India’s Harika Dronavalli lost to China’s Tan Zhongyi in the semi-final tiebreaker of the World Women’s Chess Championship in Tehran on Sunday. Harika, who was aiming to become the first women’s world champion from India, bagged bronze for the third straight time. She finished third in the 2012 and 2015 World Championships as well.
Tan was declared “won on time” in the Armageddon tiebreak. According to the rules of the Armageddon clash, the player with white pieces has five minutes to make the move while black has four minutes. In this special tiebreak, the player with white has to win to progress while black only has to draw to advance. In the Armageddon, Harika was playing with white pieces.
Harika ran out of time and Tan advanced to the final. Tan will meet Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk in the four-game final that starts on February 27.
Although Harika will secure the bronze medal, her run at the 2017 Women’s World Chess championship has been praised by everybody in the chess world.
