20-year-old female chess player reaches the final of the Chess World Cup
Salimova with Elo 2,409, is the only International Master (IM) in the semi-finals, when the remaining three players have all won the highest title of Grandmaster (GM). Although only ranked 47th in the world, the 20-year-old female player surprised when she eliminated former world runner-up Anna Muzychuk (2,504) with a score of 2.5-1.5 in a fast chess tie-break series on August 17.
Salimova drew with Muzychuk two standard chess games on August 15 and August 16, causing the two players to have a quick tie-break. On the first quick game of chess, the young Bulgarian player used his car to create a trap and won. The 33-year-old Ukrainian player showed the technique of the former world number two when he ended the game and equalized.
In the third fastest game, Salimova won again with a free move to create a trap and catch the rear. This time Muzychuk could not come back again, accepting a 2.5-3.5 aggregate defeat in the semifinals.
20-year-old Salimova, a European U12 champion and a world champion in 2015. On the way to the final, she defeated six players, including two in the Top 15 in the world, Muzychuk and Polina Shuvalova. This victory also helped Salimova win a place in Candidates 2024 - the competition to choose the challenger to the Queen of Chess Cu Van Quan (Ju Wenjun). Cu Van Quan was previously eliminated in the 1/8 round of the World Cup.
Salimova's opponent in the final was 25-year-old player Goryachkina (2,557) - the previous runner-up. Goryachkina is considered a chess prodigy, having won the U10, U14 and U18 world championships. She played in the women's world chess final against Cu in 2020, but lost in the tie-break series.
The final match of the Women's Chess World Cup takes place in three days, starting with a standard game of chess at 6pm on Saturday 19/8, Hanoi time.
In the Open group, two semi-final pairs have also been determined: Magnus Carlsen - Nijat Abasov and Fabiano Caruana - Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Because Carlsen did not want to reclaim the Chess King throne, Abasov, Caruana and Praggnanandhaa were considered to have won a place in Candidates 2024.
