Nine rounds have been played at the European Women’s Chess Championship 2025 in Rhodes, Greece, and only two rounds left before the announcement of the Winners!
Today’s round was opened by the ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmaiparasvhili who played the first ceremonial move on the top board game between IM Teodora Injac and IM Lilit Mkrtchian.
IM Teodora Injac (SRB, 2454) kept the sole lead in the event after defeating IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM, 2388) in today’s 9th round. The position was very balanced out of the opening, but Lilit Mrktchian had a passive approach and allowed her opponent to take the edge and valuable space advantage. Teodora Injac transformed the advantage into a pawn up, activated her pieces, locked Mkrtchian into defensive mode and forced her on resignation.
With today’s win, Injac scored her eight consecutive victory in the tournament, heading into the penultimate round half a point ahead of IM Irina Bulmaga.
IM Irina Bulmaga (ROU, 2362) was victorious with whites against WFM Anastasia Kirtadze (GEO, 2180) who suffered her second loss in a row after a fantastic start at the European Women’s Chess Championship 2025. As in most of her games in the event, Bulmaga had some issues in the opening and slightly worse position, but then took the initiative and used her opponent’s mistakes to gain the advantage in the late middlegame. A few moves before the time control were inaccurate by both sides, but Irina Bulmaga played it better for a decisive advantage which was further improved and converted into a win after Kirtadze’s piece blunder.
Scoring 7.5 points, Irina Bulmaga closely follows the leader, and there is a full point gap between her and a group of seven players who tie for the third place with the score of 6.5 points (each).
The 10th penultimate round of the European Women’s Chess Championship 2025 brings interesting pairings, and a direct encounter for the top between IM Irina Bulmaga and IM Teodora Injac.
The 10th round starts tomorrow at 14:00 CET (15:00 local time) and live games with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and Dragana Nikolovska can be followed through the ECU TV platform or ECU YouTube channel.
All results, rankings and pairings can be found here.
Photos by Mark Livshitz, Jim Laga and ECU TV