Murphy’s law

Finally, here is the happy end of the interregnum of 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) (pictured above, second from left), who successfully defended her ethereal crown by winning (at tie-break) the final match of an exhausting knockout race against Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Lagno (pictured above, second from right). It is also the end of the “Knockout Women’s World Chess Championship Tournament”, since from now on women’s and men’s systems will be equated. The newly elected FIDE President Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich (pictured above, first from left) wanted to personally attend both the tie-break games and the award ceremony on the stage of the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk, just to make official the end of the end and the beginning of a new beginning. “I’d like to congratulate three semi-finalists who qualified for the Women’s Candidates Tournament next year. I am sure that 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) will be waiting for the new contender to come out of this Candidates Tournament”, he said during a press briefing. Last but not least, pictured above, first from right, is Sergey Vasilyevich Kosilov, Deputy Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation, who offered his congratulations to organisers and participants. Photo © Press service of the Women’s World Championship 2018.