Ten of the world’s best female players continue their fight in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix second event of the year in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. They fight for the impressive prize fund of 80.000 EUR and, even more importantly, for the points for the next Candidates tournament.
The players have already played 5 out of 9 rounds. It has been a really exciting start of the tournament with many resultative games, beautiful attacks and sacrifices as well as a promise of an even more exciting finale.
A sole leader after round 5
After winning 3 consecutive victories Alexandra Goryachkina emerged as a sole leader. She has defeated former World Champion Tan Zhongyi with Black pieces after a beautiful attack in a position with opposite-side castles to claim this spot.
On the second position with 3.5/5 points we see Bibisara Assaubayeva, who also won a very important game in the round 5 prior to a free day. In fact, this round was the most bloody one of all – with 4 out of 5 games finishing in a resultative score. Bibisara won against the Queen of Indian Chess Humpy Koneru after a very convincing play.
Despite the loss – Koneru and Tan are currently on a shared 3rd place after a very solid start of the tournament. They are sharing it together with a Greek number 1, Stavroula Tsolakidou, who slowly, but never in danger, outplayed Elisabeth Paehtz in round 5.
Right behind the leaders we have a debutant of the Women’s Grand Prix, who stunned the world with her incredible results and charisma this year – first winning Junior World Championships and later the Chess Olympiad with Team India, Divya Deshmukh. Indian star was among the players who won their games in the round 5 as well, and it was her first victory in the event. After pushing for advantage with Black pieces for a long time, she defeated Munguntuul Batkhuyag after a nice tactical operation.
Decisive 4 rounds
The tension is set only to rise in Kazakhstan, as all of the players are fierce fighters. They will certainly fight to the best of their abilities, creating a fantastic show on the chess boards, but also – keeping the fight for the victory unclear till the end. It is still far from clear will follow in the footsteps of Alina Kashlinskaya, winner of this year’s 1st Women’s Grand Prix!
All the information regarding the event, including the live games and results can be found on the official website: https://womengrandprix.fide.com/
Pictures by Konstantin Chalabov
