Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Lagno (russian: Екатерина Александровна Лагно, ; born 27 December 1989) is a Russian (formerly Ukrainian)

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster. A chess prodigy, she earned the title

Woman Grandmaster FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(WGM) at the age of 12 years, four months and two days. In 2007, she was awarded the grandmaster title. She is a twice European Women's Champion and won two team gold medals at the

Women's Chess Olympiad The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...

, in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

, playing for Ukraine and Russia respectively. She also won team gold at the Women's World Team Championship in 2013 playing for the Ukrainian team and in 2017,2021 playing for Russian team. Lagno won the Women's European Team Championship in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, playing for the Ukrainian team in 2013 and for the Russian team in all following championships. Lagno was the Women's Vice World Champion in 2018, Women's World

Rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade'' ...

Champion in 2014 and Women's World Blitz Champion in 2010, 2018 and 2019.

Chess career

1999–2005

At junior level, she won the Girls Under 10 section of the

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...

s in 1999 and the Girls Under 14 at the

European Youth Chess Championship The European Youth Chess Championship is organized by the European Chess Union (ECU) in groups under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years old. The first tournament was held in 1991, and the under 8 category was introduced in 2007. Until 2002 there was als ...

s in 2001. Lagno was nominated by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

president to play in the 64-player knockout Women's World Chess Championship 2004, where she was the fifth seed. She reached the third round and lost to eventual runner-up Ekaterina Kovalevskaya. At the age of 15 she won the 2005 European Individual Women's Championship, held in June in Chişinău,

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistri ...

. Tied with Russian IM

Nadezhda Kosintseva Nadezhda Anatolyevna Kosintseva (russian: Надежда Анатольевна Косинцева; born 14 January 1985) is a Russian chess grandmaster. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team in the Women's Chess Olympiads of ...

at the end of the 12th round with 9 points each, Lagno won both games of a two-game blitz tie-break playoff to win the championship. The following year, she won the women's super-tournament "North Urals Cup", attaining a grandmaster norm in the process.

2008

In May 2008, Lagno won the European Individual Women Chess Championships again in

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the ...

, by one-half point in the 11-round open tournament.

2009

In 2009, she played for the club "Spartak" that won the Russian team championship and the European Club Cup in

Ohrid Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...

2010

In August 2010, Lagno became Women's World Blitz Champion. She finished third in the Grandmaster Group C of the

Tata Steel Chess Tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...

2011 in Wijk aan Zee. At the

40th Chess Olympiad The 40th Chess Olympiad ( tr, 40. Satranç Olimpiyatı), organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place in Is ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

in 2012, she won the individual bronze medal for her performance on board one.

2012

In December 2012, Lagno tied for first with

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time.

Humpy Koneru Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian chess player best known for winning the FIDE Women's rapid chess championship in 2019. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years ...

and

Anna Muzychuk Anna Olehivna Muzychuk ( uk, Анн́а Оле́гівна Музичу́к; sl, Ana Muzičuk; born 28 February 1990) is a Ukrainian chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (GM). She is the fourth woman in chess history to attain a F ...

in the women's rapid chess event of the SportAccord World Mind Games in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, taking the gold medal on tie-break score.

2014

In April 2014, Lagno won the Women's World Rapid Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk by tie-break over

Alexandra Kosteniuk Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk (russian: Алекса́ндра Константи́новна Костеню́к; born 23 April 1984) is a Russian chess grandmaster who is the former Women's World Rapid Chess Champion in 2021, and the fo ...

. On 11 July 2014,

officially approved her transition from the Ukrainian Chess Federation to the

Russian Chess Federation The Chess Federation of Russia (), known until 2018 as the Russian Chess Federation, () is the governing body for chess in Russia, and the officially recognized arm of the FIDE in Russia. It was founded on 15 February 1992, following the dissolut ...

, as filed in March 2014.

2016

In 2016, Lagno won the gold medal in the women's blitz chess event of the IMSA Elite Mind Games in

Huai'an Huai'an (), formerly called Huaiyin () until 2001, is a prefecture-level city in the central part of Jiangsu province in Eastern China. Huai'an is situated almost directly south of Lianyungang, southeast of Suqian, northwest of Yancheng, a ...

, China.

2018

In November 2018, Lagno lost to world champion Ju Wenjun in the finals of the

Women's World Championship The Women's World Championship was the first women's professional wrestling world title. History Cora Livingston defeated Hazel Parker in 1906. Though the contest was originally for the Featherweight Championship, from that point she was bille ...

. In December 2018, Lagno won the Women's

World Blitz Chess Championship The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid ...

held in St. Petersburg without losing any games.

Personal life

Born in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

, Lagno grew up in the industrial and chess-friendly town

Kramatorsk Kramatorsk ( uk, Краматорськ, translit=Kramatorsk ) is a city and the administrative centre of Kramatorsk Raion in the northern portion of Donetsk Oblast, in eastern Ukraine. Prior to 2020, Kramatorsk was a city of oblast significan ...

, later moving to

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names), is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine loc ...

. She is half Russian and half

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

. On 25 February 2009, Lagno

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

Robert Fontaine, French chess grandmaster and TV reporter. The couple had a son together, but divorced several years later. As of 2019, Lagno has four children, and is married to Russian grandmaster

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lagno, Ekaterina 1989 births Living people Chess grandmasters Female chess grandmasters Chess woman grandmasters European Chess Champions Russian female chess players Ukrainian female chess players Chess Olympiad competitors World Youth Chess Champions Sportspeople from Lviv Ukrainian emigrants to Russia Naturalised citizens of Russia Ukrainian people of Russian descent