Anna Muzychuk

Anna Muzychuk
Full name	Anna Olegivna Muzychuk
Country	Ukraine Slovenia (2004-2014)
Born	(1990-02-28) February 28, 1990 Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster Woman Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2558 (December 2016) (No. 5 ranked woman in the March 2016 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2606 (July 2012)
Peak ranking	No. 2 ranked woman (August 2012)

Anna Olegivna Muzychuk (Ukrainian: Ганна Олегівна Музичук; Slovene: Ana Muzičuk; born February 28, 1990 in Lviv)^[1][2] is a Ukrainian chess Grandmaster. From 2004 to 2014 she played for Slovenia. She is the fourth woman, after Judit Polgar, Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan, to cross the 2600 Elo rating mark, having achieved a rating of 2606 in July 2012.

Career

Muzychuk was taught to play chess at the age of two by her parents, both professional chess coaches. She played her first tournament at five and in the same year she placed second in the under-10 girls championship of Lviv Oblast.^[3]

From 1997 to 2005 she won several medals at Ukrainian, European and World Youth Championships. She won gold in the European Under-10 girls championship in 1998 and 2000, Ukrainian under-10 girls championship in 2000, Ukrainian and European under-12 girls championships of 2002, European Under-14 girls championship in 2003 and 2004, World U16 girls championship in 2005. She took silver at the European Under-10 girls championship in 1997^[4] and 1999, European Under-12 girls championship in 2001, World Under-12 girls championship in 2002 and World U14 girls championship in 2004. She was the bronze medalist in the World Under-10 Girls Championship in 2000.

She was awarded the titles of Woman FIDE Master in 2001 and Woman International Master in 2002.

In 2003, Muzychuk also won the Ukrainian Women's Championship.^[3] She won the Ukrainian U20 girls championship of 2004.

In 2004, Muzychuk started to play for Slovenia by coincidence: she was offered a contract by the Slovenian chess federation and was supported by them over the course of the next ten years. She played for the club from Ljubljana, and since 2004, for the Olympiad Slovenian national team. She represented them first in junior and then in adult tournaments, in these years becoming the strongest female chess player in Slovenia and the third best female player in the world. Muzychuk continued to play for Slovenia even when while she lived in Stryi (Ukraine) and her younger sister Mariya, twice represented the Ukrainian national team.^[5]

In 2007 she won the European women's blitz championship and was the runner-up in the European women's rapid championship, both held in Predeal, Romania.^[6]

Muzychuk was awarded the titles of International Master in 2007 and Grandmaster in 2012.

In 2010 she played in the Corus chess tournament Group B, finishing 10th with a score of 5½/13 and a performance of 2583. In the same year, Muzychuk won the World Junior Girls Championship in Chotowa, Poland.^[7]

She won the bronze medal in the Women's European Individual Chess Championship of 2012. In the same year Muzychuk took part in the ACP Golden Classic in Amsterdam along with Vassily Ivanchuk, Gata Kamsky, Emil Sutovsky, Le Quang Liem, Krishnan Sasikiran and Baadur Jobava. It was a round-robin tournament in which the rate of play was two hours and half for forty moves followed in case by adjournment.^[8] She finished fourth with a score of 3/6 and a rating performance of 2721.^[9]

Muzychuk finished fourth in the 2014 Tata Steel Challengers tournament, scoring 8/13 (+4=8-1).^[10] In April 2014 Muzychuk won the Women's World Blitz Championship.^[11] In May 2014, she returned to the Ukrainian chess federation.^[12] Muzychuk won the 2014 Ukrainian women's championship in Lviv.^[13] In January 2016, she won the women's first prize at the Masters tournament of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival.

Team competitions

Muzychuk played on the top board for Slovenia in the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012. In her first Olympiad, in 2004, she defeated, among others, the then-reigning Women's World Champion, Antoaneta Stefanova. In the 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 the Slovenian women's team, seeded 17th, finished tenth.

In 2014 in the 41st Chess Olympiad Muzychuk played on the top board for the Ukrainian team which gathered third place behind Russia and China.^[14][15] In the 2015 Women's European Team Chess Championship, she contributed to Ukraine's silver medal.

Tournaments

• 2nd place in the International Women's Hungarian Championship 2006.
• 1st place in Moscow Open Women's Section in 2008.
• 1st place in Scandinavian Ladies Open 2008.
• 3rd place in Scandinavian Rapid Open 2008.
• 1st place in Maia Chiburdanidze Cup 2010.
• 3rd place in the Women's FIDE Grand Prix Rostov 2011.
• 2nd place in the Women's FIDE Grand Prix Shenzhen 2011.
• 3rd place in the Women's World Blitz Championship 2012.
• 2nd place in the Women's FIDE Grand Prix Kazan 2012.

Personal life

Her younger sister Mariya is the 2015 Women's World Chess Champion.

She lives in Stryi with her parents and her sister.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anna Muzychuk.

• Anna Muzychuk games at 365Chess.com
• Anna Muzychuk player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Interview with Anna Muzychuk Grandcoach.com