1. Anna Olehivna Muzychuk is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster.
66 Facts About Anna Muzychuk
1. 2.
Anna Muzychuk is the fourth woman in chess history to attain a FIDE rating of at least 2600.
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Anna Muzychuk has been ranked as high as No 197 in the world, and No 2 among women.
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Anna Muzychuk grew up in a chess family where her younger sister Mariya became a Grandmaster.
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Anna Muzychuk soon established herself as a chess prodigy, first winning the European Youth Chess Championships at age six in the under-8 girls' category and later winning the under-10, under-12, and under-14 girls' divisions as well.
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Anna Muzychuk won the World Youth Championship in the under-16 girls' category and the World Junior Championship for under-20 girls.
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Anna Muzychuk earned the International Master title at age 17 and the Grandmaster title at age 21.
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From 2004 to 2014, Anna Muzychuk represented Slovenia due to conflicts with the Ukrainian Chess Federation.
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Anna Muzychuk won an individual gold medal at the European Women's Team Chess Championship for Slovenia in 2011 and later won an individual gold medal at the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2016 after she switched federations back to Ukraine.
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Anna Muzychuk was born on 28 February 1990 in Lviv to Nataliya and Oleh Muzychuk.
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Anna Muzychuk grew up with her sister Mariya, who is two years younger, in the nearby smaller city of Stryi.
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Anna Muzychuk began competing at chess at age five, finishing in second place at both her school chess tournament and the under-10 girls' division of the Lviv regional championship.
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Anna Muzychuk was still attending school at Stryi Gymnasium at the time, but later stopped attending regularly.
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Anna Muzychuk had not had much opportunity to train with Grandmasters at this point because her family could not afford this level of coaching.
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At age 14, Anna Muzychuk switched federations from Ukraine to Slovenia due to conflicts she had with the Ukrainian Chess Federation.
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Anna Muzychuk had a long stretch of success at the European Youth Chess Championships, medalling in nine consecutive years from 1996 at age six to 2004 at age fourteen, including six gold medals.
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Anna Muzychuk won the under-8 girls' division in 1996, the under-10 girls' division twice in 1998 and 2000, the under-12 girls' division in 2002, and the under-14 girls' division twice in 2003 and 2004.
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Anna Muzychuk won three silver medals at the tournament, two in the under-10 girls' division in 1997 and 1999 behind Nana Dzagnidze and Silvia-Raluca Sgircea respectively, and one in the under-12 girls' division in 2001 behind Iozefina Paulet.
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At the national level, Anna Muzychuk won the Ukrainian girls' national youth and junior championships three times, once each at the under-10 level in 2000, the under-12 level in 2002, and the under-20 level in 2004.
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Anna Muzychuk was awarded the titles of Woman FIDE Master in 2001 and Woman International Master in 2002.
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Anna Muzychuk earned her first FIDE rating of 2197 in July 2001 at age 11.
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Anna Muzychuk first participated at the European Individual Women's Championship in 2002 at age 12, and finished with at least an even score in her first three appearances through 2004.
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Anna Muzychuk earned a sufficient number of Woman Grandmaster norms at these two tournaments, and was formally awarded the WGM title in 2004.
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Anna Muzychuk then had a significant rise in rating towards the end of the year to reach a rating of 2400 for January 2006.
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In fast chess, Anna Muzychuk won the 2007 European Women's Blitz Chess Championship and finished second in the European Women's Rapid Chess Championship.
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Anna Muzychuk first participated in the Women's World Chess Championship knockout tournament in 2008.
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Anna Muzychuk ended 2010 by reaching the third round of the Women's World Chess Championship, where as the 7th seed she was upset by 10th seed Ju Wenjun.
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Anna Muzychuk completed the requirements for the Grandmaster title in 2011 with her third and fourth GM norms to reach the 27-game norm minimum needed.
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Anna Muzychuk continued to excel in 2012, reaching a career-best rating of 2606 in the middle of the year.
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Anna Muzychuk had an opportunity to win the tournament with a last-round draw, but lost to Valentina Gunina.
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Anna Muzychuk continued to perform well in the Grand Prix, finishing in joint first with Koneru Humpy at the Kazan event.
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Nonetheless, in the final standings for the overall Grand Prix, Anna Muzychuk finished in third place behind Koneru and the winner Hou, losing out on the winner's right to challenge for the Women's World Championship.
