Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun and two-time Women’s Blitz World Champion Anna Muzychuk advanced to the Quarterfinals of the 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship on Monday. Ju handily defeated IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham 9.5-4.5, while Muzychuk went on a seven-game winning streak to overwhelm GM Vaishali Rameshbabu 8.5-5.5, even as Vaishali dominated the bullet portion.
The next two matches will take place on Wednesday, July 8. GM Kateryna Lagno vs. IM Karina Ambartsumova will be at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk vs. IM Alice Lee will follow at 2:30 p.m. ET / 20:30 CEST / 12 a.m. (+1) IST.
Women’s Speed Chess Championship Bracket
The WSCC returns for its eighth edition this summer. The simple and classic format remains the same: it’s a single-elimination bracket that starts with 16 players. Eight qualified through the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix Spring Split, while another eight were directly invited.
The competitors fight to gain as many points as they can in three segments lasting a total of an hour and a half. They get 45 minutes for the 5+1 portion, 30 minutes for the 3+1 portion, and finally 15 minutes for the 1+1 portion. Whoever finishes with the most points, with all three segments combined, wins the match.
You can see the breakdown of the $75,000 prize fund below.
Ju 9.5-4.5 Thao Nguyen
Ju Wenjun, Women’s World Champion and two-time WSCC Champion, kicked off the season with the first match. She lost just two games in the hour and a half, and they both came in the bullet segment—long after there was any doubt she’d win the match.
5+1: Ju 4-1 Thao Nguyen
Ju started the first segment with three wins and two draws and never looked to be in any danger.
The women’s world champion won the first two games in a row, first finding the winning fork after about four seconds of thought.
The next game objectively veered toward equality, due to the opposite-color bishops, but in the time scramble Thao Nguyen allowed the following rook sacrifice—a lovely find by the Chinese grandmaster. If the rook is captured, the pawn promotes; and, otherwise, Black captures the bishop.
After a very solid game three, which was a draw, Ju picked up her last win of the segment with the black pieces, sacrificing another rook. Forced checkmate came quickly.
The players ended the segment with another solid draw, leaving Ju in a 4-1 lead.
3+1: Ju 2.5-1.5 Thao Nguyen
Game one was a near-miss for Ju, and ended in a draw, but then she picked up a fourth win in a bishop-and-rook endgame. That would be the only decisive game of the second segment, with three draws in the others.
Unlike the previous portion, Ju did land in trouble, but the Vietnamese IM could not find the decisive blows with little time. In the penultimate game, 18…e3! would have been a crushing way to take down a world champion, if it were played.
In the last game, 35.g3! would have trapped the queen and probably prompted resignation on the spot. Thao Nguyen spotted the motif, that the queen was short of squares, but 35.Rf3 didn’t quite trap it. The game went on and ended in a draw.
Ju started the bullet segment with a four-point lead, 6.5-2.5.
1+1: Ju 3-2 Thao Nguyen
Thao Nguyen picked up two wins in this portion, though it did not put the match result into question.
Ju started the segment with two consecutive wins, picking up an exchange in game two with the precise 19…Bb5! before planting it on c6.
Thao Nguyen won the next game on time in a time scramble. And though Ju picked up her last win in the game that followed, the match ended with a big oops. Ju hung her queen in one move, but shrugged it off with a lighthearted laugh.
Ju Wenjun hangs her queen in the last game of the match, but laughs it off!#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/bLNZP8vICA
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 6, 2026
Still, every win counts toward prize money. Ju earned $2,517.86 while Thao Nguyen made $482.14 by win percentage. Next, Ju will face the winner of Kosteniuk vs. Lee in the Quarterfinals.
Vaishali 5.5-8.5 Muzychuk
A seven-game winning streak by Muzychuk in the blitz segments ensured that she’d win the match, even with a disaster in the bullet segment.
5+1: Vaishali 1.5-2.5 Muzychuk
The 5+1 portion consisted of four games, with Muzychuk ending it with a one-point lead. After a solid draw in game one, Vaishali was the first to win a game, but Muzychuk finished the segment with back-to-back wins.
Even in the game she lost, Muzychuk achieved a significant advantage out of the opening. Vaishali wriggled out, and in the endgame she won a full bishop thanks to the pin. “I thought that I was going to win this game because I was a pawn up,” said Muzychuk, “but then I blundered a piece and I was like, oops!”
That would be Vaishali’s only win until the bullet portion. The two-time women’s world blitz champion bounced back right away with a win in the rook endgame.
Anna Muzychuk strikes back in the rook endgame to even the score!https://t.co/a9VhvLpdvs#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/MezYE6bmfR
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 6, 2026
Then, in a level position (but with queens still on the board), Vaishali hung a pawn and collapsed in the final game of the segment. Muzychuk consistently had a time advantage in their games (until the bullet portion).
3+1: Vaishali 0-5 Muzychuk
Muzychuk essentially won the match in the second segment, as she extended her streak to seven wins in a row. She won all five 3+1 games.
It was a whitewash. The following game, which featured the rook sacrifice 20.Rxe6!, was the Ukrainian’s fourth win in a row.
Nothing went right for the Indian grandmaster. In the next game, Vaishali had a winning attack and found the brilliant 21.Nxf7!!, but with little time left, did not find the only move to follow it up. 22.Qh4 would have won the game, but it turned out to be another collapse.
Game after game, Muzychuk just kept on winning. Her tactical vision was spot on, and she put away game six with the temporary queen sacrifice 24.Qxf8! to win a miniature.
Her seventh win in a row, the last game of this segment, ended with checkmate on the board—just as Vaishali managed to fight her way back into the game.
1+1: Vaishali 4-1 Muzychuk
The bullet segment was all Vaishali, but Muzychuk’s lead was too great. Muzychuk realized, “I just have to play every game to the end and keep it as long as possible,” and added, “When I made two draws, I felt, okay, that should be enough.” Vaishali won three games and drew two, but even winning all five games would not have saved the match.
After a draw in game one, Vaishali converted a pawn-up endgame. She followed that up with checkmate on the board the next game, after 33.Nxf5?? let go of the g2-square.
And then she won again, with another checkmate on the board.
But still, it was too little too late, and with a draw in the last game Muzychuk won the match by a three-point margin.
It’s not a surprise that she won, but her dominance in the 3+1 portion is a surprise. Muzychuk admitted she doesn’t play much online, even on a secret account, and that she focuses instead on “real games” (over the board). That being said, she enjoys making an exception for Freestyle Fridays, she admitted.
Muzychuk earns $2,410.71 and Vaishali takes home $589.29 by win percentage. Next, Muzychuk will play the winner of women’s world number-one GM Hou Yifan vs. IM Dinara Wagner.
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.
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