Round 3 of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix saw intense battles across the boards, with three of the five games ending decisively. Aleksandra Goryachkina and Humpy Koneru each scored their first wins, prevailing over Divya Deshmukh and Munguntuul Batkhuyag, respectively. Tan Zhongyi seized the tournament lead, capitalizing on Kateryna Lagno’s missteps in a convincing victory that showcased her calculated precision.

While still early in the tournament, Round 3 was a critical turning point for many players as they pushed to solidify positions on the leaderboard. Joint leaders Bibisara Assaubayeva and Stavroula Tsolakidou played a nail-biting game, ultimately drawing after a hard-fought tactical battle.

Tan Zhongyi, the third co-leader entering the round, emerged victorious over Lagno, who misplayed early in the opening. On the other boards, Aleksandra Goryachkina outplayed Divya Deshmukh, Humpy Koneru punished Munguntuul Batkhuyag’s blunder, and Nurgyul Salimova and Elisabeth Paehtz drew without too much commotion.

Bibisara Assaubayeva - Stavroula Tsolakidou ½ - ½

This was definitely the game of the round to watch, and it was a great battle from the start, so much so that our commentators remarked that it showed the highest level of chess in this event so far.

In a King’s Indian, Bibisara sacrificed a pawn early to unlock her kingside attack, castling queenside ensuring a dynamic game - something we have seen before. The game became extremely tactical, with both players setting up minefields for each other, giving up pawns and pieces left, right, and center, and playing with precision. That is until move 27, when Bibisara perhaps overlooked Stavroula’s intermediate moves before trading queens, leading to an endgame where Black had an extra passed pawn. It was a complicated endgame, and even though Stavroula was better, it was not easy to advance. The tense game ultimately settled into a draw, leaving both players with a hard-earned half-point.

Divya, Deshmukh - Goryachkina, Aleksandra 0-1

In a classic experience vs. youth match, Goryachkina demonstrated why she’s a seasoned contender on the FIDE Women's Grand Prix circuit.  It started off calmly, with Goryachkina remarking that it seemed as if her opponent was playing for a draw. But experience was perhaps a key factor here, as Goryachkina slowly kept improving her position, refusing the trade of queens, and bringing all of her pieces to the optimal squares.

Eventually, the white queen found itself locked out of the game, with her pieces just not working together very well, and eventually, she just crumbled. Black’s knight had a wonderful world tour around the board, with all the other pieces also optimally placed, coming in to execute a lethal attack along the dark squares. Under pressure and facing time trouble, Divya struggled to defend her position, but her efforts were enough only to reach time control when she resigned.

Tan, Zhongyi - Lagno, Kateryna 1-0

The game started out as a London System, with Black avoiding all main lines. Lagno traded off White’s key bishop on f4 but ended up in a dubious position, giving up a pawn she couldn’t reclaim. Things went from bad to worse as White completely dominated the game with principled play, eventually finding a wonderful Knight sacrifice on move 23, which she spent over 20 minutes on.

21.Nxe6! With a +3 advantage, it was hopeless for Lagno very soon, but Kateryna made her opponent work for the point, setting up drawing traps along the way. But Tan clung to the advantage, sidestepping the tricks and traps, and drove the victory home.

This win has placed Tan as the sole leader of the pack, as she leads by half a point. Her record has proven her to hold such leads quite well, and it will be interesting to see if she keeps it up.

Munguntuul, Batkhuyag - Koneru, Humpy 0-1

Munguntuul was round two’s only victor, but today she lost her game after what Humpy noted as “following the incorrect plan” in the Ruy Lopez, failing to find the best squares for her pieces. By move 19, Black had a significant advantage, and Humpy fully capitalized on her opponent’s mistake, playing flawlessly all the way up to move 32 when Munguuntul accepted her fate and resigned.

This bounce-back victory was critical for Koneru, who was determined to recover from a missed opportunity in her prior game against Tan. She remarked that the game kept her up last night as she was so upset with herself (sometimes drawing a winning position hurts more than a loss), but she was able to maintain composure and secure this important win.

Salimova, Nurgyul - Paehtz, Elisabeth 1/2-1/2

Another clash of generations, the game between Salimova and Paehtz was smooth sailing for both sides. With a few early piece trades, neither player launched any aggressive attack but rather maneuvered their pieces well, where the positional nature of the game led to a natural draw.

This is Paehtz’s first half-point on the scoreboard, after her difficult round one and two losses against Tan and Munguuntul. Despite these setbacks, she seemed to still enter her third round in a good mood. It is perhaps this quality that enabled her to achieve the Grandmaster title in 2022 at the age of 37, making her the first German woman to do so. Nurgyul also had a rough start after losing to Bibisara in round one and missing some chances against Stavroula in round two, but in an interview, she said that she is focusing on steady improvement and taking it game by game.

All players now have points on the leaderboard, with Tan Zhongyi as the sole leader with 2.5 points. Trailing just a half-point behind here are Assaubayeva, Koneru, Tsolakidou, and Goryachkina with 2 points each.

Moment of the Day

There were many great moments today, with instructive tactics here and there, but a particular position stands out because of the accuracy with which both players handled it:

Assaubayeva - Tsolakidou

White has just played 23.f4, and after thinking for 24 minutes, Stavroula responded with the only move 23…cxd5! Giving up the knight on g5, and maintaining equality.

If, instead, 23…exf5 was played, Black is in big trouble after 24.Bd4! A possible continuation would be: 24…Qe7 25. Rde1 Qd7 26.Bxg7 Rxg7 27.Nf5!

Next, the knight will capture on h6 and the position becomes a nightmare for Black. There does not need to be a checkmate combination to show that this is completely winning for White with complete domination on the exposed black King.

However, Stavroula was cautious and calculated deeply to avoid this mess. She eventually got her knight back with profit, but as mentioned before, the game would go on to be a draw. It was definitely the most exciting draw of the event yet, and the tone has been set for games to come.

Standings after Round 3

Round 4 pairings and dates

The fourth round of the second leg in the 2024/25 Women’s Grand Prix series starts on Saturday November 2nd, 15:00 local time in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Round 4 pairings:

Goryachkina, Aleksandra - Tsolakidou, Stavroula
Paehtz, Elisabeth - Assaubayeva, Bibisara
Koneru, Humpy - Salimova, Nurgyul
Lagno, Kateryna - Munguntuul, Batkhuyag
Divya, Deshmukh - Tan, Zhongyi

More information about the event, including the regulations and details of the pairings, as well as live games can be found on the official website: womengrandprix.fide.com.

Written by Charlize van Zyl 

Photos: Konstantin Chalabov and Viktoriya Abramova