The Week in Chess

The FIDE Women's Candidates tournament reached the half way stage and round 7 saw the meeting of the top two placed players. Aleksandra Goryachkina remained half a point behind Tan Zhongyi after their 40 move draw. This was a modern move d-pawn/Queen's Gambit move order, that ended up in some sort of Catalan. Goryachkina was a little better and 18.Ne1 might have kept some advantage but 18.Ng5 was more or less equal 20.e4 was also perhaps a bit better for white but after that there were trades to a truly drawn position. They meet again in Round 13.

Lei Tingjie was the only winner of the round beating Rameshbabu Vaishali who lost her second game in a row. On a trivial note the four knights in the centre of the board that happened on move 20 was unusual. 26...Bc8 was the start of trouble for Vaishali and 28...Qb8? was a losing move failing to a hidden tactic 29.Qd5!! that Lei didn't spot but she saw a similar tactic a few moves later. 31...Rxd8? was the losing move, 31...Bxb3 was about equal 34.Nf6+ was a well spotted win.

Kateryna Lagno pressed for some time against Nurgyul Salimova in a 3.Nge7 Ruy Lopez. There was nothing clear but after 27.Rxd6 it was pretty clear the game was going to be drawn.

Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru might both have expected to be fighting for first place, not last and so their draw suited neither player. A 4...Nge7 Ruy Lopez white was a bit better for a while but after 23.e6 the position was dead level and remained so.

Round 7 Standings: 1st Tan Zhongyi 5pts 2nd Goryachkina, Aleksandra 4.5pts 3rd= Lagno, Lei Tingjie 4.0pts 5th Salimova 3.0pts 6th= Koneru, Muzychuk, Vaishali 2.5pts

Rest Day 12th April 2024.

Round 8 13th April at 19:30BST: Lagno-Goryachkina, Salimova-Muzychuk, Tan-Lei, Koneru-Vaishali.