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Mariya Muzychuk
M Muzychuk 
Mariya Muzychuk, European Chess Team Championship, Warsaw 2013
Photograph by Przemyslaw Jahr, via Wikimedia Commons.
 

Number of games in database: 1,063
Years covered: 2001 to 2023
Last FIDE rating: 2544 (2506 rapid, 2326 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2563
Overall record: +268 -115 =318 (60.9%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 362 exhibition games, blitz/rapid, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Sicilian (181) 
    B51 B90 B25 B48 B30
 Caro-Kann (43) 
    B18 B15 B12 B17 B10
 French Defense (42) 
    C01 C11 C18 C13 C12
 Scotch Game (33) 
    C45
 Giuoco Piano (24) 
    C53 C50 C54
 Queen's Pawn Game (20) 
    A45 E00 A50 A46 E10
With the Black pieces:
 Sicilian (143) 
    B33 B40 B30 B45 B42
 Queen's Pawn Game (40) 
    E10 D02 A46 A45 D00
 English, 1 c4 c5 (39) 
    A33 A30 A36 A37 A35
 Semi-Slav (37) 
    D45 D43 D44 D48 D47
 Reti System (29) 
    A04 A06 A05
 Grunfeld (28) 
    D85 D73 D76 D71 D70
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   M Muzychuk vs N Gaprindashvili, 2012 1-0
   M Muzychuk vs Koneru, 2015 1-0
   M Muzychuk vs V Dotan, 2012 1-0
   M Muzychuk vs A Muzychuk, 2009 1/2-1/2
   M Muzychuk vs O Girya, 2016 1-0
   M Muzychuk vs F Lindsoe, 2013 1-0
   N Maisuradze vs M Muzychuk, 2013 0-1
   M Muzychuk vs A Muzychuk, 2015 1/2-1/2
   M Fominykh vs M Muzychuk, 2009 0-1
   M Muzychuk vs Koneru, 2020 1-0

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   European Team Championship (Women) (2015)
   European Club Cup (Women) (2016)
   European Championship (Women) (2014)
   Cap D'Agde (2013)
   Tata Steel India (Women) (2022)
   FIDE Grand Swiss (Women) (2023)
   European Team Championship (Women) (2013)
   European Championship (Women) (2018)
   European Championship (Women) (2006)
   Gibraltar Masters (2014)
   European Championship (Women) (2011)
   Batumi Olympiad (Women) (2018)
   Gibraltar Masters (2012)
   European Championship (2013)
   Gibraltar Masters (2017)

RECENT GAMES:
   🏆 FIDE Grand Swiss (Women)
   M Kamalidenova vs M Muzychuk (Nov-05-23) 0-1
   M Muzychuk vs S Milliet (Nov-04-23) 1-0
   U Fataliyeva vs M Muzychuk (Nov-03-23) 0-1
   M Narva vs M Muzychuk (Nov-02-23) 1-0
   M Muzychuk vs A Stefanova (Nov-01-23) 0-1

Search Sacrifice Explorer for Mariya Muzychuk
Search Google for Mariya Muzychuk
FIDE player card for Mariya Muzychuk


MARIYA MUZYCHUK
(born Sep-21-1992, 31 years old) Ukraine
PRONUNCIATION:
[what is this?]

WIM (2005); WGM (2007); IM (2008); GM (2015); Ukrainian U10 Girls Champion (2001); Ukrainian U12 Girls Champion (2004); Ukrainian Junior (U20) Girls Champion (2008); Ukrainian Women's Champion (2012, 2013 & 2014); 15th Women's World Champion (2015).

Master awards and norms

<Women's International Master> Muzychuk's WIM title was awarded for her result at the European Individual Women's Championship in 2005 (see below), which finished on 24 June 2005. She was aged 12 years 9 months and 3 days.

<Grandmaster> She gained a GM norm at Gibraltar 2014, but won the entire GM title direct when she won the Women's World Championship on 17 March 2015 (the date of the tiebreakers). She was aged 22 years 5 months and 26 days.

Championships

<Youth> Mariya first made her mark in high level Girls U10 competitions: in 2001, she won the U10 championship of Ukraine, and in the same year was third in the U10 European Championship and runner up in the U10 World Championship. In the Girls U12 competitions, Mariya took second place in the European Championship in 2002 and in 2004, won the Championship of Ukraine and came equal third in the U12 World Championship held in Crete. Continuing with her campaign into the next age group, she competed in the World Girls U14 Championship 2005 in Belfort and placed =2nd behind the late Elena Tairova, placed =3rd at the European Girls U14 Championship in 2006 and was 3rd in the World U14 Girls Championship in 2006. The following year she moved up another age division to compete in the 17th European Girls U16 Championship 2007 in Croatia, placing =2nd behind Kubra Ozturk.

