– Anna, how important is this victory for you? How prestigious is winning the Blitz Championship?

– I am very happy about this achievement.

– You visited the press-center two days ago. You were in the lead, but there were many interesting events since that time. Tell us about the next two days of the tournament.

– As you remember, the first day was quite successful for me – I led with a decent margin. Yesterday was a tough day, I didn’t score many points, but the opponents were very strong. I tried to do my best and was a bit disappointed yesterday, but today things went much better.

– Do you mean the first game of the second day, when you blundered badly against Stefanova? How did you recover after such stress?

– Yes, it was horrible. I handled the game well, but blew it by blundering a mate in one. Fortunately, it didn’t knock me off, quite contrary: I was very aggressive in the second game and managed to even the score.

– What was your mood today?

– As I said, I was disappointed about the second day, but today I looked forward to winning after playing 10 more games.

– Anna, you were very close to the first place many times, but often finished second or tied for the first. As far as I know, this is your first clear big win. Is this a rewarding feeling?

– Indeed, I was close to the top many times, but didn’t win many titles. Finally my efforts were rewarded!

– Who supported you during the tournament and how will you celebrate?

– First of all, my sister – she was here, as well as my parents. I dedicate this victory to my father, tomorrow is his birthday. Hopefully the weather will be fine, and tomorrow we’ll celebrate it together. I also received support from my friends and English stream commentator Evgeny Miroshnichenko.

– Did you receive any congratulations from Slovenian authorities?

– When I tied for the third place at the European championship, I received congratulations from the Slovenian Prime Minister. So far there was nothing, because the tournament just ended, but one thing is for certain: there will be no celebratory meeting in Slovenia, because I’ll travel to Ukraine.

Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia):

– This wasn’t my best day, but I am more or less satisfied with my play. I didn’t do so well in the Grand Prix and Rapid Championship, so this is my best achievement here. The second place is an excellent result, I am satisfied with it. I fell very tired right now and miss my baby, so I want to return home.

Tatiana Kosintseva (Russia):

– I started the tournament poorly, with many unexpected mistakes and losses. My initial goal was to play for a win, but after the first day there was no chance for the gold. So I decided to simply enjoy the game and have fun. I played better on the next two days, but it is important to play consistently throughout the tournament. Anna Muzychuk did it better than everybody else, so her win is legitimate.

– As a trainer of Alexandra Kosteniuk, you are staying in Khanty-Mansiysk for almost a month already. Do you also follow the progress of other members of the Russian national team?

– Yes, of course I do, although there aren’t many of them here, especially in the Grand Prix event. As a national team trainer, I simply have to. Other participants of these tournaments will also play for their teams at the Olympiads, World and European championships, so I try to observe all games to gather experience and use this knowledge later.

– Sasha finished 3^rd in the Grand Prix and took 2^nd in the World Rapid Championship. What can you say about her results?

– In my opinion, finishing in the top 3 in such tournaments is a success for any player. Sasha’s result is a bit higher than expected by her rating, so she even gained a few points. The same goes for the Rapid Championship. Finishing second in such a strong field, after such a marathon distance is certainly a success. In order to finish first one often needs luck, especially against the opponents of similar strength.

– You often talked to Alexandra between the games. Did you try to inspire her? Was it a quick opening fix?

– Of course I try to support her and give some advice, but I will not reveal all my secrets!

– Olga Girya also played quite successfully in these tournaments: 2^nd place in the Grand Prix, 3^rd place in the Rapid Championship… Will she be included into the national team for the coming Olympiad?

– Second place in the Grand Prix is an excellent and well-deserved result. She studies a lot, and it seems to help. Playing at home was also a factor, in my opinion. Of course, Olga’s results are noted, but all the decisions about our team are made by the head coach Sergey Rublevsky.

– How do you rate the quality of play in these tournaments?

– Everyone can occasionally play a bad game, but generally the quality was quite reasonable. Especially in the Rapid Championship – five or seven starting rounds were played at a very high level, reminding of men’s chess. Then the players got tired and started making mistakes.

– You are involved in women’s chess for quite a while. What distinguishes it from men’s chess?

– Men’s play is more stable, they are better in controlling their emotions. Chesswise watching men’s games is more interesting for me – they are deeper, more strategic, more subtle… Women’s chess is more emotional and less predictable – the situation often changes drastically a few times during one game. However, this is exactly what makes women’s chess so exciting.

– How do you feel after two days of blitz? How did you produce such an excellent score?

– I started well yesterday, but lost on time against Antoaneta, which was very disappointing. All in all, I am satisfied with my score. Today was a nice day, but everything will be decided tomorrow.

– Are you comfortable with the time control? Did you practice with it in advance?

– I enjoy playing blitz. I often play with this time control with my trainer, and it helped here.

– Many strong players practice blitz online, and 3+2 control is quite popular there…

– I don’t play much on the net anymore. Generally I think I am stronger in blitz than in classical or rapid chess.

– How did the Rapid Championship go for you?

