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 Grandmaster Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria carved out a hard fought draw in the third game of the final match against Women Grandmaster Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia to lift World Women's Chess Championship title
at Elista, here today.
Needing just a draw following her two brilliant victories in the first two games of the match, Stefanova achieved the needful after 51 moves.
Stefanova wrested the title from Chinese Zhu Chen and also ended Chinese Supremacy in the Women's Chess in the new Millennium with her victory.
It may be recalled that Chinese Women, Xie June and Zhu Chen had split the title between themselves since 1999. Quite interestingly both Jun and Chen opted out of this year's championship citing personal reasons.
"It is yet to sink in, perhaps it will take some time to dawn on me that I have actually done it," said Stefanova who had arrived with a make-shift compatriot trainer Grandmaster Vladimir Georgiev during the course of event.
The Bulgarian bagged a winner's cheque of USD 60000 while Kovalevskya got USD 30000 for her effort.
The third game of the final gave some scares to the Bulgarian who had to wriggle out of a pawn less endgame. It was the tension yet again that played supreme in the minds of both the players and for the first time it appeared in the four-game match that Kovalevskaya was giving it her best.
Earlier both players battled a Glek variation with the Russian playing white. Stefanova was forced to part with a pawn as the rook and minor piece endgame approached but found compensation in the form of her more active pieces and a
centralized king that won back the pawn.
Speaking about her performance in general and her last game in particular Stefanova said, "All the previous matches turned out to be not very simple for me and therefore I had been preparing for today's game very seriously considering it to be rather difficult battle. Actually I was right when I thought so, as Kovalevskaya had a good position and I could have lost but everything turned to be fine."
Stefanova, the 2002 European Women Champion attributed her success to her father who was also her first coach. "I think he has played a big part in world championship also," quipped the 25-years old champion.
Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina
- Stefanova, Antoaneta
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g3 Bc5 5. Bg2 d6 6. d3 a6 7. O-O O-O 8.
h3 h6 9. Kh2 Be6 10. Be3 Bxe3 11. fxe3 d5 12. exd5 Nxd5 13. Qe1 Rb8 14. a3
Nxc3 15. Qxc3 Qd6 16. Rf2 f5 17. Nd2 Ne7 18. Raf1 c6 19. e4 Qd4 20. Qxd4
exd4 21. exf5 Nxf5 22. Be4 g6 23. Bxf5 Rxf5 24. Rxf5 Bxf5 25. Nb3 Rd8 26.
Rf4 c5 27. g4 c4 28. dxc4 Bxc2 29. Rxd4 Rc8 30. Nd2 Re8 31. Kg2 Ba4 32. Kf2
Bc6 33. h4 Kg7 34. Rf4 g5 35. hxg5 hxg5 36. Rf5 Kh6 37. Rf6+ Kg7 38. Rd6
Rh8 39. Nf1 Rh3 40. Nd2 Rh2+ 41. Ke3 Rg2 42. Rd4 Kf6 43. c5 Rg3+ 44. Ke2
Ke5 45. Rb4 Rg2+ 46. Kd3 Bb5+ 47. Kc2 Kd5 48. b3 Kxc5 49. Kc1 Rg1+ 50. Kb2
Rg2 51. Kc1 Rg1+ 1/2
Official Site http://wwcc2004.fide.com/main.asp
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