The Week in Chess

Tan Zhongyi took sole lead of the FIDE Women's Candidates with 7.5/11 after beating Kateryna Lagno in a Reti. Lei Tingjie managed to draw against Anna Muzychuk and is half a point behind. With three rounds to go Kateryna Lagno, Humpy Koneru and Aleksandra Goryachkina are all on 5.5 points, realistically it's between Tan and Lei for the title.

Tan played a Reti System, 13...e5 from Lagno could have been met by 14.Nxe5 with advantage but instead a roughly balance position was arrived at. 27.Rc5? could have been refuted by 27...f4 when overloaded pieces combined with a kingside attack win for black. Lagno played the losing 28...Bxb3 (28...f4 is the way to hold the balance now) and Tan made no mistake in converting.

There were similar goings on in the game Lei Tingjie against Anna Muzychuk. After a Giuoco Piano opening Muzychuk was at least equal until she failed to find the correct defence to 19.Bxh6 gxh6? (19...Nh7!) but then Lei played 22.Nxe5? (22.Kh2!) and black was better and then 30.c4? winning. After 34.Nf5 it came down to whether black could avoid perpetual check, it was possible but the way to do it wasn't 42....Bf7? but 42...Ke8 instead. So a draw in the end. Humpy Koneru built up a winning position after 30 moves against Nurgyul Salimova as white in a Slav Defence, she made rather heavy weather of conversion but got there in the end. Rameshbabu Vaishali won again and Aleksandra Goryachkina lost again. It ended up in a equal but tricky Queen and Pawn endgame but 64....d4? lost and Vaishali made no mistake.

Round 11 Standings: 1st Tan 7.5 2nd Lei 7 3rd= Lagno, Koneru, Goryachkina 5.5pts, 6th= Muzychuk, Vaishali 4.5pts 8th Salimova 4pts

Round 12 18th April at 19:30BST: Lagno-Lei, Muzychuk-Vaishali, Goryachkina-Koneru, Salimova-Tan.