– Of course I am not satisfied with my result in the Rapid Championship. I could do much better. I missed many chances in good positions, but now I can only think about blitz.

– What qualities are required to succeed in blitz?

– One should calculate variations quickly, and I think having good intuition is also important.

– Some people play considerably worse on a bad day. Does your mood affect your results?

– For me everything depends on my emotions. Everything works out well when my mood is good. And if not, then things go out of control. However, I think one’s mood in more important in women’s chess. In men’s chess it is probably different.

– Tomorrow is a very important day. Are you going to prepare for it in a special way?

– Today I’ll do all I can to improve my mood for tomorrow, and if I succeed, everything should be fine.

-          Right now after the game I’m very nervous and excited. Blitz tournament is quite complicated for me to play as I have not enough experience. I loved fast chess very much when I was young but both rapid and blitz are still very interesting for me. There were times when I played blitz much better than now, so I think this competitions are better for younger players. It’s a kind of funny game for me – we can play so many interesting positions. For example, in one game I’ve “blundered” my king although I had totally winning position.

-          What about rapid chess and Grand Prix? Is it difficult to switch between different types of chess so quickly?

-          I played normal in rapid last week. It is easier than blitz as there is more time to think. It is more about quality, but of course, classic chess is my favorite! Unfortunately I had very bad result, maybe the worst result ever. “Fast switching” is absolutely okay for me as I’m a professional chess player. I have been playing chess for 20 years and this is my job, so it doesn’t make a problem to play classic, rapid and blitz one after the other!

-          Is it important to have rapid and blitz world championships every year?

-          These tournaments are very good for professional chess players, especially for women players. They are more entertaining on the one hand, and still have good prize money on the other. I think situation in women chess is still not very good in the world, so we need these tournaments to earn money and make chess more and more popular! We live in the fast world – blitz and rapid chess becomes more interesting.

-          How do you prefer to relax after the games?

-          Here I talk with my friends and sleep mostly, sometimes I watch movies. But in Beijing when I’m not playing chess I like to go swimming and yoga. Swimming and yoga are very good for the women to lose the weight and be healthy. That’s for sure!

– Antoaneta, how did you do today?

– I played terribly and scored only +1. In some games I won on a sheer luck. Perhaps tomorrow my brain will function better.

– Did you play better on the first game?

– It goes without saying! Yesterday I scored +5. Such schedule is not easy – a Grand Prix event, then 15 rapid games, and now a handful of blitz games. Tiredness definitely plays its role, although many of my competitors are in the same situation. I don’t understand why we should play so many rounds when there are just 34 players. Previously we played only 11 rounds in rapid and 10 double-rounds in blitz. However, these are the rules, we can do nothing about it. I’ll just do my best.

– And yet you are tied for the third now…

– We shall study the tournament table after the Day three.

– Are you disappointed about not finishing in the top three in the Rapid Championship?

– Of course I hoped for a medal. I was among the leaders for the entire tournament, but the last day was unlucky for me. Still, sharing the third place in not the end of the world, although I really wanted to defend my title and cannot consider the 4^th place a satisfactory result.

– How will you relax and prepare for the deciding day?

– I will sleep! (Laughs.) There are just a few games left, but the opponents are very strong. After the dinner I’ll watch some movie and try to have a good sleep.

– Thank you and good luck!

– Tatiana, how did the second day go for you?

– The last match was a bit bitter, because I had a totally winning position with two extra pawns in the first game, but blundered the perpetual. This somewhat knocked me down, I played poorly in the second game and rightfully lost it.

– Did it affect your mood?

– Of course, after I miss such opportunities, it leaves an unpleasant feeling, especially when you lose a winning position on time. But of course this is blitz, we are all short on time, and the cost of a mistake is very high. It’s a struggle, it’s blitz.

– Does your sister help you during the tournament?

– Nadya is very busy right now – she gave birth to a girl recently. But of course we keep it touch, she follows my progress here and supports me greatly.

– What is your mood before the concluding day of the championship?

– I will keep fighting, just as I did before, and let’s see what happens.

-          It’s my third visit to Khanty-Mansiysk, and I had never been disappointed by the organizers. I hope, next two days the atmosphere will be great as it was all the time! Everything is good so far, women play stable. There were no any serious incidents which could make me “give a zero” to players.

-          Last year you were an arbiter for World rapid and blitz championships. Can you compare these two events?

-          This is my 10^th blitz championship out of 32 world championships in total in my career as an arbiter. It’s easy for me to work here as I have a lot of experience at the previous championships. Comparing with men’s – this one is a bit easier because of fewer participant. One year ago there were about 60 men players against 34 ladies here. We played blitz with a classical time control with 5 minutes per game in the past, so now I look at the young players with great impression – they can make a move with only 2 seconds! I am fully impressed by Alexander Grischuk who was able to make whole sequence of the best moves at the endgame just with two seconds per move.

-          You’ve been an arbiter on so many world championships before. Can you recall some memorable cases for you?

