FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Shymkent Round 3: Tan Zhongyi in Sole Lead

Tournament Information

The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024/25 consists of six tournaments that grant the top two finishers spots in the FIDE Women Candidates Tournament 2026. Each of these six tournaments is a 10-player round robin. Twenty players have qualified for the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024/25, and each player is allowed to play in three of the six tournaments based on the players' preferences concerning which tournaments they would like to participate in. The first tournament in Tbilisi, Georgia was played August 15–24; the Shymkent Grand Prix is the second tournament of the series.

The Lichess broadcast coverage can be found here.

Schedule

Leaderboard

GM Tan Zhongyi vs. GM Kateryna Lagno 1-0

Photo credit: Konstantin Chalabov / FIDE

GM Tan Zhongyi, who now leads the tournament, showed excellent preparation against GM Kateryna Lagno. In the much maligned London System, Lagno went for a topical line of the London and inserted the interesting 7...a5 idea. Tan reacted well, achieving small positional gains which culminated in her putting a strong knight on d4. After Lagno weakened her position too much, Tan pounced on the feeble light squares, sacrificing an exchange to infiltrate Black’s king position.

IM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina 0-1

Photo credit: Konstantin Chalabov / FIDE

IM Divya Deshmukh has clearly made a choice to not play the ultra main lines against 1...e5, the King’s Pawn Game. In round 1, she played the Scotch Game, while today, she chose the Four Knights Game against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina. The very solid main line emerged on the board, and many may have written off this game as being “just another draw”. However, both players clearly wanted to fight and play on, and soon a new, never-before-seen position was reached. Goryachkina played very precisely, activating her forces on the queenside and taking control of the open e-file. Divya was not lost, though, but after she weakened her kingside and failed to find the needed accurate defensive moves, Goryachkina infiltrated and won in rapid fashion.

IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul vs. GM Koneru Humpy 0-1

Photo credit: Konstantin Chalabov / FIDE

IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul so far has not drawn a single game, and today’s round was no exception. GM Koneru Humpy showed good understanding in the Neo-Arkhangelsk Ruy Lopez, opening up the position with the powerful f5 break on move 16. Munguntuul did not find the best defense and went into a forcing variation that ended up being lost; Humpy converted well and without much difficulty.

IM Nurgyul Salimova vs. GM Elisabeth Paehtz 1/2-1/2

Photo credit: Konstantin Chalabov / FIDE

GM Elisabeth Paehtz, who had lost her previous two games, was looking to steady the ship to give herself an opportunity to bounce back. IM Nurgyul Salimova, who herself was looking to get her first win of the event, applied strong positional pressure, but Paehtz put up stiff resistance and did not let White's advantage snowball.

IM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. IM Stavroula Tsolakidou 1/2-1/2

Photo credit: Konstantin Chalabov / FIDE

The King's Indian Defense is both a highly combative opening and a rare guest at the higher echelons of chess. It was clear early on that IM Bibisara Assaubayeva did not want to go into IM Stavroula Tsolakidou's KID preparation as she chose to go for an early g4, a risk-free line where White does not allow Black's pawn storm. The game saw a flurry of tactics, though, and after the dust had settled, Tsolakidou found herself in a better endgame. It was nowhere near winning, however, and the game soon ended in a logical draw.

Round 4 Pairings