Anna Ushenina, Valentina Gunina, Sarasadat Khadamalsharieh, and Kateryna Lagno advanced to the semifinals of the second leg of the Women's Speed Chess Grand Prix.

The members of the Russian national team Valentina Gunina and Kateryna Lagno scored very confident victories in their quarterfinal matches. Gunina defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu 7-3 and the reigning women's blitz champion routed Zhansaya Abdumalik 10.5-1.5.

The Grand Prix leader after the first leg, Anna Ushenina took down the highest-rated female player Hou Yifan. Despite the 200-point difference in standard FIDE rating between the opponents, it was a very hard-fought match. Hou Yifan took the lead a couple of times but Ushenina immediately bounced back so they entered the bullet portion with an even score of 4-4. In 1+1 games the Ukrainian grandmaster proved to be stronger, finishing the battle with 6.5-4.5 on the scoreboard.

The match Sarasadat Khadamalsharieh - Olga Girya was another close affair. They were going neck and neck almost all the way and reached the bullet portion scoring four points each. The runner-up of the 2018 Women's World Blitz Championship, Khadamalsharieh won the first 1+1 game. The second game became the decisive one. Full of swings, as a bullet game can be, it ended with a winning queen sacrifice by White that gave Sarasadat a comfortable two-point lead. Girya scored a last-minute goal in the final encounter but there simply was not enough time for a comeback. The final score is 6-5.

In the semifinals, Gunina takes on Lagno while Ushenina is pitted against Khadamalsharieh. The games start on June 03 at 14:30 CEST.