The first Titled Grand Prix was held on chess.com from January to June. I was able to qualify for the top women's online tournament of the year, the Women's Speed Chess Championship. But first, let's talk a little bit about the qualification tournaments. They were mixed weekly tournaments called Titled Tuesdays, featuring the world's best chess players. The participants could qualify for Speed Chess Championship and separately for the Women's tournament. In one of the Titled Tuesdays, I managed to meet and defeat the World Blitz Champion Ian Nepomniachtchi!
You can watch the game below. I played with white.
Now let's move on to the final of the Women's Speed Chess Championship. The tournament was held among 16 participants in a knockout system. In the first round, I faced former World Champion Hou Yifan. Despite losing the match 3-11 and feeling disappointed with the result, in retrospect I consider my performance quite decent. Many games were exciting, but everything was decided in time trouble - and more often not in my favor. I learned a lot from the tournament, and overall it was a very positive experience.
Official broadcast of the match.