<Junior> Muzychuk's first FIDE-rated tournament was in March 2003, when as a ten-year-old she competed in the Ukrainian Junior (U20) Girls' Championship and scored an impressive 5.5/11 in this outing (placing =5th), recording a tournament performance rating of 2189 - three years later in 2006, she was runner up in this event (to Diana Arutyunova). In 2008, she was equal runner up behind Dronavalli Harika in the Girls Division of the World Junior Championship and won the Ukrainian Girls Junior (U20) Championship in 2008.

<National> Late in 2003, the eleven-year-old dipped her toes in deep water by competing in the Ukrainian Women's Championship. Although she finished near the bottom of the field on this occasion, she learned from her experience and other similar experiences in senior chess venues to go on to eventually win this event in 2012 when she won the 72nd Ukrainian Women's Championship 2012 in Kharkiv with 6.5/9 (+4 =5 -0) ahead of Kateryna Lahno and Anna Ushenina on tie-breaks. She defended her title at the Ukraine Women's Championship (final) in 2013, winning with 7.5/9, 1.5 points ahead of 2nd placed Natalia Zhukova and at the Ukrainian Women's Championship in 2014.

<Continental> In 2005, 12-year-old Mariya dipped her toes into even deeper water when she entered the 6th European Individual Women's Championship (2005). On that occasion, Caissa again smiled on her and she scored 5.5/12 to add over 50 points to her rating card, as well as gaining her WIM title. No doubt encouraged by this result, she entered the 7th European Individual Championship: Women (2006), this time scoring 6.5/11 and adding 63 rating points to her tally. She duplicated her 2006 score at the European Individual Championships (Women) (2007), but her higher rating meant that the fourteen-year-old "only" acquired another 23 rating points on this occasion. The same score in the European Individual Championship (Women) (2008) added 3 points to the fifteen-year-old's rating. As a higher rated player, the sixteen-year-old scored 7.5/11 (placing =10th) at the 10th European Individual Women's Championship (2009) to add almost the same number of rating points (4 points) she did in the previous year's version of the event. In 2010, the seventeen-year-old was faced with higher rated opposition to again score 7.5/11 in the European Individual Championships (Women) (2010), this time placing =8th and adding 16 points on this occasion to her rating. Her first backward step in this event occurred at the European Individual Women's Championship in 2011 when the eighteen-year-old scored 7/11 and lost 4.5 rating points. 2012 was even worse for the nineteen-year-old at the European Individual Women's Championship (2012) when she only scored 5.5/11, losing 22 rating points.

Mariya then switched events and in 2013 she played in the powerful "open" European Individual Championships (2013) where she scored a par-for-rating 6/11. A few months later she reappeared at the European Individual Women's Championship (2013), faring no better than in the previous year scoring 6.5/11. She regained her upward trajectory with her run up to the Women's World Championship 2015 in the women's event in European Individual Women's Championship (2014), when she scored 8/11 to place 3rd behind Valentina Gunina and Tatiana Kosintseva.

<World> She qualified for the Women's World Chess Championship (2010) and defeated Deysi Estela Cori Tello and Betul Cemre Yildiz before losing to Harika in round 3. She also qualified for the FIDE Knock-out Women's World Championship (2012) and won the first two rounds of matches against Cristina-Adela Foisor and Maritza Arribas Robaina respectively, before conceding the third round to GM Zhao Xue.

Mariya's finest hour so far came at the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship (2015) knockout event, where she defeated Yuanling Yuan, Monika (Bobrowska) Socko, Antoaneta Stefanova, Koneru Humpy and Harika to win through to the final against Natalia Pogonina. She won the final 2.5-1.5 (+1 =3), thereby becoming the 15th Women's World Champion. For winning this event, she also won the "open" Grandmaster title. In addition, her win of the Women's title automatically qualified her for the World Cup (2015), where she played and lost to Michael Adams in the first round.

Standard Tournaments

Muzychuk was outright second with 7/9 behind Jacek Tomczak in the 2nd KS Polonia Tournament that was staged in Wroclaw in Poland in April 2007. She scored a strong 6.5/9 at the Pfalz Open in 2009. She was invited to the Corus Group C (2010) and scored a basically rating-neutral 6/13. He victims in the event included GMs Robin van Kampen and Kjetil A Lie. Soon afterwards, in February 2010, she was 2nd at the Women's International Tournament at Cotroceni in Romania. Her best "open" result came when she competed at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2014), and was the top female performer with 7/10, ahead of Zhao Xue and Natalia Zhukova on tiebreak, and winning a GM norm.

