The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Stefanova claims World title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Stefanova claims World title

ELISTA, JUNE 5. Cutting out all adventure, Bulgaria's Antoaneta Stefanova adopted safety-first methods to gain the much-needed draw against Russia's Ekaterina Kovlevskaya to emerge as the new women's World chess championship with a game to spare here on Saturday.

Following victories in the first two games, Stefanova required just a draw in the third game to seal the best-of-four-game final 2.5-0.5.

Today, Stefanova drew in 52 moves to become the first champion from Bulgaria and claimed the winner's prize of $60,000, which includes FIDE's 20 percent share.

Kovlevskaya, who removed top seed Koneru Humpy from the hunt in the semifinals, settled for her share of $24,000 out of the runner's up purse of $30,000. The Russian girl had to win to keep the title-race alive on Saturday. Playing with white pieces, she gained a pawn early but that was not enough. Later, Stefanova equalised and took the game to a drab ending and got the result she wanted.

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