WIM (2011); WGM (2012); GM (2018); World U10 Girls Champion (2008); European U12 Girls' Champion (2010); U14 Girls European Champion (2011); U14 Girls World Champion (2011); U18 European Girls Champion (2012); World U18 Girls Champion (2012); World Junior (Girls) Champion (2013 & 2014) and Russian Women's Champion (2015, 2017 and 2020).

Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina (Александра Юрьевна Горячкина) is the daughter of Jouri Goriatchkin.

Early years

Goryachkina's first FIDE rated tournament was at the Anapa 2007 Girls event staged in Russia in August 2007; the then eight-year old scored 4/9 and achieved her first positive result against a rated opponent, a draw against Maria Lysenko. In her next tournament, the 4th E.G.Zudov Memorial event (C Division) staged in July 2008, in which her father also competed, she scored her first win against a rated opponent, Alexander Povodyr. The following month saw the nine-year old score her first win against a titled opponent, 14 year old WFM Anastasiya Geller (now Geller) at the Samara 2008 Girls open. Two months later she won the World Girls U10 Championship, the first of many championship wins.

Title norms

<Woman International Master> Goryachkina earned a double-WIM norm at the European Individual Women's Championship in 2011 when she scored 5.5/11. She scored her second (de facto third) and final WIM norm at the 2011 Czech Open on 30 July 2011. During the latter tournament, her live rating rose to above the 2200 mark required under the FIDE regulations and so her WIM title took immediate effect at the age of 12 years 10 months and 2 days.

<Woman Grandmaster> Her initial WGM norm came at the same event in which she gained her final WIM norm, ie the Czech GM Open in Pardubice in July 2011. Goryachkina won her second WGM norm with 5.5/9 at the Moscow Open 2012 E in February 2012. Her third WGM norm came at the European Individual Women's Championship (2012) with her score of 5/9 on 13 March 2012, becoming a WGM at the age of 13 years 5 months and 14 days, the youngest WGM in the world at the time and the youngest since Yifan Hou (12 years 3 months).

<International Master> Between 2013 and 2018, Goryachkina picked up a dozen IM norms, including half a dozen double norms garnered at continental championships in Europe. These were all lodged with FIDE (https://ratings.fide.com/title_norm...), however, for some reason the title was not awarded to her before she won her GM title in 2018. As Goryachkina had achieved a rating of 2400 well before she won her third IM norm on 8 March 2015, the date of effect of her IM title, had it been granted by FIDE, would have been retrospective to that date when she was aged 16 years 5 months and 8 days.

<Grandmaster> Goryachkina's first GM norm came when she won the Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) (2015) with 8/11. She won her second GM norm at the European Individual Championship (Women) (2017) where she placed second with 8/11. Her third GM norm was earned at the Aeroflot Open (2018) when she scored 4.5/9 against opponents that included 8 grandmasters, finishing on 28 February 2018. She therefore became a grandmaster at the age of 19 years and 5 months.

Championships

<Youth (Age) - Girls> Goryachkina won the Russian PriFR 2008 Girls U18, the European U12 Girls Championship 2010, placed second in the European U12 Girls Championship in 2009 behind Cecile Haussernot and equal second in the World Girls U12 Championship, also in 2009, behind Sarasadat Khademalsharieh. In 2010 she won the European U12 Girls' Championship with 8/9, on tiebreak ahead of Iulija Osmak. She subsequently won the European Girls U14 Championship held in Albena in Bulgaria in September 2011 with a score of 7.5/9 (+7 -1 =1). In November 2011, she won the World Girls U14 Championship held in Brazil with a stunning score of 9/9 and a 2700+ TPR, gaining her 20 Elo for that event alone.

In August 2012, she won the European U18 Girls Championship with 7.5/9 (+7 -1 =1), winning the title at the age of 13 years and nearly 11 months. In November 2012, she won the World Girls U18 Championship with 9.5/11 at the age of 14 years 1 month and 21 days.

<Youth (Age) - Open> In April 2013, Goryachkina played in the Russian U19 open (boys and girls) Championship and was runner up with 6.5/9 to Rail Makhmutov, who was the only player to defeat her in this event. Goryachkina participated in the World U18 Championships in 2013 and 2014, scoring 6.5/11 on both occasions.

