Women’s Candidates Tournament Pool B: Introducing the players
Pool B of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament is held in the ancient city of Khiva, in Uzbekistan. The event takes place from November 28 to December 11 at Hotel Farovon Khiva. This bracket will see the clash between the 2020 runner-up Aleksandra Goryachkina, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Tan Zhongyi as the top finishers at the FIDE World Cup 2021, and Kateryna Lagno as one of the top-three finishers at the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2019–2021. Aleksandra Goryachkina Born September 28 1998 Federation: FIDE Rating: 2584 Aleksandra Goryachkina is a two-time world junior U20 champion (2012, 2013) and a two-time women’s champion of Russia (2015, 2017). She is also the overall winner of the previous edition of the Women’s Gran Prix, which was played between 2019 and 2021, after sharing first place in Monaco and Lausanne. She automatically qualified for the Women’s Grand Prix 2022-23 by becoming one of the four semi-finalists of the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2021 held in Sochi in July-August 2021. Aleksandra was born on September 28, 1998, in Orsk, a city in the Orenburg region in the Southern Ural, where Europe meets Asia. Her father, Yury, a strong chess player, has helped his daughter since she was a child. Goryachkina immediately achieved a dominant position in her age group and improved her position by winning the world youth championships under 10 and 14 years old, as well as the European championships under 12 and 14 years old. Soon, a rising star moved to Salekhard, the only city in the world that is located directly on the Polar Circle. Aleksandra started to work with a famous coach and GM, Vladimir Belov, and it was again a breakthrough: she won the Russian Women’s Cup in Saint Petersburg (2011), became the world’s second youngest woman grandmaster after Hou Yifan, won the European and world championships in higher age groups, while often being much younger than her rivals. Over the year, her rating grew by almost 300 points from 2045 to 2333. In 2012, Goryachkina won the Russian Cup and then the world’s junior U20 championship. In 2013, Aleksandra regained her “Chess Princess” title and debuted in the Superfinal of the Russian Championship. In her match against the best Russian female chess players, it took Goryachkina three attempts to achieve her goal: Aleksandra took first place in Chita 2015. In the same year, she won the Russian Women’s Cup for the second time. In 2017, Aleksandra Goryachkina became a two-time Russian women’s champion and won the silver medal in the Individual European Women’s Championship. In 2013, Goryachkina debuted at the European Team Championship as part of the Russian national women’s team. In 2015, she became the champion of the Old World as part of the national women’s team and won the gold medal for the best result on the third board. In 2017, she won the World Team Championship as part of the Russian national women’s team. At the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament (Kazan, Russia) in the end of May – June 2019, Aleksandra Goryachkina had an impressive victory with two rounds to go and qualified for the Women’s World Chess Championship match against Ju Wenjun. The match, played in Shanghai and Vladivostok, was one of the most exciting ones in recent times. Despite being down on the scoreboard on two occasions, Goryachkina fought fiercely and managed to level the score by winning the 12th and last classical game, forcing a tiebreak. She lost one of the four rapid games, drawing the other three, which allowed Ju Wenjun to retain the title. Kateryna Lagno Born: December 27, 1989 Federation: FIDE Rating: 2563 Kateryna Lagno is a two-time European women’s champion (2005, 2008), the women’s World rapid champion (2014), a two-time Word blitz champion (2010, 2018), a two-time winner of the World Chess Olympiads – in 2006 as part of the Ukrainian national team and in 2014 as a member of the Russian national team. Despite not winning any of the legs in the previous edition of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix, she finished in the third position in the overall standings for the series, thanks to her regularity: she obtained 3rd place in Gibraltar and 4th place in Skolkovo and Monaco. She qualified for the current edition by rating. Lagno was born on December 27, 1989, in Lviv, a major city in Western Ukraine. Kateryna started her chess career as a prodigal child: she learnt to play when she was two, and at seven, she became the Ukrainian champion among girls under 10 years. She achieved that rank two more times; furthermore, Lagno became the national champion among girls under 12 years three times in a row. In 2000, Katya enrolled in the famous chess school of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, where she studied alongside Ruslan Ponomariov, Sergey Karjakin, Zahar Efimenko and other future grandmasters. In 2002, Lagno broke Judit Polgar’s record (that seemed to be unbreakable), thus becoming the youngest woman grandmaster in history – she achieved the “honourable” rank at the age of 12 years and 4 months. Kateryna Lagno took her first big steps in professional chess very soon: she made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Championship (Elista, 2004), won the Women’s European Championship in 2005, was first at the super tournament known as the North Urals Cup in 2006, became the Olympic champion as a member of the Ukrainian national team (Turin, 2006), and again the was victorious at Women’s European Championship in 2008. Kateryna became the World women’s blitz champion in 2010, the world and European champion as part of the Ukrainian national team in 2013, and won the World women’s rapid championship in 2014. In 2014, Ekaterina Lagno filed an application to join the Russian Chess Federation; during the Olympiad in Tromso, she played on the first board of the Russian national women’s team and became the Olympic champion for the second time in her career. Ekaterina is also the world and European champion as a member of