Women's World Championship: Lagno Defeats M. Muzychuk in Semi Tiebreaks; Will Play Ju Wenjun in the Finals

And then there were two. Kateryna Lagno defeated Mariya Muzychuk 2-0 in their rapid playoff, and will face Jun Wenjun in a best-of-four game final to (re-)determine the 2018 Women's World Championship. Tomorrow (Sunday) the players get their first and only scheduled free day of the event, and then the final begins on Monday.

In the first game Lagno had White and failed to achieve anything against Muzychuk's favorite, the Open Ruy, and was even in danger of being worse. Eventually she escaped, and went on to win a nice long opposite-colored bishop ending to open the scoring. Game 2 was a very different story, except for the winner. It started slowly in a 4.d3 Anti-Berlin, but Black whipped up a savage kingside attack, winning loads of material while sending White's king out for a death march. It was a very impressive and altogether one-sided victory for Lagno.

Lagno will now have a chance to win her first women's world championship title, while Ju Wenjun will try to defend her status as the current women's champion. The rating difference between the two is pretty small, and while I'd make Ju the favorite due to her experience and her already being a world champion, they're both playing very well and Lagno is at least playing in her home country of Russia.