GM Tan Zhongyi maintained the sole lead in the Women’s Candidates Tournament 2024 as the only player with the perfect score of 2/2 points!
Tan Zhongyi defeated Vaishali R yesterday, convincingly outplaying the young Indian. Tan Zhongyi gradually built up the advantage to eventually score her second victory in the tournament.
Playing white, Tan Zhongyi occupied Vaishali’s King with her pieces, and put the final nail in the coffin with a nice knight sacrifice.
Tan Zhongyi – Vaishali R 1-0
Aleksandra Goryachkina won against Anna Muzychuk and trails Tan Zhongyi by half a point now. The game started without a usual handshake. Muzychuk pressed the clock and the game started with Goryachkina’s immediate 1.d4.
Goryachkina opted to go for exchanged Slav defense, which usually gives Black a solid play. That’s what happened in the game until Anna Muzychuk made a mistake with 25…Rb7? Aleksandra used this opportunity to take the advantage and didn’t give her opponent a chance.
The other two games between Kateryna Lagno vs. Humpy Koneru, and Salimova Nurgyul vs. Lei Tingjie, finished in a draw.
Standings after two played rounds:
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | |
| 1 | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | CHN | 2521 | 2 |
| 2 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | FID | 2553 | 1.5 |
| 3 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | FID | 2542 | 1 |
| GM | Koneru, Humpy | IND | 2546 | 1 | |
| IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | BUL | 2432 | 1 | |
| 6 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | UKR | 2520 | 0.5 |
| GM | Lei, Tingjie | CHN | 2550 | 0.5 | |
| IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IND | 2475 | 0.5 |
The third round starts today at 14:30 EST and pairings, reports and links for live can be found here.
Photos by Michal Walusza
