Ju Wenjun vs. Tan Zhongyi, game 4 Opening: An English gone rogue
Game four of the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship returns to the English, as seen in game two, which was Tan Zhongyi’s first White game. In contrast to the …e5 setup seen then, Ju Wenjun chose 1. …e6, and then followed up with 2. …Bb4. It is rare, but the main alternative to a Queen’s Gambit Declined setup with …d5. A side-effect of …e6 is it stops the c3-knight from jumping to d5, which is a common pattern against …Bb4 in the English.
Zhongyi stopped to think, then answered with 3. Qb3, which is the main move. Wenjun responded with another rare move, 3. …Ba5, though it seems to be Stockfish’s top choice. Already the games database is reduced to Giri-Kramnik, 2018, and after 4. g3 it was Wenjun’s turn to contemplate for several minutes before pushing 4. …c5. The players did get to make a couple of quick moves, and it is now Black deciding on their sixth move, as we have a game where neither player will be entirely sure of their standing.
The first 6 moves of game 4 are given below. Follow the game live on Lichess, or on stream with commentary by IMs Jovanka Houska and Irene Sukandar.
