Kateryna Lagno

Kateryna Lagno
Full name Kateryna Oleksandrivna Lagno
Катерина Олександрівна Лагно
Country Russia
Born December 27, 1989
Lviv, Soviet Union
Title Grandmaster
Woman Grandmaster
FIDE rating 2530 (May 2015)
(No. 7 ranked woman in the November 2012 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating 2557 (January 2012)

Kateryna Oleksandrivna Lagno (Ukrainian: Катерина Олександрівна Лагно, Russian: Екатерина Александровна Лагно, sometimes spelled "Lahno"; born December 27, 1989) is a Ukrainian-born chess player; in 2014 she became a Russian citizen.[1][2] She earned the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) at the age of 12 years and 4 months. In 2007 she was awarded the Grandmaster title.[3]

Career

Born in Lviv, Lagno grew up in the industrial and chess-friendly town Kramatorsk, later moving to Donetsk.

Lagno was the fifth seed for the 64-player knockout 2004 Women's World Chess Championship. At the age of 15 she won the 2005 European Individual Women's Championship, held in June in Chişinău, Moldova. Tied with Russian IM Nadezhda Kosintseva at the end of the 12th round with 9 points each, Lagno won both games of a two-game rapid-play tie-break playoff to win the championship. She won IV Women's "North Urals Cup – 2006", attaining a full grandmaster norm in the process. In May 2008, Lagno won the European Individual Women Chess Championships again in Plovdiv, by one-half point in the 11-round open tournament.[4]

On February 25, 2009 she married Robert Fontaine, French chess grandmaster and TV reporter.[5] In the same year, she became Russian Team champion with the club of Spartak, and then won the European Team championship in Ohrid. In August 2010, Kateryna became World Woman Blitz Champion. At the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul in 2012, she won the individual bronze medal for her performance on Board One.

In 2014 she won the Women's World Rapid Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk by tie-break over Alexandra Kosteniuk.[6]

On 11 July 2014 the International Chess Federation officially approved her transition from the Ukrainian Chess Federation to the Russian Chess Federation (as filed in March 2014).[2]

References

  1. Ukraine does not recognize dual nationality.
  2. 2.0 2.1 (Ukrainian) Russia bought in Ukraine Lagno for 20 thousand euros, Ukrayinska Pravda Sport (12 July 2014)
  3. FIDE: List of Titles Approved, June 25, 2007
  4. Final standings of the European Individual Women Chess Championships 2008, the Chess-Results web
  5. "Chess News - Kateryna and Robert – pour la vie à jamais unis". ChessBase.com. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
  6. "Lagno new World Rapid Champion". chessbase.com. 25 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.

External links