China knocks over the kings and queens in the championship

Tan Zhongyi preparing for the final round in the FIDE Womens World Chess Championship 2017

Tan Zhongyi preparing for the final round in the FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship 2017

Story by Bredi Aranya, Staff Writer

     On March 3rd, the world’s new Women’s Chess Champion was declared, Tan Zhongyi. She became the latest Women’s World Champion and the fifth Chinese player who won the highest title in chess history. In the last six years, China took the number one spot four times, three of them being Hou Yifan. China has a great history of chess. They have the most Women’s World Championship wins next to USSR/Russia.

     In the FIDE World Championship, the time control of the tiebreakers go as follows after a new drawing of colors, two tie-break games with the time control 25 minutes + 10 seconds will be played. If the scores are still level, then after a new drawing of colors, a match of two games with the time control ten minutes + 10 seconds will be played. In case of a level score, another match of two games will be played, with a blitz time control of 5min + 3sec. If there is still is no winner, one sudden-death game will be played. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive five minutes, the opponent with the black pieces shall receive four minutes whereupon, after the sixtieth move, both players shall receive an increment of three seconds for each move from move sixty-one. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner. Tan Zhongyi has the upper hand because Anna Muzychuk hasn’t played any tie-breaks in this championship, while her opponent Tan Zhongyi played three tie-breakers, including two sudden-death games against Anna Ushenina and Harika Dronavalli.

     The four games previous to the rapid games that declared Tan Zhongyi champion finished with a score of two to two. All of those four games were played with classical time control, which is ninety minutes for the first forty moves, followed by thirty minutes for the rest of the game, with an addition of thirty seconds per move starting from move one.

     After the three tie-breaker games, Tan Zhongyi defeated Anna Muzychuk with the scores one point five to point five, earning her way to the top. She had the eight highest rating, which shows ratings aren’t the biggest factor in chess. It’s strategy and skill combined with experience.

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