Team Events

<National Representative> Mariya Muzychuk played for Ukraine at the Women's Olympiads of 2010, 2012 and 2014. At the Chess Olympiad (Women) (2010), she won individual gold for her result as the team's reserve. At the Chess Olympiad (Women) (2012) in Istanbul, she won team bronze and individual silver (board two). She won team bronze at the Chess Olympiad (Women) (2014). Her games tally to date at the Women's Olympiads is 18.5 points from 28 games (+11 =15 -2) for a 66.1% result.

She also represented Ukraine at the World Women's Team Championships in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015, and at the European Women's Team Championships in 2011 and 2013. Her medal tally in the former includes team bronze in the Yinzhou Cup Women World Teams (2009), team gold and individual silver in the Women's World Team Championship (2013), individual bronze at the World Women's Team Championships in 2015. In the latter her medal tally is individual silver (reserve board) at the European Team Championship (Women) (2011) (team placing 4th) and both team and individual gold (board 3) at the European Team Championship (Women) (2013).

<Continental League> Muzychuk played in the European Women's Club Cup in 2010, 2011 and 2012 for the Russian AVS Krasnoturinsk team, winning individual gold for reserve board in European Club Cup (Women) (2011).

<National Leagues> Mariya played in the Turkish League 2 of 2006, the Turkish Is Bank Chess League 2007-2008 & 2012, the Serbian League for women in 2007, 2008, 2013 and 2014, the Slovenian Women's League from 2007 until 2010, the Croatian Women's League from 2009 until 2011, the Frauenbundesliga in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013-14 & 2014-15 and the Russian Women's League in 2010 & 2011. She played for Lviv in the 3rd all-Ukrainian Games (chess - women) in Eupatoria in 2007, winning team and individual gold. She also played in the Chinese League B Division in 2010 and for the Qinhuangdao club in the Chinese League A Division in 2013.

<Other> Muzychuk was the top female scorer with 5/8 in the Snowdrops and Old-hands (2011), won by the Old Hands team. She was in the women's team in the next staging of the event, which was the Snowdrops - Oldhands (2013), this time the Snowdrops winning.

Rating and Ranking History

Mariya's initial rating was in July 2003 when as a ten year old she returned a FIDE rating of 2150. Her rating rose above 2500 in December 2013 and has remained above 2500 since that time. Her highest rating to date was 2530 in August 2014 when she was ranked #9 woman in the world, that ranking also being her highest rank to date.

Personal

Her sister is GM Anna Muzychuk.

References and Sources

Most of the data from this bio are from the FIDE database, with supplementary information on these data derived from This Week In Chess and Chess-Results.

Wikipedia article: Mariya Muzychuk

Last updated: 2017-02-24 11:07:47

 page 1 of 43; games 1-25 of 1,071  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. T Berintan vs M Muzychuk  ½-½202001EYCC G10A85 Dutch, with c4 & Nc3
2. M Muzychuk vs E Jussupow ½-½952001EYCC G10A01 Nimzovich-Larsen Attack
3. M Muzychuk vs K Gabrilaviciuete 1-0162001EYCC G10C50 Giuoco Piano
4. S Vetrila vs M Muzychuk  ½-½262001EYCC G10B29 Sicilian, Nimzovich-Rubinstein
5. M Muzychuk vs K Amerika  ½-½532001EYCC G10B07 Pirc
6. M Shapir (Porat) vs M Muzychuk 0-1762001EYCC G10A52 Budapest Gambit
7. M Muzychuk vs H Zeynalova 1-0252001EYCC G10A01 Nimzovich-Larsen Attack
8. M Muzychuk vs A Savina  1-0282002EU-ch U10 GirlsB20 Sicilian
9. M Muzychuk vs K Smokina 1-0802005European Championship (Women)B39 Sicilian, Accelerated Fianchetto, Breyer Variation
10. M Muzychuk vs J Houska 1-0852005European Championship (Women)C51 Evans Gambit
11. M Socko vs M Muzychuk  ½-½1062005European Championship (Women)A86 Dutch
12. M Klinova vs M Muzychuk  ½-½502005European Championship (Women)B01 Scandinavian
13. M Muzychuk vs Y Dembo  ½-½532005European Championship (Women)B23 Sicilian, Closed
14. M Muzychuk vs I Gaponenko  0-1202005European Championship (Women)B20 Sicilian
15. E Ovod vs M Muzychuk  ½-½492005European Championship (Women)A80 Dutch
16. M Muzychuk vs T Dornbusch  0-1392005European Championship (Women)C59 Two Knights
17. P Malysheva vs M Muzychuk  1-0492005European Championship (Women)B00 Uncommon King's Pawn Opening
18. V Tarasova vs M Muzychuk  ½-½312005European Championship (Women)A07 King's Indian Attack
19. M Muzychuk vs R Eidelson  ½-½552005European Championship (Women)B07 Pirc
20. M Muzychuk vs M Bensdorp-De Labaca  ½-½312005European Championship (Women)C01 French, Exchange
21. M Muzychuk vs I K Sukandar  ½-½592005Wch U14 GirlsB22 Sicilian, Alapin
22. M Muzychuk vs A Savina  1-0462005EU-ch U14 GirlsB25 Sicilian, Closed
23. E Sedina vs M Muzychuk  0-1402006European Championship (Women)B30 Sicilian
24. M Muzychuk vs L Mkrtchian  1-0572006European Championship (Women)C53 Giuoco Piano
25. S Melia vs M Muzychuk 0-1312006European Championship (Women)B33 Sicilian
 page 1 of 43; games 1-25 of 1,071  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Muzychuk wins | Muzychuk loses  
 

