Ju Wenjun Wins 2024 Women's SCC Title, Excels In All Speed Chess Formats

Four-time Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun won the 2024 Julius Baer Women's Speed Chess Championship after defeating IM Polina Shuvalova in the Final. The match score was 12.5-9.5, and Ju won every one of the three segments by a point.

The Chinese grandmaster takes home $15,409.09 along with her first WSCC title.

Julius Baer Women's Speed Chess Championship Bracket 

• 5+1: Shuvalova 3.5-4.5 Ju
• 3+1: Shuvalova 3-4 Ju
• 1+1: Shuvalova 3-4 Ju

SmarterChess claimed 64 percent odds for Ju to win the match, correctly anticipating her to win by three points, though it expected her to earn a two-point lead in the 5+1 portion and a one-point lead in the 1+1. The world champion once participated in the 2020 WSCC but finished in ninth place; this time, her ascent to the top was unstoppable.

5+1: Shuvalova 3.5-4.5 Ju

Ju got off to a fiery start, but Shuvalova managed to curb the momentum to just a one-point lead in the 5+1—it could have been worse.

The Chinese grandmaster won the first two games off the bat. She actually landed a checkmate on the board with the white pieces in the first game. In game two, she provoked her opponent to sacrifice a piece and, later, exploited the weak dark squares of the enemy camp.

Shuvalova won her first game on time in the next game, in an endgame where she was a piece up but one that the computer pointed out was equal. And then she evened the score when Ju blundered a full rook in the next game, as 34.Qc2?? bxc4 defended the black queen. 

Ju's main weakness throughout the match was losing control of positions, even winning ones, when she got down to about 10 seconds—though this didn't happen enough times for Shuvalova to dig her way back in.

Ju won the game that followed to finish with a one-point lead, and two draws after that completed the segment. The move 33...Nb3 was a dagger that forced immediate resignation.

33...Nb3!, destabilizing the white rook, brings Ju Wenjun back into the lead! 3.5-2.5.https://t.co/DeGZxttQ32#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/uvzvhfR4x8

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 5, 2024

3+1: Shuvalova 3-4 Ju

The very first game of this segment is the Game of the Day. It started as a solid Queen's Gambit Declined, where Shuvalova equalized comfortably. However, when Black declined the threefold repetition with 28...Qb7?, Ju executed the advantage perfectly. GM Dejan Bojkov unpacks the action in the annotations below.

Shuvalova was pressing in the queen endgame that followed but lost on time, and then got gradually outplayed in the next, sinking to a four-point deficit. GM Benjamin Bok observed at this point, "When you think about Ju Wenjun in this event, one word that comes to mind is dominance. She has won every match with a big, big margin."

When you think about Ju Wenjun in this event, one word that comes to mind is dominance.

—Benjamin Bok

But, as if in an attempt to prove him wrong, Shuvalova won three out of the last four games, cutting the deficit down to two. In two of those victories, Ju was much better or winning but had a meltdown when going under 10 seconds, the worst example being the last game where she went from being a clear pawn up to blundering her entire kingside.

1+1: Shuvalova 3-4 Ju

After losing the first two games, Shuvalova managed to cut the lead once again down two points, but in the final minutes of the bullet portion, she was unable to put a larger dent than that in the lead.

Ju won the first two games of the segment, but there was a minor crisis when Shuvalova retorted with two wins of her own, gaining momentum. The smothered checkmate in the first of those two games was a pretty one:

Then Ju lost on time in a winning position.

If Shuvalova had managed to win one more, we might have talked about a comeback, but the world champion took control and ended the match favorably. She won the next two games to clinch the match, even if she lost the final one.

Her attack with the black pieces in an Exchange French was vicious.

Despite losing control at a few moments in time trouble, Ju emerged victorious in all three segments of the match. Shuvalova finishes in second with $2,590.01.

Total Earnings

Ju, who said she will be going to "some good restaurant with friends" to celebrate, gave some good chess advice that players of all levels could use: "I guess I just try to prepare some but not too much. The important thing is to keep the mind clear and not just blunder."

The important thing is to keep the mind clear and not just blunder.

—Ju Wenjun

The Julius Baer Women's Speed Chess Championship is a Chess.com event where some of the strongest female chess players in the world battle for a $75,000 prize fund. The main event sees 16 players compete in a single-elimination bracket in matches played at 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1 time controls. Four places go to the winners of four Play-ins held on August 12-16 and open to all female titled players. In each Play-in the top four players in a Swiss qualify to compete in a knockout. 

Previous coverage:

• Semifinals: Shuvalova Edges Past Vaishali, Ju Wenjun Dominates Vs. Lagno On Path To Final
• Quarterfinals: Ju Wenjun, Lagno Advance To Semifinal Clash Of World Champions
• Quarterfinals: Shuvalova, Vaishali Get Even vs. Hou, Kosteniuk
• RO16: Kosteniuk Beats Narva In Armageddon, Joins Gunina In Quarterfinals
• RO16: Alice Lee, Vaishali Win Thrillers To Reach Quarterfinals
• RO16: Hou Yifan Storms Into Quarterfinals With 6-Game Winning Streak
• RO16: Shuvalova, Lagno Prevail In Nail-Biting Encounters
• RO16: Ju Wenjun Wins With 10-Point Margin, Nearly Goes Undefeated
• Play-Ins: Bodnaruk Wins Play-In 4 Despite Great Fightbacks By Ismayil
• Play-Ins: Eline Roebers Wins Play-In 3 Despite Competing From Train
• Play-Ins: IM Mai Narva Wins WSCC Play-In 2 Convincingly
• Play-Ins: WIM Alua Nurman Keeps Her Cool To Win First WSCC Play-In
• Announcing The 2024 Julius Baer Women's Speed Chess Championship