Vaishali triumphs @ FIDE Women’s Candidates 2026 Cyprus

April 16, 2026

Indian Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu (8.5) emerged the champion ahead of Kazakh GM Bibisara Assaubayeva (8.0) after the 14th round of the FIDE Women’s Candidates 2026 at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus…

Sindarov (9.5/13) wins Candidates 2026 with a round to spare @ Cyprus

April 15, 2026

Uzbek Grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov with a stunning 9.5/13 score won the FIDE Candidates 2026 with a round to spare after the 13th round at Cyprus. In the women’s section, GMs Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) & Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) led the table with 7.5 points…

Zhu Jiner joins Vaishali in lead, Sindarov 9/12 @ Cyprus

April 13, 2026

GM Zhu Jiner & Vaishali Rameshbabu led the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026 while GM Javokhir Sindarov led the Open section after the 12th round at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort, Cyprus...

GMs Zhu Jiner & Vaishali Rameshbabu led the FIDE Women’s Candidates 2026 while GM Javokhir Sindarov led the Open section after the 12th round at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort, Cyprus…

Sindarov & Vaishali stay on top @ Cyprus

April 12, 2026

GMs Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan) and Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) led the FIDE Candidates 2026 after the 11th round at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus…

Game 6: Ju wins again, leads 4-2 @ half-way mark

Posted on April 10, 2025 BY R.R. Vasudevan

World Champion Ju Wenjun powered into two point lead, 4-2, scoring her second successive win over Challenger Tan Zhongyi in the sixth game of the FIDE Women’s World Championship at Shanghai. After a two day break game 7 will resume at Chongqing, the home town of Tan Zhongyi. With a two point deficit margin to be covered in the remaining six games, Tan Zhongyi’s team has a Himalayan task on hand.

Sticking faithful to English 1. c4 today’s game 6 followed Caruana-Praggnanandhaa, 2024 that ended in a draw. Here, Challenger Tan stepped out by move ten playing out 10. e3 instead of 10. Nc4 by Fabi, which changed the demography drastically. With a backward knight retreat 21. Nd3 Tan allowed Ju’s 21…g5 that paved way for a fine counter-attack from black.

Showing no signs of a long game yesterday, Ju went for bold king-side push that bore fruit as the game ventured into a queen, knight and pawn ending. Treading a thin line between survival and defeat, Tan slipped with 31. h4? after which Ju powered her way to a confident win. The twin defeats stem more from psychology than play since Tan missed landing a blow on game 4. The 5th and the 6th game saw Tan go down from a decent middle game when she’d exert herself for win in objectively even positions.

The FIDE Women’s World Championship match holds a total prize fund of Euros 500,000 and the winner will be the first to reach 6.5 points. The seventh game with Ju Wenjun playing white will take off in Chongqing from Sunday, 13th April 2025, at 3 PM local time.

Games can be followed LIVE on Lichess, or on stream with commentary by IMs Jovanka Houska and Irene Kharisma Sukandar.

Tan Zhongyi (2555) – Ju Wenjun (2561) 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 d5 4. Bb2 c5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. g3 Nc6 7. Bg2 d4 8. O-O Be7 9. Na3 O-O 10. e3 dxe3 11. dxe3 Bf5 12. Ne5 Nxe5 13. Bxe5 Qc8 14. Qe2 Bh3 15. Qf3 Bxg2 16. Kxg2 Qe6 17. Bb2 Ne4 18. Rfd1 Rad8 19. Nc4 b5 20. Ne5 f5 21. Nd3 g5 22. Ne1 Bf6 23. Bxf6 Qxf6 24. Rxd8 Rxd8 25. Rd1 Rxd1 26. Qxd1 Qd6 27. Qh5 Kg7 28. Qe8 a6 29. Nf3 Nf6 30. Qa8 h6 31. h4? (starting the end-game slide)

31… g4 32. Qb7+ Qd7 33. Qxd7+ Nxd7 34. Nd2 Kf6 35. f4 Ke6 36. e4 fxe4 37. Nxe4 Kd5 38. Nf2 Nf6 39. Kf1 Kd4 40. Ke2 h5 41. a4 Kc3 42. axb5 axb5 43. Nd3 Ne4 44. Ke3 Nxg3 45. Nxc5 Nf5+ 46. Ke4 Nxh4 47. Ke5 Kb4 48. Ne4 Kxb3 49. Kf6 Nf3 50. f5 h4 51. Ke7 g3 52. f6