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 4 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jul-07-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  alexmagnus: Are there any pictures of young Steinitz?!
All I know of are from his world champion time, and he was 49 when he got the title...
Jul-07-16  whiteshark: <alexmagnus: Are there any pictures of young Steinitz?!> Here you are; Steinitz at the age of 30 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...
Jul-07-16  denopac: Although not a world champ, this gent was pretty dapper: Max Lange
Jul-08-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <posoo: Who is da HANSOMEST male chess world champ of all time?>

A man who was a challenger but, as chess historians will know, never the champion, was Isidor Gunsberg.

A very modern-looking guy. He looks a bit like Tom Cruise.

Jul-08-16  rogge: As for challengers, Gelfand.
Jul-08-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: among the modern players wouldn't Moro be considered a good looking guy?
Jul-11-16  thegoodanarchist: <greedisbad: Mariya is the prettiest Women World Chess Champion of all time! bar none>

Surely Nona Gaprindashvilili is second prettiest?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nona_...

Sep-21-16  kamagong24: happy birthday!
Sep-21-16  detritus: She'll be at 2532 Elo, #8 in the women's rating list, on 1 October. The month before she won the KO championship tournament, she was at 2528/#8. Was it really all a bubble? She looked like she might have had 2600 Elo in her for a brief while, but I guess the title loss took the wind out of her sails.
Sep-21-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: I'd like to spend an evening with the two sisters, learning mating patterns.
Sep-21-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  eternaloptimist: Happy birthday to the beautiful Miriya Muzychuk!
Jan-16-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: Is Mariya boycotting the World Championships in Iran, or wasn't she eligible?

She was absent for the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, which her sister Anna attended (and won both), but no reason was given.

Jan-16-17  cro777: Mariya elected not to attend, out of protest at the tournament's location in Iran, where it is mandatory for women to wear the headscarf in public:

"I decided not to take part in it, since Iran is obviously not a suitable country for such a prestigious competition. It is so wrong that those chess players, who refuse to go to Iran and to wear the hijab, simply lose the right to participate in the Championship for no reason."

Mariya's next tournament is the Gibraltar Open (24 January - 2 February 2017.

https://en.chessbase.com/portals/al...

Sep-21-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  eternaloptimist: Happy birthday to GM Mariya Muzychuk! <cro777> She definitely did the right thing by boycotting that Women’s World Championship that u referred to.
Sep-21-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: happy birthday to Maria M and greetings to her sister Anna, two special chess queens.

Just realized that Anna has played for Slovenia for the past ten years. I wonder if this occurs for financial reasons, a different country providing a lucrative stipend?

Nov-15-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Mariya makes the 2018 knockout semi finals

<https://en.chessbase.com/portals/al...>

Jan-30-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  beenthere240: Doing well at Gibraltar!
Jun-18-19  Chicgirl: Earlier today, in the closing ceremony, FIDE awards the Brilliancy Prize to the Mariya Muzychuk-Aleksandra Goryachkina game.

08:00-11:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXu... 08:00-11:20
The fact that FIDE spends nearly 5 minutes on this award in the closing ceremony is another sign of Arkady Dvorkovich's growing commitment to promoting women's chess. Not just an enormous increase in the monetary front but also the keen emphasis on the beauty and quality of the great games.

Jun-18-19  Chicgirl: Mariya & Miro’s analysis of the M Muzychuk-Goryachkina game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGV...
Sep-21-19  botvinnik64: Mariya and Anna are true champions of the game, great ambassadors, as well. May they both play for...40 (?) more years!
Feb-28-20  Pyrandus: Who is Marya's Husband?
Feb-29-20  jith1207: Wikipedia says Anna lives in Stryi with her parents and her sister.

They're still young, single... And open for relationship?

Sep-21-20  Ironmanth: Happy birthday, Mariya! Thanks for all you've given to chess. C=E=L=E=B=R=A=T=E!
Sep-21-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  0ZeR0: Happy birthday, GM Mariya Muzychuk!
Mar-27-22  sakredkow: What is going on with the Muzychuks? I thought they were from Ukraine?
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