Lagno Wins Women's Speed Chess GP Leg 3 Final

On Sunday GM Kateryna Lagno won the third leg of the FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix. The Russian GM beat GM Hou Yifan, who made a great comeback but dramatically lost the second bullet game of the tiebreak due to a mouse slip.

Earlier in the day, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk had beaten IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh 7-4. The Grand Prix tournament was the third of the four legs that are played June 24-July 19.

The live broadcast of the final day.

Lagno won $3,000 and gained the maximum 12 Grand Prix points. She is now sharing second place with her compatriot GM Valentina Gunina. The two Russian GMs are two points behind the current leader, GM Anna Ushenina, who gained two points in this third leg. 

Hou gained eight Grand Prix points ($2,000) to reach 10 GP points in total and a shared fifth place in the overall standings. Kosteniuk got six GP points this time ($1,000), and Khademalsharieh, five ($700).

All players who lost in the quarterfinals gained two GP points and $500, while the players who lost in the round of 16 did not get any GP points but still earned $200 in prize money.

The two best players of the Grand Prix will battle in the Women's Speed Chess Championship Super Final match on International Chess Day, July 20.

FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix | Standings After Leg 3

It took a while for Hou to warm up as she lost all three 5+1 games to Lagno before getting half a point on the scoreboard. In the first game, she blundered a pawn and never regained it as Lagno demonstrated her endgame technique:

The 3+1 section saw both players winning one game as Black and two draws, so Lagno was leading 5-2 before the bullet part. Here's Hou's win, which occurred after a wild final phase of the game:

Hou then performed a great comeback, winning three 1+1 games in a row. Time was up with a score of 5-5, so a tiebreak was needed. After a draw in the first game, here's the dramatic finish of the second, and the match:

"Of course, I'm very happy because I already thought I would lose the match," said Lagno. "I didn't play well in these last games. Everything went wrong. I don't 'feel' this time control, and I have a bad internet connection so everything was not in my favor."

Hou-Lagno | Score

Hou-Lagno | All games

Kosteniuk came third in this leg as she beat Khademalsharieh in a match played just before the final. Game two was instructive because the Iranian IM failed to hold a basic rook-and-pawn endgame that always looks so simple in textbooks but remains tricky in practical play:

Kosteniuk-Khademalsharieh | Score

Kosteniuk-Khademalsharieh | All games

In the semifinals on Friday, Lagno defeated her compatriot Kosteniuk 6.5-4.5 while Hou had beaten Khademalsharieh 8-2. Hou played that semifinal only hours after obtaining the professor's title at Shenzhen University. While getting ready to play, she expressed to one of Chess.com's producers her pleasant surprise that we had already posted the news.

You can find all the previous results of the third leg here.

The fourth and final leg of the Women's Speed Chess Grand Prix starts Wednesday, July 15. Each of the 21 Grand Prix players participates in three of the four legs. Each leg is a 16-player knockout and lasts five days (including one rest day after the semifinals). 

All FIDE Women's Speed Chess Championship matches are broadcast live with chess-master commentary on Chess.com/TV. More information about the FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship can be found here.