Nicosia GP Round 7: Jiner Zhu regains sole lead
The seventh round of FIDE Nicosia GP 2025 witnessed a big shake up in the leaderboard. GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) suffered a shocking loss against IM Olga Badelka (AUT). Anna made a positional mistake in the middlegame from which she could not recover. It was her first loss of the event and her opponent's first win. GM Jiner Zhu (CHN) defeated IM Divya Deshmukh to regain her sole lead 5/7. Anna is now trailing by a half point at 4.5/7. GM Harika Dronavalli drew with GM Mariya Muzychuk (UKR). Both are at 4/7 each with GM Aleksandra Goryachkina who made a quick 11-move draw against GM Elisabeth Paehtz (GER). Round 8 starts today from 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE / Mark Livshitz
Harika maintains her pursuit
Jiner - Divya: 1-0
GM Jiner Zhu (CHN, 2514) played three rated game including one Classical against IM Divya Deshmukh (2470). The GM won all of them. This time also, the result went in favor of Jiner.
Black had to play 19...g6 herself to prevent White from going g6. It created longterm dark square weakness on the kingside which White eventually capitalized on to win the game and gain sole lead.
Badelka - Anna: 1-0
IM Olga Badelka (AUT, 2429) and GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR, 2516) had played two rated games against each other. Anna won both of them - one Classical and one Blitz. However, Badelka scored her first victory of Anna in this round.
14...Ne4? is what started to cause Black's position fall apart 15.cxd5 Nxd2 16.dxe6 Ne4? 17.Nxf7+ Nf5 18.Bc4 Be7 19.Qg4 and White won the game in nine more moves.
Replay live stream
GP Standings
GM Aleksandra Goryachkina is the new sole leader of the GP with 236.67 points, followed by IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) 197.5 and GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) 170 points. Bibisara has played all three of her GP events of the season. So, she has none left.
Prizes
Total prize fund is €80000. The top three prizes are €18000, €13000 and €10500 each. The top three GP points are - 130, 105 and 85. For more details, check out the regulations below.
Schedule
Round 1 starts on 15th March at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. The tournament will go on till 24th March 2025. Sole rest day is on Thursday 20th March.
Replay Round 7 games
Round 7 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 2445 | IM | TSOLAKIDOU, STAVROULA | 0 - 1 | GM | DZAGNIDZE, NANA | 2513 | 10 | |
| 2 | 5 | 2514 | GM | ZHU, JINER | 1 - 0 | IM | DIVYA, DESHMUKH | 2470 | 3 | |
| 3 | 6 | 2429 | IM | BADELKA, OLGA | 1 - 0 | GM | MUZYCHUK, ANNA | 2516 | 2 | |
| 4 | 7 | 2424 | GM | PAEHTZ, ELISABETH | ½ - ½ | GM | GORYACHKINA, ALEKSANDRA | 2548 | 1 | |
| 5 | 8 | 2483 | GM | DRONAVALLI, HARIKA | ½ - ½ | GM | MUZYCHUK, MARIYA | 2490 | 9 |
Standings after Round 7
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | GM | ZHU, JINER | CHN | 2514 | 5 | 3 | 15,75 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 | GM | MUZYCHUK, ANNA | UKR | 2516 | 4,5 | 3 | 15,00 | 3 |
| 3 | 8 | GM | DRONAVALLI, HARIKA | IND | 2483 | 4 | 4 | 13,50 | 2 |
| 4 | 9 | GM | MUZYCHUK, MARIYA | UKR | 2490 | 4 | 4 | 12,75 | 1 |
| 5 | 1 | GM | GORYACHKINA, ALEKSANDRA | FID | 2548 | 4 | 3 | 12,75 | 1 |
| 6 | 10 | GM | DZAGNIDZE, NANA | GEO | 2513 | 3,5 | 4 | 9,25 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | IM | BADELKA, OLGA | AUT | 2429 | 3 | 4 | 11,25 | 1 |
| 8 | 3 | IM | DIVYA, DESHMUKH | IND | 2470 | 2,5 | 3 | 9,00 | 0 |
| 9 | 4 | IM | TSOLAKIDOU, STAVROULA | GRE | 2445 | 2,5 | 3 | 7,25 | 1 |
| 10 | 7 | GM | PAEHTZ, ELISABETH | GER | 2424 | 2 | 4 | 7,50 | 1 |
Round 8 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 2513 | GM | DZAGNIDZE, NANA | GM | MUZYCHUK, MARIYA | 2490 | 9 | ||
| 2 | 1 | 2548 | GM | GORYACHKINA, ALEKSANDRA | GM | DRONAVALLI, HARIKA | 2483 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 2 | 2516 | GM | MUZYCHUK, ANNA | GM | PAEHTZ, ELISABETH | 2424 | 7 | ||
| 4 | 3 | 2470 | IM | DIVYA, DESHMUKH | IM | BADELKA, OLGA | 2429 | 6 | ||
| 5 | 4 | 2445 | IM | TSOLAKIDOU, STAVROULA | GM | ZHU, JINER | 2514 | 5 |
