Grandmaster Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria drew first blood when she won the first game against Women Grandmaster Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia in the first game of the final of the Women's World Chess Championship 2004 in Elista (Kalmykia), Russia, on Thursday.

Stefanova, who is clear favourite to win the World Championship after the ouster of top seed Grandmaster Koenru Humpy in the semifinals, played a fine resourceful game to tame her rival in their first encounter itself.

The final is a four-game affair with 90 minutes to each player for first 40 moves followed by 15 minutes for the entire game. An additional time of 30 seconds is given after every move is played. The stakes are high with the winner's purse being US $60,000 and half that amount for the loser.

For 2002 European women's champion Stefanova, this victory is even more important as it came with black pieces, not a favourable colour generally in chess.

The Bulgarian now needs just 1.5 points in the remaining three games to become the World women's champion.

Kovalevskaya apparently ran out of luck against her fancied opponent this time and could not turn the tables once she was looking for counter play.

The opening was a closed Ruy Lopez, a deviation from regular variations and Stefanova easily obtained the dynamic balance she was looking for. After some routine manoeuvering, the Russian embarked on a rather dangerous but dubious king side attack leaving a couple of pawns unattended on her queen side.

Taking the bull by its horns Stefanova collected both the pawns on offer and cautiously defended white's onslaught.

At one point towards the end of the game it even looked that Kovalevskaya had got what she was hoping for, but Stefanova eventually steered her king to safety even though it lived dangerously for some time, battling against white's forces.

After the exchange of queens, it was curtains for the Russian as Stefanova had three extra pawns to her credit. The game lasted 53 moves.

The second game of the final will be played on Friday.