<Junior (U20) Girls> In April 2012, the 13 year old placed equal second in the Russian Girls U20 Championship behind 20 year old IM Anastasia Bodnaruk. She also contested the World Junior Championship (Girls) (2012), scoring 8/13, 1.5 points from the lead, and placing equal eleventh; it was (for her) a sub-par performance. Subsequently, she won the World Junior Championship (Girls) (2013) with 10.5/13, a point clear of the field, and still a couple of days shy of her 15th birthday, following up with a successful defence of her title at the World Junior Championship (Girls) (2014) with an even more decisive 11/13, a point and a half clear of the field and runner-up Sarasadat Khademalsharieh.

<National (Women)> Her first attempt at the national women's title was in 2010 when as a ten year old she played in the Russian Women's Championship FL scoring 4/9. In June 2013, she placed =2nd (3rd on tiebreak) at the 66th Russian Championship Higher League (Women) (2013), a point behind the winner Anastasia Bodnaruk and thereby qualified for the Russian Women's Superfinal 2013 where she placed equal fourth with 4.5/9 (par for rating). Then followed =3rd with 6/9 at the Russian Women's HL Championship 2014 and =3rd with 5.5/9 at the Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) (2014). The following year went one better to be the outright winner of the Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) (2015) with 8/11, picking up a combined IM norm (her fifth) and GM norm (her first) for her efforts. She again won the championship in 2017 when she scored 7/11 plus a tiebreak win against Natalija Pogonina at the Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) (2017), for another IM norm.

<National (Open)> Goryachkina competed for the first time in the Russian Higher League Championship in 2016, and at her first attempt scored 3/9, slightly below rating par, although she did defeat Denis Khismatullin. She achieved a much better result at the Russian Championship Higher League (2018) where she scored 5.5/9 (+2 =7), a point from the lead.

<Continental (Women)> Goryachkina was ten when she first participated in a continental women's open, the 10th European Individual Women's Championship (2009) in which she scored one win and two draws in the ten round event. In March 2012, Goryachkina scored 6/11 (TPR 2351) at the European Individual Women's Championship (2012), earning her 3rd WGM norm. In July-August 2013, she competed in the European Individual Women's Championship (2013), scoring 6.5/11 and her first IM norm after 9 rounds. A year later she scored 6.5/11 at the European Individual Women's Championship (2014). More IM norms flowed from her results at the European Individual Women's Championship (2015) (7/10 for the norm, 7/11 event result) and at the European Individual Championship (Women) (2016) (7/11 norm requisite and event result). In 2017, she was equal second with 8/11 at the European Individual Championship (Women) (2017) half a point behind the winner Nana Dzagnidze.

<Continental (Open)> In her first attempt at a continental open, she scored 5/11 at the European Individual Championship (2014), earning an IM norm. She scored 6.5/11 at the European Individual Championship (2015) and 6/11 at the European Individual Chess Championship (2017), earning IM norms in both events. She also scored 6/11 in the European Individual Chess Championship (2018).

<World (Women)> Goryachkina competed in the Women's World Championship Knockout Tournament (2015), which was a knock out event. She won her first round against Lilit Mkrtchian, but was defeated in the second round by Anna Muzychuk. She subsequently played in the Women's World Championship Knockout Tournament (2017), defeating Mo Zhai in the first round but losing to Vietnam's Le Thao Nguyen Pham in the second round.

Tournaments

<2011-2012> Goryachkina played in a number of tournaments before 2011, performing well, sometimes very well, for her rating but her first real success was when the then 11 year old came equal first at the Czech Open 2011 - J - open rating tournament and then a few months later, aged 12, won the 2011 Lyudmilla Rudenko Memorial Tournament, one of the qualifier tournaments for Russia’s Women’s Cup, ahead of 8 WGMs and an IM, by a point with 7.5/9 (TPR 2441), earning her first WGM norm in the process. She scored 5/9 in the 2011 Chigorin Memorial, including a win against Moldavian IM Vladimir Hamitevici. Despite a slightly below par performance (3/9) at the 2012 Aeroflot Open B, a strong 5.5/9 at the 2012 Moscow Open E improved her rating for the rating period to March and earned her 2nd WGM norm, although she slipped two places in her open age division. In March she won the Rector Cup 2012 held in Kharkov with 7/9, 1.5 points clear of the field. In June she won the V. Dvorkovich Cup 2012 (juniors) on tiebreak ahead of Grigoriy Oparin and in July, she scored a solid 5/9 in the Czech Open - GMA, although her record against her 5 GM opponents was =2 -3. She beat Olga Girya to win the Final of the Russia Cup for Women in December 2012, held in Khanty-Mansiysk.

