HomeChess2026 Women's Speed Chess Championship Ro16: Lee Edges Kosteniuk In Overtime, Lagno...

2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship Ro16: Lee Edges Kosteniuk In Overtime, Lagno Eliminates Ambartsumova

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By sportsarena.pro
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GM Kateryna Lagno and IM Alice Lee advance to the Quarterfinals of the 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship after winning their Round of 16 matches on Wednesday. Lagno’s victory was never in doubt as she scored 10.5-3.5 on the way to eliminating IM Karina Ambartsumova, while Lee vs. former women’s world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk was much closer. The American narrowly prevailed by two points only after tiebreaks.

The next two matches will take place on Friday, July 10. GM Divya Deshmukh vs. IM Rose Atwell will be at 10 a.m. ET / 16:00 CEST / 7:30 p.m. IST, followed by GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. Afruza Khamdamova at 12:30 p.m. ET / 18:30 CEST / 10 p.m. IST .

Women’s Speed Chess Championship Bracket 

Lagno 10.5-3.5 Ambartsumova

Lagno’s 7-0 start to the match put her on a smooth path to victory. It wasn’t until the bullet segment that she’d lose a single game. Lagno earned $2,625, while Ambartsumova took home $375 by win percentage.

5+1: Lagno 5-0 Ambartsumova

Lagno won all five games in the blitz portion, a perfect start.

Game one may look like a smooth conversion of an extra pawn without the engine’s all-seeing eye, but the eval bar tells a different story. Ambartsumova missed the tactical chance to save the game with 43…Rxd7! (Black had three chances to play this), but the bigger miss was that on move 46 Lagno hung her rook on d1. All this was missed in the time scramble and Lagno put together the first win of a long streak.

That game was probably Ambarstumova’s only winning chance in the first segment, and subsequent game after game went the way of the three-time women’s blitz world champion. Lagno’s Alapin Sicilian (with White) succeeded in winning three times, and she employed the offbeat setup with 7.g3 repeatedly. The last game of the segment was perhaps the most dominant, as she gained space first with a4-a5, then c4-c5, and suffocated the black pieces.

3+1: Lagno 3-1 Ambartsumova

The story of the 3+1 segment was that even when Lagno was losing, she drew or won the game anyway. Ambartsumova outplayed the grandmaster a handful of times, but with little time on the clock, she didn’t manage to put away a single win. Lagno won three games and drew two.

The first game was a signal of what was to come: Ambartsumova would get winning positions and then collapse. She was up a pawn in game one, but got mated on the light squares in the opposite-color bishop endgame. 

The next miss was worse, as she was a pawn up in the rook endgame but, with four seconds, hung her rook.

The last two games ended in draws, though Ambartsumova was again winning in both of them. In the first draw, for instance, she was up an exchange but allowed a draw by perpetual check. This was the first non-loss she scored in the match.

After letting go of another winning position in a heavy-piece endgame, Ambartsumova ended the segment with one point against eight.

1+1: Lagno 2.5-2.5 Ambartsumova

This was Ambartsumova’s best segment, though it was hardly enough to come back in the match.

Lagno won the first game, but in game two, Ambartsumova scored her first win of the match after Lagno sacrificed her knight for a checkmating attack that wasn’t there.

In the remaining games, Lagno won again, made a solid draw, and then lost again. But it didn’t change the fact that she’s through to the Quarterfinals and will face the winner of IM Polina Shuvalova vs. FM Anastasia Avramidou.

Kosteniuk 7-9 Lee

Lee won an extremely close match, only breaking away in tiebreaks after evening the score in the bullet segment. She earns $2,343.75 and Kosteniuk $656.25 by win percentage.

5+1: Kosteniuk 3-1 Lee

Kosteniuk took off to a two-point lead in the first segment, with two wins and two draws.

Game one was a bishop endgame that, if it favored anyone, favored Lee. But the American, playing too quickly, blundered her bishop with a premove.

Game two went similarly, with Lee achieving a winning advantage but, short on time, allowing a devilish cheapo (played with one second on the clock). After the queen is taken, and Black recaptures, she will promote the pawn on h1 next.

Lee stopped the bleeding with a draw (she was in trouble in the opening), and a sharp final game that also ended in a draw, leaving Kosteniuk in the lead by two points.

3+1: Kosteniuk 2-3 Lee

In the second segment, Lee cut her opponent’s lead down to one, and both players must have known that she was going to be the favorite in the bullet section.

Lee won an easy game one after trapping a knight on the edge of the board. After a few more moves, she was up an entire rook.

Lee won again to even the score, but in game three Kosteniuk correctly evaluated that the pawn endgame was winning, and she regained the lead.

Lee evened the score again, outplaying Kosteniuk in a rook endgame, but it was short-lived. Kosteniuk once again grabbed a one-point lead going into the bullet segment. The highlight of that last game, as Kosteniuk converted an extra pawn advantage, was her bewildered expression when she realized she’d hung her rook for one move—and, the kicker, as GM Judit Polgar showed, was that White was still winning anyway, even if the rook were captured.

1+1: Kosteniuk 1.5-2.5 Lee

Lee made her comeback in the bullet portion, scoring one more point than her opponent. It should be mentioned that earlier this year Lee was the first woman to break the 3000 rating on this website.

As the favorite in this time control, Lee sped her way to a win in game one, and she looked like she was easily going to win game two with an extra pawn until she missed a little pawn move that had severe consequences. On autopilot, she pushed her pawn to a4 (the move Polgar shouted to be played as well), and on the next move found her rook was trapped!

Even still, the game went off the rails, and Lee ended up with two queens against a queen and rook. Kosteniuk delivered checkmate.

Still, Lee evened the score once again by winning the next game, finding a way to liquidate into the pawn endgame exactly when she needed to.

With a solid draw, with neither player wanting to risk it all in the last game, they ended with a 6.5-6.5 score and went to tiebreaks.

Overtime: Kosteniuk 0.5-2.5 Lee

Tiebreaks were four bullet games, followed by armageddon if necessary. In the end, it wasn’t even close.

Lee won both times with White and made a draw with the black pieces. The first game was one of the most crushing conversions in the match, and Polgar was clearly impressed as she announced the final moves with gusto.

Kosteniuk was on the verge of winning in game two, but just couldn’t put it together in the little time she had. Despite the bishop being of the wrong color in this endgame, Kosteniuk could have blocked out the enemy king from reaching the corner. Instead, she allowed the draw.

That was the final blow. In a must-win final game, with the black pieces, Kosteniuk found herself by move 29 having eight seconds against 30. The writing was on the wall, and Lee went on to win again.

Lee is the only international master to reach the Quarterfinals so far, and she commented on how she turned the match around. “Even though the first two games were obviously not great, the third game… I was able to draw, so after that I got a bit untilted.” She also made an opening switch from the Caro-Kann, which wasn’t working so well, to the Petroff, she said.

Up next, she plays World Champion Ju Wenjun. In 2024, as she recalled in the interview, Lee lost their encounter 9.5-5.5 in the Quarterfinals. On the upcoming challenge, she said: “I think this will be a difficult match, she’s an extremely strong player. I’ll just have to adjust my mentality and focus on improving in the 5+1 section.”

She was also asked how she’d expect to perform in a WSCC match against Judit Polgar. She answered 3-10, “if I’m generous to myself,” though Polgar responded: “I think I’ve never played a bullet game in my life!”

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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