Skalica, 29 August 2026 — The Queen Masters, the women’s closed tournament of the Chess Slovak Open® festival, has its winner with a round to spare. Top seed Anastasiya Rakhmangulova of Ukraine beat Oľga Sikorová with the white pieces in round eight, moving to 6.5 points from eight games — a 1.5-point lead over Haritomeni Markantonaki and Evgeniya Doluhanova that nobody can overturn in Sunday’s final round.
Six wins, a draw and a single slip
Anastasiya Rakhmangulova (2321) came to Skalica as the highest-rated player and lived up to her billing. She opened with wins over Markantonaki and Ema Walter before a surprise round-three defeat to local favourite Alena Mrvová. It remained her only loss: four straight victories followed — over Anna Lhotská, Nataša Richterová and the then leader Tihana Iveković — and after a draw with Sunyuktha C M N she sealed the title against Oľga Sikorová.
The decisive moment came in round six, when she beat Croatia’s Iveković in the head-to-head clash for first place. Iveković, unbeaten through five rounds, then lost three games in a row and slipped from the lead to fourth.
| White | Black | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| WIM Alena Mrvová | – | WFM Haritomeni Markantonaki | ½ – ½ |
| WFM Ema Walter | – | WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova | – – + (forfeit) |
| WGM Anastasiya Rakhmangulova | – | WGM Oľga Sikorová | 1 – 0 |
| WFM Anna Lhotská | – | WFM Sunyuktha C M N | 0 – 1 |
| WIM Nataša Richterová | – | WFM Tihana Iveković | 1 – 0 |
Second place and a WIM norm decided in the last round
Behind the champion everything remains open. Haritomeni Markantonaki drew with black against Mrvová in round eight, while Evgeniya Doluhanova received a point without play after her opponent Ema Walter failed to appear. Both are on five points, half a point ahead of Iveković and Sunyuktha C M N, who beat Lhotská with the black pieces. Nataša Richterová defeated Iveković and shares four points with Lhotská.
The WIM norm threshold in the tournament is 5.5 points. Greece’s Markantonaki — the event’s best rating performer with a gain of more than 36 points — needs only a draw against Walter in the final round; Iveković and Sunyuktha must win.
| # | Queen Masters standings after round 8 | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | WGM Anastasiya Rakhmangulova (UKR) | 6.5 |
| 2. | WFM Haritomeni Markantonaki (GRE) | 5 |
| 3. | WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova (UKR) | 5 |
| 4. | WFM Tihana Iveković (CRO) | 4.5 |
| 5. | WFM Sunyuktha C M N (IND) | 4.5 |
| 6. | WFM Anna Lhotská (CZE) | 4 |
| 7. | WIM Nataša Richterová (CZE) | 4 |
| 8. | WGM Oľga Sikorová (CZE) | 3 |
| 9. | WIM Alena Mrvová (SVK) | 2.5 |
| 10. | WFM Ema Walter (SVK) | 1 |
Final round on Sunday from 9:30
Round nine is played on Sunday 30 August from 9:30. Champion Rakhmangulova has black against compatriot Doluhanova, Markantonaki meets Walter, Iveković plays Mrvová, Sunyuktha faces Richterová and Sikorová takes on Lhotská. The Queen Masters prize fund is €1,500. The prize-giving and closing ceremony of the whole festival follow the last games.
All games are broadcast live at chesstournaments.eu, with results at chess-results.com and www.chessslovakopen.sk.