Hanoi (VNA) – Pham Le Thao Nguyen of Vietnam won her first round match atthe FIDE Women’s World Chess Championships 2017 on February 13 in Tehran, Iran.
InternationalMaster (IM) Nguyen beat IM Lela Javakhishvill of Georgia 1.5-0.5 after twogames.
Shewill next play Women’s Grandmaster (WGM) Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia whowon 1.5-0.5 over Chinese WGM Zhai Mo.
The64-player knock-out tournament, to decide the women’s world chess champion, wasoriginally slated for last October. However, it was postponed to this year dueto a lack of an organiser.
Thetournament features some of the world’s top players, including former Women’sWorld Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine),Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), the current Women’s World Rapid and BlitzChampion Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), and three-time Russian champion and two-timeEuropean Champion Valentina Gunina (Russia).
Thefirst five rounds consist of mini-matches of two games in 90 minutes. The finalmatch consists of four games.
Itwill close on March 5 with total prize funds of 450,000 USD, with the winnerclaiming 60,000 USD.-VNA