Team USA Qualifies for FIDE World Women's Team Championship Quarterfinals

With its third-place finish in Group A, Team USA qualified for the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Women’s Team Championship, held from Nov. 17 through 24 in Linares, Spain.

12 teams competed in two groups of six in the Round Robin Pool Stage, held Nov. 18 through 20 at the fast-classical time control of G/45 with 30-second increment from move one. The top four finishers in each group are seeded into the knockout stage, which begins Nov. 21.

Captain Melikset Khachiyan with Anna Sargsyan (L), Tatev Abrahamyan, and Zoey Tang. (Photo courtesy FIDE)

In Group A, USA lost its Round 2 match to Russia (which swept the stage with a 10/10 score, winning all five matches) and is Round 5 match to Kazakhstan, but defeated Spain, Azerbaijan, and Peru. Kazakhstan finished second with 8/10, and Azerbaijan, with a last-round win over Spain, was the fourth and final team to qualify from Group A.

team setup — The playing hall during the Pool Stage, featuring Carissa Yip on Board 1 against Spain in the first round. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Raul Martinez)

Playing hall — The playing hall during the Pool Stage, featuring Carissa Yip on Board 1 against Spain in the first round. (Photos courtesy FIDE/Raul Martinez)

The American team, captained by GM Melikset Khachiyan, features IM Carissa Yip on Board 1, IM Anna Sargsyan on Board 2, IM Tatev Abrahamyan on Board 3, GM Irina Krush on Board 4, and WGM Zoey Tang as Alternate. More games and highlights will be included in the final report and future Wednesday Workouts, but a selection of games is included below.

Anna Sargsyan has been in fine form following her second-place finish in last month's U.S. Women's Championship. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Pavel Dvorkovich)

Sargsyan had the best score of any American player in the Pool Stage with 2½/4, including the below win:

Tang, Krush, and Abrahamyan each posted even scores (2½/5 for Tang and 1½/3 for each of Krush and Abrahamyan). Each player’s resume included at least one impressive win (and two, in Tang’s case):

Carissa Yip, the reigning U.S. Women's champ, had a tough couple of losses after opening the Pool Stage with a win. (Photo courtesy Pavel Dvorkovich/FIDE)

Yip finished with 2/5, including a draw against Russian GM Alexandra Goryachkina and the below win over Spanish IM Sarasadat Khademalshariek.

In Group B, Georgia finished first with an 8/10 score, ahead of China (7/10), India (6/10), and Uzbekistan (4/10). France (3/10) and Ukraine (2/10) were eliminated.

Graphic courtesy of FIDE

Next up for USA is a match against China, with the winner facing the winner of Russia–Uzbekistan. The quarterfinals are an elimination round, but the losers of the two semifinal matches will join the finalists on Sunday for a third-place match.

In the knockout stage, each round consists of two matches between the paired teams. If the round is tied after the two matches (each held on the same day), a blitz playoff will be held as a tiebreak.

Note, board points will not be used as a first tiebreak. If Team A wins the first match 4–0 and Team B wins the second match 2½–1½, that is considered a 1–1 tie, and the round would be decided by blitz tiebreaks. The tiebreak time control will be G/3 with a two-second increment.

The first quarterfinal matches begin at 6:40 a.m. CST on Friday, with the return matches to be played four hours later.