2008 Women's World Chess Championship

Here are the pairings for Round 3 - now down to 16 players (photo from Chessdom.com this round): Svetlana Matveeva - Anna Ushenina Hoang Than Trang - Humpy Koneru Hou Yifan - Elena Sedina Inna Gaponenko - Antoaneta Stefanova Pia Cramling - Ruan Lufei Harika Dronavalli - Lilit Mkrtchian Shen Yang - Nadezhda Kosintseva Alexandra Kosteniuk - Tatiana Kosintseva I'm just checking in at Chessdom.com to read the blog-by-blow action that is updated every 15 minutes or so: 15:50 CET We saw that coming, Hoang Thanh - Koneru draw. 16:25 CET Yifan Hou (playing Elena Sedina) and Antoaneta Stefanova (playing Inna Gaponenko) continue destroying the opposition at the World Women Chess Championship. Both won before the time control, proving the great form they are in. 16:50 CET IM Anna Ushenina (playing Svetlana Matveeva) scores important win with Black pieces! White position quickly collapsed after the tactical shot which earned Ushenina a pawn on the 23rd move. Updated at 12:52 my local time: 17:15 CET Shen Yang and Nadezda Kosintseva have agreed to a draw after reaching an endgame with reduced material. 17:25 CET Long time top female player Pia Cramling of Sweden wins the first game against Ruan Lufei of China. 17:40 CET Dronavalli - Mkrtchian draw. Excellent result for Armenian player, having in mind that she mixed the colors and prepared to be White today! 18:10 CET Alexandra Kosteniuk could not win the endgame with split pawns and the draw was agreed in the position that resembled the game of other Kosintseva - Nadezda. Results: Svetlana Matveeva - Anna Ushenina 0-1Hoang Than Trang - Humpy Koneru drawHou Yifan - Elena Sedina 1-0Inna Gaponenko - Antoaneta Stefanova 0-1Pia Cramling - Ruan Lufei 1-0Harika Dronavalli - Lilit Mkrtchian drawShen Yang - Nadezhda Kosintseva drawAlexandra Kosteniuk - Tatiana Kosintseva draw Round three, game two, is taking place on Friday at 7:00 EST/13:00 CET.