Just like the match between their male colleagues Vishy Anand and Boris Gelfand, the final of the Women's World Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk between Anna Ushenina and Antoaneta Stefanova will be decided in a rapid tie-break. After four classical games the score is 2-2 with two draws, a win for Ushenina (game 3) and a win for Stefanova (game 4 today).

Stefanova levels the score in the 4th game | Photos courtesy of FIDE

The final of the Women's World Championship, between Anna Ushenina of Ukraine and Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria, started on Tuesday, November 27th. Ushenina knocked out Cori Deysi, Anna Muzychuk, Natalija Pogonina, Nadezhda Kosintseva and Ju Wenjun. Stefanova won against Marina Romanko, Zhu Chen, Monika Socko, Marie Sebag and Harika Dronavalli.

The first game was a relatively quiet Bogo-Indian. The position quickly resembled a QGD Exchange, but without dark-squared bishops. White went for a minority attack, but Black's counterplay proved more dangerous. It was only timetrouble that prevented Stefanova from taking the lead in the match.

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And the final takes off!

The second game was a short draw as the players suddenly called it a day on move 17 – actually the kind of thing we're not used to see in women's tournaments, except perhaps when the Kosintseva sisters play each other.  Well, it was quite sharp, even though Ushenina did not go into the wild territory of the Marshall Gambit.

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Game 2: a quick draw

With -26 degrees outside in Khanty-Mansiysk, the playing hall heated up on Thursday with Ushenina scoring the first full point. While the Ukrainian lady is on her own in Siberia, Stefanova is supported by Nikolay Velchev, coach Vladimir Georgiev and also Silvio Danailov. They saw a very well prepared Ushenina countering Stefanova's Chebanenko.

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Ushenina takes the lead: 2-1

In the final game Ushenina only needed a draw, but she didn't manage. According to former World Champion Susan Polgar,

Ushenina self destructed by playing safe for draw instead of normal logical chess. Same mistake by Sebag against Stefanova.

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Stefanova levels the score in the last game

Tomorrow's all-decisive tie-break starts at 10:00 CET. Here are the regulations, taken from FIDE's PDF:

3. 8. 2. 1 If the scores are level after the regular games, after a new drawing of colours, two (2) tie break games shall be played. The games shall be played using the electronic clock starting with 25 minutes on the clock for each player with an addition of 10 seconds after each move.

3. 8. 2. 2 If the scores are level after the games in paragraph 3. 8. 2. 1, then, after a new drawing of colours, two (2) ten-minute games shall be played with the addition of 10 seconds after each move.

3. 8. 2. 3 If the scores are level after the games in paragraph 3. 8. 2. 2, then, after a new drawing of colours, two (2) five-minute games shall be played with the addition of 10 seconds after each move.

3. 8. 2. 4 If the score is still level after the games in paragraph 3.8.2.3, the players shall play one sudden death game. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the player with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds from move 61. The winner shall be declared Women’s World Champion. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces shall be declared Women’s World Champion.

Saturday's winner will be crowned World Champion. She will play the Chinese Hou Yifan (who lost her title in Khanty-Mansiysk but won the Women's Grand Prix) in a longer match, which is scheduled to take in place in September 2013.