The World Women's Team Chess Championship took place in Chengdu, China from April 18 to 29. The format was a round robin featuring 10 teams which have qualified for the event. Here is the final standings:

1. Georgia - 17 match points, 25 board points
2. Russia - 15, 25
3. China - 11, 22
4. India - 10, 22
5. Ukraine - 10, 20
6. Kazakhstan - 9, 17.5
7. Armenia - 7, 16
8. Poland - 6, 15.5
9. USA - 5, 13
10. Egypt - 0, 4


The Olympic champions from Russia won silver: Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalia Pogonina, Alexandra Goryachkina, Olga Girya


The mighty Chinese team earned bronze medals: Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhonqyi, Shen Yang, Lei Tingije, Ding Yixin

The best individual results:

Board 1: Bela Khotenashvili - gold, Valentina Gunina - silver, Humpy Koneru - bronze
Board 2: Lilit Mkrtchian - gold, Harika Dronavalli - silver, Mariya Muzychuk - bronze
Board 3: Meri Arabidze - gold, Natalia Pogonina - silver, Shen Yang - bronze
Board 4: Lei Tingije - gold, Alexandra Goryachkina - silver, Nino Batsiashvili - bronze
Board 5: Olga Girya - gold, Ding Yixin - silver, Salome Melia - bronze

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Russian grandmaster Natalia Pogonina told R-Sport interviwer Anatoliy Samokhvalov about her expectations for the World Team Chess Championship which is starting on Sunday in Chengdu, China. Recently Natalia became the runner-up of the Women's World Chess Championship. The tournament was held in Sochi, Russia.

- Natalia you are currently between two world championships. Is this the proper time to be in top shape?

- I don't focus my attention on whether I am in my best form or not. If you try to peak at one event you are likely to fail at another one. After the tournament in China I have one more tournament coming up. Hence, I don't want to program myself in such a way. Of course, for any chess player the World Championship is the main event: more important than the Olympiad or than the World Team Championship. But I am trying to do my best at every competition!

- Don't you overburden yourself this way?

- It depends on the emotions. If you keep wasting them, you will get burned out. I approach my job carefully and calmly. There is no need to tell oneself: "Come on, you have to prove yourself at all costs!". Such slogans lead to fatigue and stress. 

- Were you affected by the fact that the championship (originally scheduled for autumn 2014) had been postponed? 

- Not really. I was told that the event will probably take place in sprint, so I wasn't planning to play anywhere else during this period.

- Were you expecting to travel to UAE? This was the original plan for the venue.

- To be honest, I wasn't expecting the tournament to take place there. There was no information about the preparation. Russian President Vladimir Putin basically saved us. If not for him, I have no idea who would host the championship. Even with men's events there are often problems finding sponsorship, for example, for the Grand Prix stages. With respect to women's chess fundraising is even more problematic.

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Natalia, my congratulations to you on an inspiring performance!

What were your expectations for the Women’s World Chess Championship? The bookmakers didn’t seem to have a lot of confidence in you: one of the companies estimated the odds of you winning the event at 1:41, while the #1 favorite’s chances, according to their assessment, were almost 13 times higher. Did you set any goals before the tournament?

I don’t pay attention to such forecasts. Humans are in charge of all those assessments, and they tend to make mistakes. For a player there is not much sense in studying such information. Under the knockout system anyone can pull oneself together and do well. One shouldn’t set any limits for oneself. I didn’t have any particular goals and didn’t treat it in the “the minimal task is to reach round X” way. I was mentally prepared to go home after the very first round. If I move on, it’s nice. If not, it’s also fine, because I will return to my family. Maybe this attitude helped me to focus on the game itself instead of dwelling on the results. My attention was on the game, not on the outcome.

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The World Championship finalist Natalia Pogonina told in the interview for Gazeta.ru about her path in the Sochi tournament, the secrets of Olympiad victories, Russian-Ukrainian friendship and the benefits of chess for character development.

A Women's World Chess Championship just ended in Sochi. It was won by Maria Muzychuk from Ukraine, who became the 15th World Champion; she defeated Pogonina 2.5-1.5 in the final. Natalia talked to the Gazeta.ru reporter shortly before the closing ceremony.

I want to move forward

First of all, congratulations with reaching the World Championship final. Does it feel great to become a part of chess history?

I didn't think much about it. I didn't expect to reach the final and to become a vice-champion. This was unexpected, but I can't say that I had any particularly strong emotions or impressions. Perhaps it's only now, perhaps I've just became calmer. I've won two Olympiads and a Russian championship already. I did have good results... So I don't really know what to say.

But there'll be a line in the annals of chess, "In 2015, Muzychuk played Pogonina for Women's World Championship in Sochi..."

I don't think it's that much important whether I became a part of chess history. I'm not too excited.

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