Anna Olehivna Muzychuk is a Ukrainian chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (GM). She is the fourth woman in chess history to attain a FIDE rating of at least 2600. She has been ranked as high as No. 197 in the world, and No. 2 among women. Muzychuk is a three-time world champion in fast chess, having won the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship once in 2014 and the Women's World Blitz Chess Championship twice in 2014 and 2016. In classical chess, she was the 2017 Women's World Championship runner-up.
Muzychuk in 2023
2015 Ukrainian postage stamp featuring Anna (right) and Mariya Muzychuk as children
Muzychuk in 2009
Muzychuk with the winner's prizes at the 2014 Ukrainian women's national championship, where she was making a comeback appearance
Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a particular variation of fast chess in which different rules apply for each of the two players.
Spectators watch as a street chess player "Russian Paul" (left) plays bullet chess with Jonathan Corbblah in Union Square, Manhattan.
Magnus Carlsen (left) playing GM Dennis Wagner (right) at the 2015 FIDE World Chess Rapid and Blitz Championship in Berlin, at which Carlsen retained the title World Rapid Chess Champion
Blitz World Champion Alexander Grischuk (right) in Berlin, 2015, with runners-up Vladimir Kramnik (center) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (left)