-          Not in a blitz tournaments, unfortunately. But I remember one case with the shortage of time at the Intel Cup in Paris, when Anatoly Weiser was playing against Alexander Milov. It was fine for him to make a draw. Milov had 7 seconds advantage against and wining position against 1 second of Weiser and he made a move and lost 4 seconds. Then Weiser answered immediately so that one second still left. Of course, Milov didn’t expect this, his time finished and Anatoly won this game. After that all of 800 spectators of this game stood up to congratulate the winner.

-          Now most of spectators are watching the games online. The new technologies are also made it possible to fix the 50-moves-rule and three-folds-repetition, claiming a draw. Are players using this opportunity to fix a draw during this tournament?

-          There were already 2 three-fold-repetitions at this championship and we agreed to fix a draw. It was six times last year during men’s tournament, now it’s easy to check with the computer. I remember my first arbiters experience 20 years ago in 1994 for the Kremlin Stars Cup, I was first time an arbiter for such important event! So I was stressed and actually remembered each move of all the 37 games! Thanks God, there were game by game only four or six per day, so it was easy to remember them all.

-          Now the technologies allow not remembering 16 games a day. How important the role of the arbiter in the era of computers?

-          First of all, I’m really happy with the work of arbiters at this tournament. In the past players mostly were aged 35 or 40 years old, it took many time to reach some tricky experience to play well. Sometimes they accumulated tricks for a long time and used them. Now the players are much younger and not prepared in this field. There was interesting story in 1965 during the championship of Poland. There was a game between two players. The time control was 2,5 hours for 40 moves and normally after 30^th move the time somehow disappears so the players were in time trouble stage. The opponent was writing down each the move when the Polish champion Tarnowsky was not. At the moment Tarnowsky asked the opponent if they reached 40 moves or not but didn’t get the exact answer. And only after his time was over the opponent said the truth that there was one move left for him!

– Aleksandra, you are just 15. How do you feel playing with much more experienced opponents?

– I am used to playing against more experienced opponents, as I do it for many years. By the age of 12 I won everything in junior chess and moved on to women’s chess.

– Are you on the same level with older players?

– I can’t say that. Everything depends on rating and experience. Of course I accumulate some knowledge, but my opponents at this championship know a lot more, so it’s quite hard for me.

– Are you friends with your opponents?

– Chess players are rarely on friendly terms, if they play on the same level. Junior trainers always say it, too. In junior chess I didn’t communicate with any of my rivals, and only when I surpassed them, we started building some relations. Chess is a very competitive sport, and I cannot understand how one can be friends with her rival.

– Are you comfortable in Khanty-Mansiysk? What can you say about the weather? Nobody expected snow in April!

– The tournaments in Khanty-Mansiysk are always well-organized, and I feel comfortable. I am from Salekhard, so I am not disturbed by the weather. Despite snow and wind I feel warm here.

– How did the first tournament go? Do you still have energy for the blitz?

– The first two days were disastrous, sometimes I lost three games in a row. On the last day I improved my score and finished at 50%, which is mediocre, but more or less okay. I still have energy for the blitz, I just need to make my moves quicker.

– Your father came to Khanty-Mansiysk with you. Is it important for you to have him here?

– He is of a great help! The first two days he lived in another hotel, and it was harder for me to choke up my losses without him, so I asked him to stay. When daddy is around, it is a lot easier for me to play. We discuss my mood and positions between the games. My daddy is a chess trainer in Salekhard.

– Do you need inspiration to play?

– No, I can do without it. I just come and know that I should play. I love chess, although it is almost my job now. I have no idea, what I would be doing without chess. If there was no chess in my life, it would be empty, and I have no idea how to fill the void.

– What will you do after the championship?

– I’ll go home and study for the school. I am in 9^th grade how, but have almost no time to study. The teachers understand my situation, but every year it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with other students. I don’t look any further and didn’t make any plans. However, I would like to compete for the World Champion title in the knockout tournament later this year.

Together with the speed chess Khanty-Mansiysk welcomes a new wave of winter – snow, wind, snowstorm… However, the tournament participants are not worried about the weather. The youngest player Alexandra Goryachkina confessed that she feels perfectly at home, because such weather is a norm for her native Salekhard.

A symbolic first move in the game between Anna Muzychuk (Slovenia) and Pia Cramling (Sweden) was made by Vassily Filipenko – major of Khanty-Mansiysk and Ugra Chess Federation President. Afterwards he said that blitz is in his opinion the most thrilling chess format. “I often play speed chess, – added Mr Filipenko, – and it is something completely different to classical chess”.

He also expressed his pleasure about the local player Olga Girya’s success in the Grand Prix event and in the World Rapid Championship. “She is clearly progressing. Also home soil, loyal spectators and trainers of our academy played certain role in her result”, – said Mr Filipenko.

The tournament will continue until April 28^th. It’s a Swiss system, 15 double-rounds tournament (each player has two games with alternate colors in each round). The time control is 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per each move.

There is no exact starting time for the rounds (except for the first one). Breaks between the games are 3-4 minutes, breaks between the rounds are about 10 minutes.