Nurgul Salimova qualified for the final of the World Chess Cup in Baku. The 20-year-old Bulgarian defeated the Ukrainian Ana Muzichuk in the semi-final and achieved one of the biggest successes of this sport in our country in recent years. The two played as many as six games in their fight, after yesterday they made two draws and sent the match to a tiebreak today. After two exchanged victories in the first two games, the Bulgarian prevailed in the first of the second tiebreak and reached the final after a draw in the second. There, Nurgyul will face Russia’s Alexandra Goryachkina, who is competing under a neutral flag.
The other excellent news for Salimova is that by reaching the final, she also qualified for the world title contenders tournament. The competition is an eight-woman tournament to determine the contender for the most valuable title match against China’s Zhu Wenjin in 2025. The battle for the place of the contender will take place in April 2024. The current World Cup provides three places for the tournament and one of them is already for Nurgul Salimova.
In the first tiebreak today, which was time controlled 25 + 10, the two exchanged one victory each with black. First Salimova managed to take a point, but in the second game she was not able to reach a draw, which would allow her to reach the final.
In the first game of the second tiebreak with 10 + 10 controls, Nurgül played brilliantly with the white pieces and totally outplayed her opponent after a classically accepted ladies’ gambit. Only in the 23rd move did the Ukrainian admit defeat and surrender. In the second game, Muzichuk threw everything in attack in search of the turn, but Salimova defended in an excellent way with Caro-Kan and managed to reach a draw, if she needed it, she could have reached success in the endgame.
To reach the trophy match, Salimova started with a first-round win over Charlize van Zyl of South Africa. This was followed by the suspension of the Polish Olivia Kiolbasa. In the third came success over Mary Anne Gomez from India, and in the fourth over the Indonesian Medina Warda Auliya. In the quarter-finals, Salimova faced Polina Shuvalova and won 3-1 after a tiebreak before the battle with Muzychuk.
The battle for the title begins on August 19 with the first party. The second is scheduled for the following day, and if it comes to a tiebreak, it will be on August 21.
