Anna Shtourman / FIDE

2025 Women's World Chess Championship Game 7: Tan is on the Ropes

Apr 14, 20259,293 viewsEnglish (US)

Chess Analysis Over the board Tournament Chess Personalities

Ju extends her lead to 5-2, leaving no room for further missteps by Tan and forcing her into a must-win situation.

Lichess is providing a live stream for every day of the Women's World Championship. Make sure to tune in to our Twitch or YouTube channels for live stream coverage with our hosts GM Toms Kantāns and WIM Jesse February, joined by a rotating panel of guests. Game 8 starts at 07:00 UTC on Monday, April 14th, and WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea will join our stream again!

Additionally, we will cover every game in our blog, with annotations by WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea for games 1-6 and WGM Petra Papp for games 7-12.

The annotations by WGM Petra Papp for Game 7 can be found here.

Lichess has also run player profiles on GM Ju Wenjun and GM Tan Zhongyi, and published a Match Preview ahead of the match.

Schedule

Stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faAN5yoqM70

Annotations by WGM Petra Papp

https://lichess.org/study/5bQdsZ7u/Z2kiATn7#0

Match Score

Recap

The second leg of the match began today in Chongqing, Tan's hometown - and the game ended in an unfortunate way for her. The game started with a Sicilian, but the two rest days gave Tan enough time to be ready with a different approach to her previous Sicilian games, with 2...Nc6 instead of e6.

https://lichess.org/study/2BBZJqdb/H4FiYm2P#4

The handshake.
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

The two players entered a Rossolimo line, and for a big part of the game, Tan showed exceptional play and managed to control the game. Ju decided to sacrifice a pawn for better piece activity.

https://lichess.org/study/2BBZJqdb/H4FiYm2P#40

Ju sacrificed a pawn for better piece activity.
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

But Tan was able to stay in control, and the game seemed to be heading for a draw. However, Ju's strong endgame play, and a bad decision by Tan were enough to decide the final result. 34. Ne4! is much less about the g-pawn than about an important positional idea - forcing to exchange Tan's strong dark-squared bishop for her own - an idea which she overlooked by playing Bb7.

https://lichess.org/study/2BBZJqdb/H4FiYm2P#67

Tan overlooked the idea of 34. Ne4.
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

This left Tan with her light-squared bishop heavily restricted by her own pawns, and Ju with a much stronger knight and a significant advantage to convert.

https://lichess.org/study/2BBZJqdb/H4FiYm2P#76

The endgame was hopeless for Tan.
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

Indeed, Ju was able to win the game a few moves later, and is now only 1.5 points away from winning the match. Tan has to close a huge gap to get back into the match.

5-2 for Ju, only 1.5 points away from defending her title.
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE