The top three seeds in this tournament, the only women other than Judit Polgar ever to break 2600 FIDE are all gone. GM Humpy Koneru (2610, India) lost both classical games to GM Natalija Pogonina (2451, Ukraine). Current Women's World Champion GM Hou Yifan (2606, China) and GM Anna Muzychuk (2586, Slovenia) both lost 2-0 in the first set of rapid tie-breaks to GM Monica Socko (2445, Poland) and IM Anna Ushenina (2452, Ukraine) respectively.
 
For the two remaining Americans it was one up, and one down. IM Anna Zatonskih (2489) drew both of her games in the first set of  rapid tie-breakers with WGM Ju Wenjun (2501, China), but lost both in the second set of rapid games, and her tournament is over. IM Irina Krush, meanwhile, continued her fine play with White, and also got back on track with the Black pieces, as she won both rapid games against GM Pia Cramling (2516, Sweden). Because GM Victoria Cmilyte (2524, Lithuania) was knocked out earlier Krush will have the luxury of being paired down in round three against WGM Huang Qian (2465, China).

-Scott Parker