Last week’s European team championships at Budva, Montenegro saw the England open squad narrowly miss out on medals, but there was a fresh success for Lan Yao, 22, a rising star of the women’s game. Yao’s unbeaten 5.5/8 on second board for England women earned her the bronze medal as well as her first international master norm at men’s/open level, and was achieved against a high class field.
In the final two rounds Yao drew with the former world champion Anna Ushenina of Ukraine, then defeated Sweden’s Pia Cramling, for decades the No 1 woman in western Europe, by effective use of her two bishops. Her rating gain of 26 Fide points means that she is now ranked England’s No 1 woman ahead of the popular commentator Jovanka Houska.
