At Porto Carras, Greece, the Belarusian won almost every match, only beaten by Dutch Lisa Schut, seeded second, in a gruelling six-hour struggle. Anastasia’s main rival, Meri Arabidze of Georgia, lost the final match, pushing Zezyulkina to the top of the tournament table.
It’s the first time that a Belarusian has won the World Championship in this age category but Anastasia’s success has been building since early this year. Her gold at the European Championship was a revelation to her opponents and experts. She then won the Belarusian Women’s Chess Tournament. She is now ranked first among the top 100 under 16s, having won numerous events over the past months.
On November 25th, Zezyulkina will be joining the junior men at a Chess Olympics in Turkey.
