The youngest member of the Russian team won a very exhausting match against Lilit Mkrtchian and came to the press center to share her experience with the media.

Anastasia Karlovich: Please welcome Alexandra Goryachkina, the Russian player who just won the match with Lilit Mkrtchian. Alexandra, this is you first World Championship, what are your impressions?

Alexandra Goryachkina: Yes, this is my first Women’s World Championship. I am very impressed of course. My goal was to win at least one match, and I achieved it. Perhaps I will keep moving forward.

– This was quite a hard match, you even had to play an Armageddon. What was the most difficult part?

– We were equal in classical games. Maybe I had some chances in the first game, but definitely not in the second one. As the time control was getting shorter, my confidence grew. However, I just could not hold as Black at all, no matter how well I played in the opening.

Losing the first blitz game was a heavy blow for me. I have a big problem with making comebacks – basically, I simply cannot come back after losing a game. However, here I somehow managed to equalize the score, with the opponent’s help, of course. At some point I was a pawn down and resigned myself to losing the match, however, I got lucky again. Another lucky moment occurred during the drawing of lots in the Armageddon. My opponent choose a Black pawn and it was up to me to choose a color of the pieces and I prefered to play with White as in our match only White was winning for some reason. I had Black once in such situation, and it is very unpleasant, I tell you. White rules!

– The game itself went very easy for you – you never had a worse position. What did you feel during the game?

– I never had a worse position for sure, but the main factor was a very poor time management by my opponent. By the move 20 she already had almost no time left, while I spared 3 minutes. I even thought it doesn’t matter what moves I make, for I will simply flag her in any case.

– Who is your next opponent? Have you met her before?

– Anna Muzychuk. We played only once and it was a rapid game very long time ago. Strangely, but I won.

 
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar