Women's Candidates 2024 R8: Humpy victorious against Vaishali
GM Koneru Humpy scored her first win at FIDE Women's Candidates 2024 in the eighth round. The win occurred against GM Vaishali R. Although Humpy gained an exchange early in the middlegame. A few incorrect decisions almost allowed her opponent to escape with a draw. Vaishali could not find the correct defence and missed a virtual fortress in the end. GM Tingjie Lei (CHN) defeated the sole leader GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) to join Zhongyi and GM Aleksandra Goryachkina at the top 5/8. IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) missed a simple win in the endgame against GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR). Round 9 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photos: FIDE/Michal Walusza
Goryachkina and Tingjie join Zhongyi in the lead
Both Open and Women's events witnessed the same number of decisive games and draws in Round 8, two each. Also, the sole leaders were caught up by the pursuers.
Humpy - Vaishali
16.Qc2 +- and now Black cannot avoid losing an exchange. In the endgame, Vaishali almost managed to salvage a half point until she made a mistake.
Black's last mistake was 55...Rc4? allowing 56.d6 to improve the passed pawn, free her king and capture the b2-pawn. Instead, 55...Rb6 would have made things difficult for White to break the fortress.
Zhongyi - Tingjie: 0-1
GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN, 2521) won the first game against GM Tingjie Lei (CHN, 2550) in the first round. Tingjie avenged her loss in their rematch. In a complicated position, Zhongyi was unable to find the correct defence.
36.Bxf5 was the critical defence she needed to find Rxh6 37.Bg4 Qh8 38.f5. Instead, she blundered 36.Bg2? Rxh6 37.Nf3 Rh5 38.Qg3 Ne4 the queen got pinballed and sent back to e1. 39.Qe1 bxc3 Black won the game after a dozen more moves.
Nurgyul - Anna
IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL, 2432) missed a great opportunity in the above position. Find out why 53...Ne5?? is a huge blunder by GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR, 2520).
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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 8 live stream
Replay Round 8 games
Round 8 results
Standings after Round 8
Round 9 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2550 | GM | Lei, Tingjie | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | 2432 | 7 | ||||
| 2 | 5 | 2546 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | 2542 | 8 | ||||
| 3 | 4 | 2475 | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | 2521 | 6 | ||||
| 4 | 2 | 2520 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2553 | 1 |
