Women's Candidates 2024 R1: Zhongyi Tan marches her king to victory
GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) scored the sole win of the first round at FIDE Women's Candidates 2024. She defeated the recent Women's World Championship Challenger - GM Tingjie Lei (CHN). Tingjie had won against Zhongyi in the final stage of the last Women's Candidates 2022-23. The remaining three games - GM Aleksandra Goryachkina - GM Kateryna Lagno, GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) - IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) and GM R Vaishali - GM Koneru Humpy, ended in draws. Neither players seemed to be in any kind of danger. It will be Lagno vs Humpy and Zhongyi vs Vaishali in the second round. Round 2 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Michal Walusza
Three draws
Unlike the Open event, the Women's section has an increment of 30 seconds from move no.1. However, the duration to make 40 moves is 90 minutes instead of 120. It is due to the presence of increment.
Tingjie - Zhongyi: 0-1
GM Tingjie Lei (CHN, 2550) defeated GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN, 2521) in the final stage of the previous Women's Candidates, to become the Challenger. Zhongyi obviously has not forgotten about it.
39.Bxd5 Rxh4+ 40.Kg3 Rd4 was probably the best course of action for White. Instead, White made the mistake of defending the h4-pawn with her king 40.Kg3. It allowed Black to continue her king march Ke5 41.a4 Kd4 42.Ra8 Ke3 43.Re8 g5 44.Rxe6+ a desperate attempt to save the game fxe6 45.hxg5 h4+ 46.Kg4 h3 47.g6 Kf2
Black won the game in the next few moves.
Vishy Anand tweeted on Zhongyi's king march
Photo Gallery
Time control
The time control for each game is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Replay Round 1 live stream
Replay Round 1 games
Round 1 results
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 2542 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2546 | 5 | ||||
| 2 | 6 | 2521 | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | 2475 | 4 | ||||
| 3 | 7 | 2432 | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | GM | Lei, Tingjie | 2550 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 1 | 2553 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | 2520 | 2 |
