Women's Speed Chess Championship: Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina Advance to Semifinal

They will face each other in the next round.

The quarterfinals of the Grand Prix of the Women's Speed Chess Championship, organised by FIDE and Chess.com, are completed. 

The Russian Valentina Gunina defeated the women's world champion Ju Wenjun (China) 7.5-3.5. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) won against Le Thao Nguyen Pham (Vietnam) 7-3. Kateryna Lagno (Russia) lost to Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) 4-6, while Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) beat Turmunkh Munkhzul (Mongolia) 7.5-3.5. 

1/2 pairings:

Valentina Gunina - Alexandra Kosteniuk

Anna Ushenina - Vaishali Rameshbabu.

The Grand Prix consists of four legs with a total of 21 participants. Each of the 21 players participates in three of the four legs. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich selected Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) to be the Women's Speed Chess Championship wild card. She will take part in just one of the Grand Prix legs.

Each leg is a 16-player knockout and will last five days (including one rest day after the semi-finals). The dates are June 24-28, July 1-5, July 8-12, and July 15-19.

All matches in each Grand Prix leg are divided into three segments:

30-minute segment of matches with the time control 5 minutes + 1 second per move
30-minute segment of matches with the time control 3 minutes + 1 second per move
10-minute segment of matches with the time control 1 minute + 1 second per move.

In each leg, every player scores cumulative Grand Prix points according to her position in the final standings. The two players, who score the highest points in all three legs, qualify for the Super Final.

Information on Chess.com

Information of FIDE.com