The Week in Chess

The tenth round of the FIDE Women's Candidates saw two decisive games and Lei Tingjie re-join Tan Zhongyi in the lead on 6.5 points, they're a point clear of Aleksandra Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno.

Goryachkina has the reputation of being one of the most solid of women's players and she was hitherto undefeated until Lei beat her today. Goryachkina played the exchange Slav with white and after 23.Rc1? (23.Re1, 23.a3 were both better) Kg6 was in major trouble. 31...Bd3?! lost quite a bit of the advantage and Goryachkina was soon back level, 37.f3? was however a terrible move after which she was completely busted, 43...Bc8? (43...Bxe4) gave white hope and at move 60 the game was equal. Goryachkina thought the game was over as a draw, she missed 60...f5 and in shock played 61.Nxe5?? (61.exf5=) Kf4! and this time there was no escape.

Rameshbabu Vaishali is having a miserable time of it and this should have continued against Nurgyul Salimova. Salimova was happily converting a winning advantage until the careless 54...Nc5?= (54...Rh8 was the direct win), then 58...Nb7? also lost (58...Rh7+ holds) 59.d8=Q? is back equal (59.Re8 or 59.Kg8 win) and then 67.Kd6? finally is winning for Vaishali and it turned out there was no coming back for Salimova.

The remaining two games were drawn. Tan against Humpy Koneru was a Scotch where black looked to be better at one stage but a long Rook and Pawn endgame was drawn. Kateryna Lagno against Anna Muzychuk featured some eye watering computer generated opening theory in the Open Ruy Lopez. Muzychuk had a massively better pawn structure in the endgame but white's bishop meant that winning chances never materialised.

Round 10 Standings: 1st= Lei Tingjie, Tan Zhongyi 6.5pts, 3rd= Goryachkina, Lagno, 5.5pts 5th Koneru 4.5pts 6th= Salimova, Muzychuk 4pts 8th Vaishali 3.5pts

Rest Day Tuesday 16th April 2024

Round 11 17th April at 19:30BST: Tan-Lagno, Koneru-Salimova, Vaishali-Goryachkina, Lei-Muzychuk.