Anna Muzychuk
Anna Olehivna Muzychuk is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster . She is the fourth woman in chess history to attain a FIDE rating of at least 2600. She has been ranked as high as No. 197 in the world, and No. 2 among women. Muzychuk is a three-time world champion in fast chess, having won the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship once in 2016 and the Women's World Blitz Chess Championship twice in 2014 and 2016. In classical chess, she was the 2017 Women's World Championship runner-up.
Muzychuk grew up in a chess family where her younger sister Mariya also became a Grandmaster. Her parents work as chess coaches, having taught her the game from when she was two years old. She 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. She also won the World Youth Championship in the under-16 girls' category and the World Junior Championship for under-20 girls. She earned the International Master title at age 17 and the Grandmaster title at age 21.
From 2004 to 2014, Muzychuk represented Slovenia due to conflicts with the Ukrainian Chess Federation. She 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. At the former event, she had one of the best performances of her career with a score of 8½ out of 9 and a performance rating of 2782, also earning her final GM norm. Along with Susan Polgar and Magnus Carlsen, she is one of three players to win the World Rapid and World Blitz Championships in the same year, which she achieved in 2016. She became Norway Chess Women’s Champion in 2025.
Early life and background
Anna Muzychuk was born on 28 February 1990 in Lviv to Nataliya and Oleh Muzychuk. She grew up with her sister Mariya, who is two years younger, in the nearby smaller city of Stryi. Anna and Mariya both learned to play chess at age two from their parents, both of whom are professional chess coaches who studied coaching at the Lviv State Institute of Physical Culture sports school and have since worked and taught at the school. Their father originally taught them how the pieces move at a park where there was a large human-sized chess board on the ground. Anna 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. By the time she was ten years old, she could defeat both of her parents. When Muzychuk was about 14 years old, she had been coached by Roman Kozel for two years. She was still attending school at Stryi Gymnasium at the time, but later stopped attending regularly. Around this time, she also briefly worked with Orest Gritsak, a Ukrainian Grandmaster who had coached top Ukrainian player Vasyl Ivanchuk. She had not had much opportunity to train with Grandmasters at this point because her family could not afford this level of coaching.At age 14, Muzychuk switched federations from Ukraine to Slovenia due to conflicts she had with the Ukrainian Chess Federation. One of the issues she had was not being put on the Ukrainian national team or given the opportunity to compete at the Women's Chess Olympiad despite winning the Ukrainian Women's Chess Championship at age 13. Around the same time, Boris Kutin, a Slovenian who was the president of the European Chess Union, offered Muzychuk the opportunity to represent Slovenia, which she accepted. Although she played for Slovenia for the next ten years, she remained based in Ukraine.
Chess career
1996–2004: Six-time European Youth champion
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. She 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. She won three silver medals at the tournament, two in the under-10 girls' division in 1997 and 1999 behind Nana Dzagnidze and Silvia-Raluca Sgîrcea respectively, and one in the under-12 girls' division in 2001 behind Iozefina Păuleţ. At the national level, 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. Between those last two medals, she was the overall national women's champion in 2003. On the global stage, Muzychuk also medalled in the girls' divisions of the World Youth Championships, earning a bronze medal at the under-10 level in 2000 behind Tan Zhongyi and Harika Dronavalli, as well as two silver medals, one at the under-12 level in 2002 behind Tan and another at the under-14 level in 2004 behind Dronavalli.Muzychuk was awarded the titles of Woman FIDE Master in 2001 and Woman International Master in 2002. She earned her first FIDE rating of 2197 in July 2001 at age 11. She 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. Her performance at the 2003 edition as well as a joint first-place finish at the 17-round Lviv's Hopes tournament later in the year helped Muzychuk reach a rating of 2300 by October 2003. She also earned a sufficient number of Woman Grandmaster norms at these two tournaments, and was formally awarded the WGM title in 2004. At the end of June 2004, Muzychuk switched federations to Slovenia. Her 2004 European Youth gold and World Youth silver medals were among her earliest triumphs with Slovenia.
