Ushenina Wins Women's Speed Chess GP Leg 1 Final

GM Anna Ushenina beat GM Valentina Gunina 7-4 in Sunday's final of the FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix's first leg. 

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu 7-4 in a match for third place held just before the final. 

The Grand Prix tournament is the first of the four legs that are played June 24-July 19.

The live broadcast of the final day.

With the first leg now played, the first Grand Prix points have been awarded as well. Ushenina, who won $3,000 with this first leg, is leading with 12 points, followed by Gunina with eight ($2,000), Kosteniuk with six ($1,000), and Vaishali with 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.

Ushenina, the classical women's world champion in 2012, is quite the specialist in online speed chess. Her prowess in this area was displayed earlier during last week's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix, where she finished as the top female player.

Time permitted the players to play only three 5+1 games, in which Ushenina took a 2-1 lead with two draws as White and the following win as Black:

Ushenina continued strongly and also won the first two 3+1 games to take a three-point lead. The match seemed over, but Gunina quickly won the next two 3-1 games to limit the damage to one game-point.

The Russian player couldn't level the score in the bullet. Instead, Ushenina took control again by winning three straight games, when Gunina's win in the last game didn't matter.

The final tragic moment for Gunina was game 10. Behind 3-6, she could deliver mate in one, but a mouseslip dropped her queen on the wrong square.

"It's a very interesting tournament, and it's very hard because everyone is very strong. I enjoyed to participate here," Ushenina said after the match.

Gunina-Ushenina | All games

With the exact same final score, Kosteniuk claimed a spot on the podium in the match for third place. Sadly, this match was marred by two big mistakes by Vaishali: blundering a full queen in game six...

... and dropping another lady due to a mouseslip in game 10:

Kosteniuk-Vaishali | All games

In the semifinals, Ushenina defeated WGM Vaishali Rameshbabu 5.5-4.5 while Gunina eliminated her compatriot, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, with a 9-3 score. You can find all the previous results of the first leg here.

The second leg of the Women's Speed Chess Grand Prix starts on July 1. Each of the 21 Grand Prix players participates in three of the four legs.

FIDE Chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix | Standings After Leg 1

Each leg is a 16-player knockout and will last five days (including one rest day after the semi-finals). The dates for the remaining three are July 1-5, July 8-12, and July 15-19 with games starting at 5:30 a.m. Pacific time / 14:30 Central Europe.

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.