Women's Candidates 2024 R2: Zhongyi Tan wins two in-a-row
GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) won her second consecutive game at FIDE Women's Candidates 2024. The 16th Women's World Champion defeated GM R Vaishali who did not handle the onslaught on her kingside. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina scored the only other win of the round. Her opponent, GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) made a tactical error which cost her material. IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) drew against GM Tingjie Lei (CHN). GM Kateryna Lagno split the point against GM Koneru Humpy. Humpy will face the tournament sole leader Zhongyi in the third round. Vaishali will be up against the youngest player in the field, Nurgyul. Round 3 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Michal Walusza
50% decisive games
The second round witnessed one more decisive game than the previous round.
Zhongyi - Vaishali: 1-0
GM R Vaishali (2475) faced GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN, 2521) only three time before this encounter. The first game ended in a draw at Astana GP 2022. The second one went in favor of the 16th Women's World Champion. Vaishali won the third one at Grand Swiss Women 2023. In this game, Vaishali did not react correctly to her opponent's attack on the kingside.
30...fxg5 31.Qxg5 Rf7 was how Black needed to proceed. Instead, 30...f5? worsened things for Black in a hurry 31.Rg2 Kh8 32.Ndf4 e5 33.Nf6! gxf6 34.Ng6+ and it's over.
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.
Prizes
The total prize fund is €250000. The top three prizes are €24000, €18000 and €12000. All prize money shall be divided equally among the players with the equal score after 14 rounds regardless tie-break results. In addition, each player gets €1750 euros for every half point scored.
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Replay Round 2 games
Round 2 results
Standings after Round 2
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | CHN | 2521 | 2 | 1,00 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | FID | 2553 | 1,5 | 1,00 | 1 | 0 | |
| 3 | 8 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | FID | 2542 | 1 | 1,25 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | IND | 2546 | 1 | 0,75 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 7 | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | BUL | 2432 | 1 | 0,50 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 6 | 2 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | UKR | 2520 | 0,5 | 0,50 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | GM | Lei, Tingjie | CHN | 2550 | 0,5 | 0,50 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 4 | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IND | 2475 | 0,5 | 0,50 | 0 | 0 |
Round 3 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 2546 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | 2521 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 2 | 2520 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | 2542 | 8 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 2550 | GM | Lei, Tingjie | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2553 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 2475 | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | 2432 | 7 |