2005–2010: World Youth and World Junior champion, International Master
Following her many titles at the European Youth Championships, Muzychuk finally won a gold medal at the World Youth Championships in 2005 in the under-16 girls' division. She finished in clear first with an unbeaten score of 9/11, drawing with Dronavalli in the last round to clinch the title. She then had a significant rise in rating towards the end of the year to reach a rating of 2400 for January 2006. This rise predominantly resulted from good performances at the Instalplast tournament in Lviv where she had a positive score of 5½/8 against higher-rated opposition and the Slovenian Women's League where she had a dominant score of 8/9.Having already reached a rating of 2400, Muzychuk earned all of her International Master norms in 2006 and 2007, the first two of which as a double norm at the Women's Chess Olympiad in Turin and the last of which in the Serbian Women's League. She was awarded the IM title in 2007. One of her other best results in classical chess during these years was at the 2006 European Individual Women's Championship, where she scored 7½/11 and finished in equal third place. In fast chess, Muzychuk won the 2007 European Women's Blitz Chess Championship and finished second in the European Women's Rapid Chess Championship.
Muzychuk first participated in the Women's World Chess Championship knockout tournament in 2008. As the 11th seed out of 64 competitors, she won her first round match against Maria Velcheva before being upset by 22nd seed Dronavalli in the second round in rapid tiebreaks. Over the next two years, Muzychuk first reached a rating of 2500 and then earned her first two GM norms. The first was a seven-game norm at the European Club Cup for Women in 2008. The second was a full nine-round norm at the InventiChess round robin tournament in 2009, where she had an even score against opponents with a much higher average rating of 2618, including six Grandmasters rated above 2600. During the latter event, she defeated David Howell, a GM rated 2624. She came close to another GM norm in Group B at the round robin Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 2010, but fell just short with a performance rating of 2580 by virtue of scoring 5½/13 against opponents with average rating of 2637. Although she could not complete the norm, she was the only player to defeat the winner of the tournament, Anish Giri. That summer, Muzychuk had her biggest triumph of the year by winning the World Junior Chess Championship for under-20 girls in Chotowa, Poland, finishing in clear first with a score of 11/13. She 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.
2011–2012: Grandmaster title at age 21, 2600 rating
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. She earned a nine-game norm in the opening event of the 2011–12 FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Rostov with a score of 5½/9, narrowly missing a norm over the full 11 games that would have been sufficient for reaching the 27-game minimum. She reached that minimum with her fourth GM norm at the European Women's Team Chess Championships, where she scored a near-perfect 8½/9, including 6½/7 against her seven highest-rated opponents to complete the norm and earn the Grandmaster title at age 21. With this performance, her rating also rose to 2580.Muzychuk continued to excel in 2012, reaching a career-best rating of 2606 in the middle of the year. She produced her career-best result at the European Individual Women's Championship, scoring 8½/11 and earning a bronze medal. She had an opportunity to win the tournament with a last-round draw, but lost to Valentina Gunina. As a result, she only finished in joint first and lost to Gunina and Tatiana Kosintseva on the head-to-head tiebreak criteria. Muzychuk continued to perform well in the Grand Prix, finishing in joint first with Koneru Humpy at the Kazan event. During the event, she became the fourth woman to reach a rating of 2600 after Judit Polgár, Koneru, and Hou Yifan. Following the tournament, she reached a career-best ranking of No. 197 in the world in August and also became the second-highest-rated woman for the first time, only behind Polgár. Nonetheless, in the final standings for the overall Grand Prix, 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. Later in the year, 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. She finished with an even score, and notably defeated Krishnan Sasikiran, a Grandmaster rated 2707 at the time. At the end of the year, Muzychuk was the 3rd seed at the Women's World Chess Championship, but was upset in the second round by the 30th seed and eventual winner Anna Ushenina in rapid tiebreaks.