournament advanced to the Playoff Qualifier held right after the Swiss tournament is over.
• The playoffs after each tournament had the same time control as the Swiss that preceded them.
• If a match was tied, play entered sudden death, with the higher seed playing White first. Players continued to alternate colors until the first decisive result occurs.

The Swiss Qualifiers and subsequent Playoff Qualifiers had the time controls and number of rounds described in the table below:

One player from each Playoff Qualifier proceeded to the main event. Players could participate in as many qualifiers as they wished, except for invited players or those who already qualified.

Main Event

• 16-player bracket.
• Invited players was seeded 1 through 8 according to May 2021 FIDE Blitz rating.
• The eight qualifiers was unseeded; a seed was drawn against a qualifier at random.
• Games that started but "ran over" the overall countdown clock counted toward the final score.
• The player who accumulated the most points won the match.
• If a match was tied after the last 1|1 bullet game, players played an additional four-game 1|1 mini-match.
• Players played another two-game 1|1 mini-match if the match was still tied.
• If the match was still tied after the two previous tiebreaks, players played a single armageddon tiebreak game with the higher-seeded player choosing the color.

The matches for the round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals consisted of three segments:

• A 75-minute segment with a 5|1 time control
• A 45-minute segment with a 3|1 time control
• A 25-minute segment with a 1|1 time control

Matches for the final of the main event consisted of three longer segments:

• A 90-minute segment with a 5|1 time control
• A 60-minute segment with a 3|1 time control
• A 30-minute segment with a 1|1 second per move.

Qualifier Results

Here are the results for the qualifiers of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship.

Friday, May 28: GM Harika Dronavalli wins Qualifier I

GM Harika Dronavalli defeated IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham in the finals of the Qualifier I playoffs on Friday.

All Games

Saturday, May 29: WGM Vaishali R. wins Qualifier II

WGM Vaishali R. qualified for the Main Event of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship after defeating IM Polina Shuvalova in the Qualifier II playoff.

All Games

Full broadcast of Qualifier II.

Sunday, May 30: IM Bibisara Assaubayeva wins Qualifier III

IM Bibisara Assaubayeva defeated WGM Daria Voit during the playoffs of Qualifier III to advance to the Main Event of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship.

All Games

Full broadcast of Qualifier III.

Thursday, June 3: IM Iulija Osmak wins Qualifier IV

IM Iulija Osmak qualified for the main event of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship after defeating IM Nataliya Buksa in the final round of the Qualifier IV playoff.

All Games

Full broadcast of Qualifier IV.

Friday, June 4: GM Nana Dzagnidze wins Qualifier V

GM Nana Dzagnidze was the fifth player to qualify for the main event of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship after defeating IM Lilit Mkrtchian in the playoffs.

All Games

Full broadcast of Qualifier V.

Saturday, June 5: IM Gulnar Mammadova wins Qualifier VI

IM Gulnar Mammadova defeated WIM Ashritha Eswaran to win Qualifier VI and move on to the main event of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship.

All Games

Full broadcast of Qualifier VI.

Sunday, June 6: WGM Deysi Cori wins Qualifier VII

WGM Deysi Cori won the seventh qualifier of the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship after defeating GM Valentina Gunina in the playoff.

All Games

Full broadcast of Qualifiers VII and VIII.

Sunday, June 6: GM Valentina Gunina wins Qualifier VIII

GM Valentina Gunina defeated IM Meri Arabidze in the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship eighth qualifier. Gunina's grit paid off as she guaranteed her spot in the main event after playing for more than nine hours straight—she lost in the last round of Qualifier VII, which happened earlier in the day.

All Games

Full broadcast of Qualifiers VII and VIII.

Streamer Prize Winners

The list below displays the winners of the streamer prizes for each qualifier:

• Qualifier I: Anna-Maja Kazarian
• Qualifier II: Gabriela Vargas
• Qualifier III: Lile Koridze
• Qualifier IV: Maria Gevorgyan
• Qualifier V: Jesse February
• Qualifier VI: Jennifer Perez Rodriguez
• Qualifier VII: Adriana Nikolova
• Qualifier VIII: Katerina Nemcova

Rules

• Only women with official FIDE titles could participate in the tournament.
• Participants who played in the knockout events or in the main event had to set up two cameras and share their screen with Chess.com and FIDE for Fair Play enforcement.
• Players who decided to stream the event had to have their chat in emote-only mode.
• Players directly invited to the Main Event and players who already qualified for the Main Event from a previous Qualifier were not eligible to participate in remaining Qualifier events.

Fair Play

• Standard Chess.com Fair Play rules applied.