IM Alice Lee upset Women’s World Champion and reigning WSCC Champion GM Ju Wenjun on Friday in the 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship Quarterfinals. Lee dominated all three portions and won the match with a shockingly one-sided 9.5-3.5 score.
The last quarterfinal, GM Hou Yifan vs. GM Anna Muzychuk, takes place on Monday, July 27, at 8:00 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
Women’s Speed Chess Championship BracketÂ
Until this week, Ju had never lost a single match in the WSCC. She won the previous two editions, but this year her reign has come to an end. Lee earns $4,326.92 and Ju $673.08 by win percentage.
Ju 3.5-9.5 Lee
The commentators’ uncontroversial prediction was that Lee was the favorite in the bullet segment, but needed to stay afloat in the slower time controls to keep the match close. In fact, the American IM shockingly dominated all three segments.
5+1: Ju 1-3 Lee
Lee, the supposed underdog, started the match full throttle, winning three games in a row. Even in the fourth and last game, she won a pawn, but with limited time was not able to solve the problem of her trapped knight.
In game one, Lee played with a rook against two minor pieces, and when she captured on f4, Ju had to realize (with two seconds) that the only way to draw was to take on a7 and hold a fortress with bishop vs. rook. Instead, we saw Lee win a king and pawn endgame.
The next game, Ju had just fought her way back from a worse endgame but lost on time. Repeatedly, it was Lee who was up on time and superior in time scrambles. It happened again in game three: Ju outplayed her opponent on the board, but in the time scramble completely lost control.
Ju Wenjun hangs her rook in the time scramble and Alice Lee goes up 3-0!https://t.co/WvcMzjXKb5#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/svAJupzxEV
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 24, 2026
Ju took the last game, taking advantage of a trapped knight on b6. Though the position was level, it was far easier for Black to play, and Lee went down after sacrificing her knight for activity. It was better to sit and wait, but in a blitz game that’s a very difficult policy to follow.
3+1: Ju 1.5-3.5 Lee
Ju started the segment with a second win in a row, but Lee won three out of the next four games, with one draw.
It looked like the Chinese grandmaster would make a comeback when she strung together a second win in a row. Lee grabbed a pawn, but her queen was trapped on the next move.
The rest was all Lee. She won a game, then pulled a draw from a worse or losing position, and then won two more. The last game was the biggest fight, as Ju sacrificed the exchange for an advantage, but in the mutual time scramble Lee found a counter that reversed the trend—and won again to take a four-point lead.
1+1: Ju 1-3 Lee
When Lee won the first game of the bullet portion and took a five-point lead, it was clear that Ju needed to be on the better side of a miracle to turn the match around. She won a game and lost two more, but the match was virtually beyond recovery.
The final sequence in game one was a picture of domination for Lee, who made it so that the women’s world champion could hardly move.
Ju won a rook endgame, but it was hardly any consolation. Lee won the remaining two games, including another rook endgame in the last game.
It would be an understatement to say that the match result was a surprise. In the post-match interview, Lee remembered losing horribly to Ju in the WSCC two years ago, and added, “I was not expecting too much from this match.” The match against GM Alexandra Kosteniuk was much more two-sided, whereas in this one, “I was just trying to keep the lead up and once it got to three or four I felt pretty confident in my chances.”
I was not expecting too much from this match.
—Alice Lee
“Maybe her internet was not very good,” Lee said, adding that she hadn’t prepared too much. Though, at the 2026 U.S. Junior Championship, she played a lot of blitz, she said. Waking up 30 minutes before this match, she played some bullet warmup games, though she also said they didn’t go too well! She went 1/5 in her warmup.
In the Semifinals, Lee will take on FM Anastasia Avramidou, who had just upset GM Kateryna Lagno in the Quarterfinals. Lee said, “I think she’s very good and I’m not sure how I’ll approach the match, but I think it will be quite difficult.” That match will take place on July 27, at 10:30 a.m. ET / 16:30 CEST / 8:00 p.m. IST.
The format changes slightly as we enter the Semifinals and Final. Rather than lasting an hour and a half, the match clocks for the remaining matches will be longer, totaling two and a half hours each. Lee said she’s excited for more games and thinks it gives more chances for comebacks.
The 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship, which takes place from July 6-31, is a Chess.com event where some of the strongest female chess players in the world battle for a $75,000 prize fund. The main event sees 16 players compete in a single-elimination bracket in matches played at 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1 time controls.Â
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