Career
At age six, Muzychuk took part in her first chess tournament. In November 2010 she was ranked as the fifth highest rated under-20 female player in the world. She made it to the top-16 of the 2010 Women"s World Chess Championship, but lost to Dronavalli Harika in an armageddon playoff after a tie in the regular match.
In the first round, she drew with Yuanling Yuan in the classical games and then defeated her in the tiebreaks.
In round two, she drew with Monika Socko in the classical games and defeated her in the tiebreaks. In the quarter-final she defeated number one seed Humpy Koneru in the tiebreaks (2½–1½), and then beat Dronavalli Harika in the semi-final by tiebreaks (3½–2½).
In the final she beat Natalia Pogonina with a score of 2½–1½. As a result of her victory, she obtained the Grandmaster title as a direct award, and qualified for the 2015 Chess World Cup which was held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
She lost her title against Hou Yifan in the Women"s World Chess Championship 2016 by 3–6.
In openings, Muzychuk usually plays Sicilian Defence with both White and Black, followed by French Defence with White and Dutch Defence with Black. Muzychuk has the ability to find unexpected tactical tricks, which sometimes compensates for flaws in her positional understanding. During her World Championship match against Natalia Pogonina, Muzychuk was called "Mission Tactics" by the media.