<2013-2014> Perhaps over-awed by the occasion, Goryachkina's first participation at Wijk aan Zee was unsuccessful, as she scored only 3.5/13 at Tata Steel Group C (2013), winning only one game, placing 12th and shedding 16 rating points. She recovered some of these points with a solid 5.5/9 at the Karpos Open held in March 2013 in Macedonia. She recovered further points with her =2nd placement at the Russian U19 Boys Championship in April, bringing her back up to the 2400 mark. She finished 2013 with a solid 4/9 at the powerful IX Gubernators Cup Ugra 2013 open, including a win over Boris Savchenko. September 2014 saw her placing equal first at the all-female Satka Autumn event in Russia.

<2015-2018> Goryachkina placed second at the Moscow Open B staged in January 2015, scoring 7/9, a point behind the winner, Chinese junior Tingjie Lei. She played in the powerful Qatar Masters (2015) and scored 4.5/9, more than enough for another IM norm. She gathered another IM norm at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2016) with 6/10, another at the Aeroflot Open B a month later and her twelfth IM norm in February 2018 at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2018) with 5/9, shortly before she won her third GM norm at Aeroflot Open (2018) a few weeks later at the end of February. Other results in this period include a strong 5/9 results (equal fifth) at the XIII Ugra Governor's Cup in November 2017.

Team Events

In the European Team Championship (Women) (2013), Goryachkina played board 4 for Russia, which won silver. She played board 3 for Yamal Yamalo-Nenets in the Russian Team Championship (2013), the Russian Team Championship (2014) and the Russian Team Championship (2015). She scored 6/10 for her team's 2nd board at the 2014 World youth team chess Olympiad. In 2015 she won team and individual silver (for board 4) at the Women's World Team Championship,

Rapid/Blitz

Goryachkina's first FIDE-rated rapid events were in 2012 when she played in the European Women's rapid and blitz championships. However her first good results in this form of the game came when she placed =2nd at the Orsk-Open 2014 Blitz with 9/11 and =2nd in the Rapid division of that event with 5.5/7. In December 2013, when fourteen years old, she broke even with 5/10 at the Ugra rapid against opponents which included seven grandmasters. Later that year she competed in the Women's World Rapid and Blitz championships, breaking exactly even in both events, that representing basic par for rating in the rapid, and a big increase (+83) in rating in the blitz. In August 2014, she was equal second at both the Orsk Open Rapid and Blitz events, both being par for rating results.She finished a point from the lead with 7.5/11 at the Ugra Rapid held in November 2014, gaining 40 rapid ratings points. Come March 2015, Goryachkina placed =3rd at the Russian Women's Rapid Championship, behind Karina Ambartsumova and runner up Ekaterina Ubiennykh. In October 2016, she was equal first with Alexandra Kosteniuk in the 4th stage Russian Women's Rapid Championship with 8/10 (gaining 32 rapid rating points), whilst in the 4th stage Russian Women's blitz championship she scored 14.5/22, outright sixth and gaining 68 blitz rating points.

In 2017, she again came in equal 2nd, this time with 8/11, at the Women's Rapid Championship held in Sochi, half a point behind the winner Anastasia Bodnaruk. In the blitz event, she was again half a point from the lead, placing third with a ratings enhancing 14.5/20 behind the joint leaders Bodnaruk and Alina Kashlinskaya. She also scored strongly, without being on the leader board, at the Women's World Rapid Championship in December 2017 in Saudi Arabia (9.5/15) and at the World Women's Blitz Championship (12.5/21) a few days later at the same venue.

Rating

Goryachkina has been one of the world's top female junior players since she was 13 and has been the number one Junior (U20) in the female ranks from January 2015 until March 2016, in July 2016 and since January 2018. She entered the ranks of the top 100 women players in the world in August 2012 before her 14th birthday, remaining in the top 100 since. She entered the Women's top 10 in July 2018. Her highest rating to date is 2509 was achieved in March 2016, although she returned to that rating as of July 2018. Her August 2018 rating will be higher due to excellent results in the Russian Higher League Championship (see above) which added another 25 points to her rating.

Sources

FIDE player card.

References

http://wyco2014.chess.hu/?lang=en, http://www.chess-results.com/tnr153..., Everipedia article: https://everipedia.org/wiki/Aleksan... Wikipedia article: Aleksandra Goryachkina