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Later in the year, Anna Muzychuk took part in the unrated ACP Golden Classic classical tournament in Amsterdam that followed an unusual format where games were adjourned if not completed in 40 moves.
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Anna Muzychuk finished with an even score, and notably defeated Krishnan Sasikiran, a Grandmaster rated 2707 at the time.
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Anna Muzychuk had finished in joint third place at the preceding Women's World Rapid Championship event.
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In May 2014, Anna Muzychuk switched federations again back to her home country of Ukraine.
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Anna Muzychuk stated her sister continuing to play for Ukraine as well as the new federation president Viktor Kapustin as reasons for her return.
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Anna Muzychuk knocked out 62nd seed Amina Mezioud, 30th seed Aleksandra Goryachkina, and 19th seed Lela Javakhishvili without any tiebreaks before being upset by 11th seed Pia Cramling in the second set of rapid tiebreaks.
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Anna Muzychuk became the third player to win both events in the same year after Susan Polgar in 1992 and Magnus Carlsen in 2014.
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Anna Muzychuk came closest to winning the classical Women's World Chess Championship in 2017 in Tehran, where she finished runner-up to Tan Zhongyi.
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Anna Muzychuk refused to attend despite the tournament having a prize fund five times higher than the previous edition.
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Anna Muzychuk's decision was influenced by her feelings about having already competed at the Women's World Championship in Iran earlier in the year where there were similar restrictions on clothing requiring women to wear headscarves.
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Anna Muzychuk returned to the tournament and fared better in the rapid event than the blitz event, finishing in fourth place.
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Anna Muzychuk was one of the players who qualified for the Candidates tournament by rating.
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Nonetheless, Anna Muzychuk did not win any of the events and was unable to secure one of these spots.
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Anna Muzychuk was still able to qualify for the Candidates tournament by reaching the semifinals of the inaugural Women's World Cup in 2021, a tournament that replaced the World Championship knockout events.
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Anna Muzychuk ended the year at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships.
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Anna Muzychuk finished in the top 15 at both events but was not in contention to medal by the later rounds.
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Anna Muzychuk represented Slovenia on the top board at five consecutive Women's Chess Olympiads from 2004 to 2012.
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Anna Muzychuk fared better for Slovenia at the European Women's Team Championships, which she took part in for four consecutive editions from 2005 through 2011.
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Since switching federations back to Ukraine, Anna Muzychuk has played at three Women's Chess Olympiads and her team has medalled at all of them.
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Anna Muzychuk narrowly did not earn an individual medal, finishing in fourth place on the top board.
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Anna Muzychuk has represented Ukraine at two European Women's Team Championships, and her team has medalled at both of them.
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Anna Muzychuk played on the second board in 2015 in Reykjavik as Ukraine won the silver medal with a score of 15 points.
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Anna Muzychuk again played on the top board in 2017 in Hersonissos.
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Anna Muzychuk has participated in the European Women's Chess Club Cup since 2006.
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Anna Muzychuk started out playing for AVS Krasnoturinsk, winning team bronze and silver medals in her two appearances as well as an individual silver in her first appearance.
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Anna Muzychuk switched to SK T-Com Podgorica in 2008 and then Ekonomist SGSEU Saratov, winning a team bronze and individual silver for the former club.
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From 2010 until 2018, Anna Muzychuk played for perennial contenders CE de Monte Carlo, winning five team gold medals and four individual gold medals on her respective boards.
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In 2019, Anna Muzychuk switched clubs to the Kyiv Chess Federation.
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Anna Muzychuk won both team and individual silver medals in 2019 and then both team and individual bronze medals in 2021.
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Anna Muzychuk has described her playing style as similar to that of Fabiano Caruana in that they both focus on preparing openings and are good at positional chess.
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Anna Muzychuk was replacing Almira Skripchenko, who was unable to attend.
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Anna Muzychuk has a good friendly relationship with her sister, even though they regard each other as having very different personalities.
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Anna Muzychuk thinks of herself as calmer and prefers spending time with family and solitary activities such as reading or watching movies, in contrast with Mariya who is more expressive and likes shopping and doing things outside of home.
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All of their classical games against each other have ended in draws, while Anna Muzychuk has the only two wins between them in blitz format.