After no significant upsets in round one, round two has seen a good bit of carnage among the top seeds. Of the top seven ranked players none have advanced to round three after the set of two games at classical time controls. Reigning Women's World Champion GM Hou Yifan (2606, China) beat Polish GM Monica Socko (2445) with the black pieces, but lost badly with White. That match now goes to a set of two rapid games, as do three other matches involving the top seven. Not so lucky were GM Victoria Cmilyte (2524, Lithuania), GM Kateryna Lahno (2553, Ukraine), and top rated GM Humpy Koneru (2610, India). Cmilyte and Lahno lost their matches 1.5-0.5 to WGM Huang Qian (2465, China) and IM Lela Javakhishvili (2455, Georgia (the country, not our state!)) respectively, while Koneru lost both her games to Ukranian GM Natalia Zhukova (2451). Also prominent among the losers was former Women's World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2501), beaten 1.5-0.5 by Russian WGM Natalija Pogonia (2478).
 
    Both Americans IM's Anna Zatonskih (2489) and Irina Krush (2470) are still alive, and heading to the set of rapid games. Zatonskih drew both her games with Chinese WGM Ju Wenjun (2501), while Krush lost with Black but came back and won with White versus Swedish GM Pia Cramling (2516). Krush has had disastrous results so far with the Black pieces, but has done exceedingly well with White.

- Scott Parker