Lagno Kateryna

Born: Dec 27, 1989 | Federation: FIDE | Rating: 2563

Kateryna Lagno is a two-time European women's champion (2005, 2008), the women's World rapid champion (2014), a two-time Word blitz champion (2010, 2018), a two-time winner of the World Chess Olympiads – in 2006 as part of the Ukrainian national team and in 2014 as a member of the Russian national team.

Despite not winning any of the legs in the previous edition of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix, she finished in the third position in the overall standings for the series, thanks to her regularity: she obtained 3rd place in Gibraltar, and 4th place in Skolkovo and Monaco. She qualified for the current edition by rating.

Lagno was born on December 27, 1989, in Lviv, a major city in Western Ukraine. Kateryna started her chess career as a prodigal child: she learnt to play when she was two, and at seven, she became the Ukrainian champion among girls under 10 years. She achieved that rank two more times; furthermore, Lagno became the national champion among girls under 12 years three times in a row.

In 2000, Katya enrolled in the famous chess school of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, where she studied alongside Ruslan Ponomariov, Sergey Karjakin, Zahar Efimenko and other future grandmasters. In 2002, Lagno broke Judit Polgar's record (that seemed to be unbreakable) thus becoming the youngest woman grandmaster in history – she achieved the "honourable" rank at the age of 12 years and 4 months.

Kateryna Lagno took her first big steps in professional chess very soon: she made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Women's World Championship (Elista, 2004), won the Women's European Championship in 2005, was first at the super tournament known as the North Urals Cup in 2006, became the Olympic champion as a member of the Ukrainian national team (Turin, 2006), and again the was victorious at Women's European Championship in 2008.

Kateryna became the World women's blitz champion in 2010, the world and European champion as part of the Ukrainian national team in 2013, and won the World women's rapid championship in 2014.

In 2014, Ekaterina Lagno filed an application to join the Russian Chess Federation; during the Olympiad in Tromso, she played on the first board of the Russian national women's team and became the Olympic champion for the second time in her career. Ekaterina is also the world and European champion as a member of the Russian national team.

In November 2018, one month after giving birth to her fourth child, Kateryna Lagno participated in the knock-out World Women's championship in Khanty-Mansiysk. She made it all the way to the final where she lost to the reigning World Champion Ju Wenjun in a dramatic battle on tie-break.

In December 2018, Lagno won the Word blitz women's championship for the second time in her career.

For the most part of the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2019, Kateryna Lagno was the main rival of the Tournament's future champion, Aleksandra Goryachkina, but in the end, she took third place.