Women's Candidates 2024 R1: Zhongyi Tan marches her king to victory

by Shahid Ahmed - 05/04/2024

GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) scored the sole win of the first round at FIDE Women's Candidates 2024. She defeated the recent Women's World Championship Challenger - GM Tingjie Lei (CHN). Tingjie had won against Zhongyi in the final stage of the last Women's Candidates 2022-23. The remaining three games - GM Aleksandra Goryachkina - GM Kateryna Lagno, GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) - IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) and GM R Vaishali - GM Koneru Humpy, ended in draws. Neither players seemed to be in any kind of danger. It will be Lagno vs Humpy and Zhongyi vs Vaishali in the second round. Round 2 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Michal Walusza

Three draws

Unlike the Open event, the Women's section has an increment of 30 seconds from move no.1. However, the duration to make 40 moves is 90 minutes instead of 120. It is due to the presence of increment.

Zhongyi Tan (CHN) scored the sole win of the first round

Tingjie - Zhongyi: 0-1

GM Tingjie Lei (CHN, 2550) defeated GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN, 2521) in the final stage of the previous Women's Candidates, to become the Challenger. Zhongyi obviously has not forgotten about it.

Position after 39...Rh1

39.Bxd5 Rxh4+ 40.Kg3 Rd4 was probably the best course of action for White. Instead, White made the mistake of defending the h4-pawn with her king 40.Kg3. It allowed Black to continue her king march Ke5 41.a4 Kd4 42.Ra8 Ke3 43.Re8 g5 44.Rxe6+ a desperate attempt to save the game fxe6 45.hxg5 h4+ 46.Kg4 h3 47.g6 Kf2

Position after 47...Kf2

Black won the game in the next few moves.

GM Tingjie Lei (CHN) shakes hand after she had nothing left to go on against GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN)

Vishy Anand tweeted on Zhongyi's king march

GM Aleksandra Goryachkina - GM Kateryna Lagno: 0.5-0.5

Koneru Humpy: "It's something amazing to have five Indian players in the Candidates" | Video: FIDE

Vaishali Rameshbabu: "I was getting really low on the clock, and I was really worried at some point" | Video: FIDE

GM R Vaishali - GM Koneru Humpy: 0.5-0.5

Nurgyul Salimova: "My overall goal is to become a stronger player." | Video: FIDE

GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) - IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL): 0.5-0.5

Photo Gallery

The Official Commentators - GM Vishy Anand and GM Irina Krush (USA)

The playing arena

Spectators watching the game at the venue - The Great Hall in Toronto, Canada

Time control

The time control for each game is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.

Replay Round 1 live stream

FIDE Women's Candidates 2024 Round 1 Live Commentary by Amruta Mokal and GM Harshit Raja | Video: ChessBase India

Replay Round 1 games

Round 1 results

Details

Round 2 pairings

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2542	GM	Lagno, Kateryna	GM	Koneru, Humpy	2546	5
2	6	2521	GM	Tan, Zhongyi	IM	Vaishali, Rameshbabu	2475	4
3	7	2432	IM	Salimova, Nurgyul	GM	Lei, Tingjie	2550	3
4	1	2553	GM	Goryachkina, Aleksandra	GM	Muzychuk, Anna	2520	2