Women's Candidates 2024 R6: A brutal round
After a relatively quiet day at FIDE Women's Candidates 2024, the sixth round witnessed all decisive games. It was the first time that happened at this event. GM Zhongyi Tan's (CHN) crushing attack proved to be fatal for GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR). However, the tournament sole leader's conversion was not as smooth as she would have liked. Anna had an opportunity to fight back. She missed and the 16th Women's World Champion won the game. IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) and GM Koneru Humpy made incorrect decisions in difficult endgames against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and GM Tingjie Lei (CHN). They both lost their respective games. GM Vaishali R could not find the correct defense in a sharp position against GM Kateryna Lagno. Round 7 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Michal Walusza
Four decisive games
Just like the Open Candidates 2024, the Women's Candidates also had four decisive games after four draws in the previous round.
Zhongyi - Anna
GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN, 2521) misplayed in a winning position 32.Rxf6?? Bxf6 33.Qxf6+ Kh7 34.Ne7 now her opponent, GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR, 2520) made another mistake Re4?? and White was once again winning. Instead, 34...Bxe6 35.Nxg8 Qxg8 36.Qe7+ Qf7 37.Rxe6 Qxe7 38.Rxe7+ Kxh6 and Black would have been fine.
Nurgyul - Goryachkina: 0-1
IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL, 2432) was on the verge of winning FIDE Women's World Cup 2023 last year on more than one occasion against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2553).
White is down by a pawn. The bishop does not have a lot of places to go to and Black has a few ideas. It wouldn't be far stretched to say White is already lost. 47.Bg2? did not help her case Nh5+ 48.Kf3 f5 49.Bh3 Nf6 50.Rg7 Ne4 51.Rxg6+ Kf7 52.Rg2 Kf6 White's pieces are completely tied down on the kingside. Black rolled her passed c-pawn down the board and won the game.
Humpy - Tingjie
GM Koneru Humpy (2546) made the human decision to save her pawn 37.c4? which is actually counterproductive. The reason is, the fall of a2-pawn is inevitable, so saving c3 loses valuable time and White cannot stop Black's a-pawn promotion without losing some material. So what White needed to do? 37.Ng3 Nxc3 38.Nxe4 Nxa2 39.Kg1 and so on. Although Black has two connected passed pawns, still White can continue the fight.
Vaishali - Kateryna
In a sharp position, GM Vaishali R (2475) made an incorrect decision to take the b4-knight 21.Qxb4?? She had to pay a heavy price for it. 21...Bxf3-+ 22.g3 Qd4 23.Ra2 Nd3 24.Rd2 Nxb4 25.Rxd4 Nc2 and Black won the game in the next few moves. Finding 21.Re3 was certainly not an easy task.
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.
Replay Round 6 live stream
Replay Round 6 games
Round 6 results
Standings after Round 6
Round 7 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2553 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | 2521 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 8 | 2542 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | 2432 | 7 | ||||
| 3 | 2 | 2520 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2546 | 5 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | 2550 | GM | Lei, Tingjie | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | 2475 | 4 |
