CHALLENGER Kateryna Lagno played three tie-breaks, winning two mini-matches in classical games and three in tie-breaks. The final was the only match with four classical games, followed by tie-breaks. It ended in a tie after four classical games 2-2. Then Ju won on tie-breaks, which consisted of four more quick games.
Lucky break, since the World Championship has been determined traditionally by a world champion surviving unbeaten in a match with a challenger, in classical games. Ju survived a four game classical match unbeaten (tied 2-2). Had Ju lost either the classical 4-game match or the 4-game tie break, the Women’s World Championship would have been disconnected from tradition, as Lagno would have grabbed the WC title without beating the champion in a classical match.
That the world championship has been determined traditionally by a world champion surviving unbeaten in a match with a challenger, in classical games, had also been the case for the Men’s Chess World Championship throughout the 20th century.
Note that Ju was forced to play two World Championship events in a single year, in a space of 4 months, May and November 2018. Over-all Ju has played in five World Championship events in eight years.
As you can see, in the recent past the Women’s Chess World Championship has been a mess.
Traditionally, there was Candidates Tournament, wherein the top players of the world as determined by a series of qualification events, met. The winner of the Candidates Tournament was declared the challenger to the titleholder of Women’s World Champion. They met in a match for the title of Women’s World Champion. This format is the same as the traditional Men’s World Championship system until the 1980s.
Then FIDE changed it into a knock out tournament form. Players played two game matches, knocking off each other, until the end. The winner became the Women’s World Champion. Since a single loss in a two-game match was enough to knock one off, it essentially became a game of luck, akin to Russian roulette. World Champion Ju had to endure this event in November 2018, instead of facing off a challenger chosen in a Candidates tournament in a match. She actually won the November 2018 WC Event against the odds. Thus retaining her Title of Women’s World Champion.
No one liked this system except for the idiots in FIDE who came up with it.
But that’s what you get if you come up with a powerful centralized governing structure without players’ say.
The negative feedback was so overwhelming such that even the idiots in FIDE noticed it. The strongest active woman chess player, Chinese Hou Yifan withdrew from FIDE women’s events because of the silly Grand Prix and Knock Out formats.
Hou is a three-time Women’s World Chess Champion, the second highest rated female player of all time, the youngest female player ever become Grandmaster (at 14 years, 6 months, 16 days), and the youngest ever to win the Women’s World Chess Championship at 16.
And so, FIDE changed it back to the traditional format of Candidate’s Tournament, the winner of which challenged the champion in a match. Unfortunately, a tie was and still is determined by non-classical quick game tie-breaks.
Thus later on Ju retained her WC title against Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina in the Women’s World Chess Championship 2020 (6–6, in classical games; 2½–1½ in tiebreaks), then against fellow Chinese Lei Tingjie in the Women’s World Chess Championship 2023 (6½–5½ in classical games). (To be continued)/PN
