Press conference with Kateryna Lagno

Having won the semi-final match against Mariya Muzychuk 3-1, Kateryna Lagno answered journalists’ questions.

– Kateryna, congratulations on winning the math! Please tell us how two rapids game were going on.

– Thank you. There was a long fight in our first game. It looks like the ending was a drawish one but somehow I won it despite having opposite-colored bishops. But it was very hard to defend it in a time trouble. During the second game, Mariya looked really tired and she just collapsed.

– Which match of this event do you consider to be the best one for you so far?

– I think my match against Lei Tingjie, which I won 2-0. She played a bit passively in the first game and I was prepared better  so it went without any blunders, it was a good game. And the second game was also quite nice from my side.

– You are going to play with Ju Wenjun in the final. What is the history of your previous encounters? What it the score?

–  I have no idea. We have played a lot of games.

– This tournament is very tough. Still, do you have time to watch the Carlsen – Caruana match?

–  Not till the end because otherwise I will not have time to sleep at all.

– But what’s your impressions of it so far?

– It looks like Carlsen is not in his best shape. However, he was also not in his best shape in his match against Karjakin, but finally he won. So maybe this is his strategy to play this way and then to win on tie-break.

– You have qualified to the Women’s Candidate Tournament in 2019. Do you support the idea of the changes in the system of Women’s Chess Championship?

– We will see because I don’t know precisely the rules of the Candidates Tournament. I need to check and read the Regulations to have more information and then to build up opinion. I just want to finish this event and then to see.

– Three semi-finalists here were were world champions. Did you feel any additional pressure because of that?

– No, I have never thought about it. And if we think about all the players who participated in this Championship there were even more former world champions in the tournament’s crosstable. So I didn’t think about it, I was just playing chess.