The Week in Chess

Tan Zhongyi scored a quick victory against Rameshbabu Vaishali in Round 9 of the Women's Candidates tournament in Toronto and that eventually proved to be enough to lead alone on 6/9.

Tan claimed to have surprised Vaishali with her choice of opening, I'm not sure at what move that was but after Vaishali's 11.Ng5 the position became tricky to handle for both sides. 13.h4?! (13.Na3) was ambitious but the key moment came with 16.c4? (16.Bxd6 is only a tiny bit worse for white) f6! and white was already in dire straits. 18.c5? was another error and the collapse was complete with 19. ...Nxd4 20. Qe3? Nxc2.

Lei Tingjie looked to be heading for a quick victory herself against Nurgyul Salimova. The choice of the Philidor's by Salimova was probably in the name of unpredictability, she's been changing her openings pretty much every round, but her position was just bad. The key moment came when Lei played the obviously passive 16.Bd2 when 16.g6 or 16.Rg4 would have been much better and the position was soon level and the game finished in a draw by repetition.

Humpy Koneru and Kateryna Lagno drew a Ragozin in 57 move. Koneru was pushing for some time after the opening but after 36.Rd1?! (36.Ra2) she dropped a pawn but the resulting rook and pawn endgame was still drawn after accurate play.

Anna Muzychuk and Aleksandra Goryachkina drew a Berlin Defence in 45 moves. Muzychuk managed to get her bishop trapped but had just enough pawns to hold the endgame.

Round 9 Standings: 1st Tan, Zhongyi 6pts 2nd= Lei Tingjie, Goryachkina 5.5pts 4th Lagno 5pts 5th= Salimova, Koneru 4pts 7th Muzychuk 3.5pts 8th Vaishali 2.5pts

Round 10 15th April at 19:30BST: Lagno-Muzychuk, Goryachkina-Lei, Salimova-Vaishali, Tan-Koneru.