Tehran WWCh Round 2: Sopiko Guramishvili’s heart-stopping victory

Tan Zhongyi and Nino Khurtsidze both won matches that went all the way to Armageddon in Round 2 of the Women’s World Championship in Tehran, but nothing could compete with the thrills and spills of Sopiko Guramishvili’s heart-stopping victory over Nataliya Buksa. The 16 players who will now compete for a place in the quarterfinals feature 4 Chinese players, 3 Russians, 3 Georgians, 2 Indians and 1 each from Ukaine, Sweden, Bulgaria and Vietnam.

The common theme in the tie-break games of the second round was as follows: the experienced players managed to keep calm, play the board, and with consistent play, they took their chances and scored in the most crucial moments. After all, in such a win-or-die format, one has to have the stomach and gut for such a nerve-wracking job in order to win. In addition, two thrilling Armageddons would tell us enough. decided in overtime.

Five of the nine matches ended after the two 25-minute rapid games. The winners included two former World Champions, Antoaneta Stefanova, who beat Salome Melia 1.5:0.5, and Alexandra Kosteniuk, who beat Inna Gaponenko by the same scoreline. The full Round 2 tiebreak results looked as follows (play through all the games here):