Game 8: Ju a draw away from title, leads 6-2 @ Chongqing
Defending champion Ju Wenjun’s lead score of 6-2 after the 8th game might sound like a one sided tennis match, largely hiding the immense pressure and tensions that both Grandmasters underwent at the FIDE Women’s World Championship 2025 at Shanghai & Chongqing respectively. With Challenger needing four straight wins, one can see that Ju Wenjun has sewn up her fifth title and would be completing the formality soon.
Ju Wenjun upon defending her title, will join Georgian legends Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze as five time world champions. Ju would still have age on her side to work towards Vera Menchik, the first women’s world champion who holds eight titles. The title would continue to stay with China for one another cycle, until Goryachkinas, Vaishalis or Muzychuks chose to make it different.
For Tan Zhongyi everything that could go wrong went wrong. Like the calm before the storm, for the fourth time in a row the Challenger could not read the signs right. Going for a quiet Vienna game Tan appeared to keep the balance out of the opening. But, as we now get to see in this match, Ju Wenjun keeps conjuring advantage from seemingly simple positions. Ju seized the initiative with 24…f5 and never let it go. The bishop sacrifice 45…Bxf3, wrapping up the win, was more like an icing on the cake.
The Champion further showed that she’s not the one that sits on the lead and would rather take up the cudgels when challenge presents itself. 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 9th game is scheduled to begin by Wednesday, 16th 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. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nc6 4. d3 Bb4 5. Nf3 d6 6. O-O Bxc3 7. bxc3 O-O 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bh4 Na5 10. Bb3 Nxb3 11. axb3 Qe7 12. Re1 Qe6 13. d4 Nd7 14. Qd3 a6 15. Rad1 Re8 16. Bg3 b5 17. Nd2 Nf6 18. b4 Nh5 19. Nb3 Qg6 20. dxe5 Nxg3 21. hxg3 Rxe5 22. Na5 Bd7 23. Re3 Rae8 24. Rde1 f5 25. Qd4 Rxe4 26. Rxe4 Rxe4 27. Rxe4 fxe4 28. c4 e3 29. Qxe3 Qxc2 30. Qa7? (30. cxb5 axb5 31. f3 Kh7 32. Kh2 Bf5 33 Nb7 Bd3 34. Nd8 Bf1 35. Qg1 Bc4 hold better hopes for white)
30…bxc4 31. Qxc7 Bb5 32. Nb7 c3 33. Nxd6 Qd3 34. Qf7+ Kh7 35. Nf5 Qd7 36. Qxd7 Bxd7 37. Nd4 Ba4 38. Ne2 c2 39. f3 Kg6 40. Kf2 Bb5 41. Nc1 h5 42. Ke3 Kg5 43. Kd2 Bf1 44. Nb3 Bxg2 45. Nd4 Bxf3 46. Nxf3+ Kg4 47. Nd4 Kxg3 48. Nf5+ Kg4 49. Ne3+ Kf3 50. Nxc2 h4 51. Ne1+ Kg3 52. Ke3 h3 53. Nf3
53…h2 0-1
Picture Courtesy: Anna Shtourman at https://www.fide.com/
Official Site: https://womenworldchampionship2025.fide.com/
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