Round 4 of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Monaco delivered high-level chess, with four games ending in draws and one spectacular victory. Kateryna Lagno, playing a breathtaking attacking game, defeated Elisabeth Paehtz to seize the sole lead in the tournament.

The day began on a lighthearted note as Michael Stoettinger, President of the Austrian Chess Federation and host of the final WGP leg, made the ceremonial first move for Lagno—perhaps bringing her a touch of good fortune. Meanwhile, tournament director Jean-Michel Rapaire outlined plans for the upcoming rest day on February 23, which will feature an exciting excursion. Stoettinger added a humorous remark about the Austrian rest day including schnitzel and Vishy Anand, drawing smiles from the players.

As for the games - despite the draws on most boards, the games were far from dull. Sara Khadem misplayed a significant advantage, while Humpy Koneru and Aleksandra Goryachkina also had opportunities to press for more.

Round 4 results:

Aleksandra Goryachkina ½-½  Zhongyi Tan
Humpy Koneru ½-½ Alexandra Kosteniuk
Sarasadat Khademalsharieh ½-½ Batkhuyag Munguntuul
Kateryna Lagno 1-0 Elisabeth Paehtz
Bibisara Assaubayeva ½-½ Harika Dronavalli

Kateryna Lagno - Elisabeth Paehtz

The sole victory of the round was a dazzling display of creativity and fighting spirit, making it an early frontrunner for the tournament’s brilliancy prize.

The game began at an unusually slow pace, with only eight moves played in the first hour and a half. By move six, the players had entered an unexplored variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Lagno, with the white pieces, gained an edge out of the opening and soon shook things up with a pawn sacrifice:

In the post-game interview, Lagno explained her reasoning behind the sacrifice, aiming to delay Black’s ideas of 12…Nc5 and 12…Bf5. Paehtz responded with 12…Nc5 instead of the stronger 12…Bxe6, allowing the game to spiral into chaos, ultimately favoring White.

I implore you to really assess the intricacies of this position - there is so much going on from both sides. White’s last move, 16.g4! (the best in the position), gives up a pawn to distract what Lagno considered to be Black’s strongest piece - the light-squared bishop. However, after 16…Bxg4 White erred with 17.Ne5? Allowing Black to come back into the game with 17…Bxd1 although practically, and in the spirit of the game, White’s decision made sense to target the g6-pawn.

A key moment came after move 19, where Paehtz missed a crucial defensive resource:

Here 19…Bg5 (or the fancier 19…Qxd2 achieving the same) was the only way for Black to continue. This would force a series of trades where White would end up with only a slightly better position - which Lagno noted she had calculated and was happy with. Nevertheless, Paehtz opted for 19…e3 which closed the important diagonal and did not achieve much. 20.fxe3 Kxg6 21.Rg1 Bg5 22.h4!

The exposed black king was in trouble, and after picking off the bishop, White brought her pieces to the party. Playing under time pressure, both sides exchanged inaccuracies where Black had one last opportunity to prolong her resistance after 27.e4:

Here 27.Rd1 instead was important to insert before e4, setting up a discovery on the black queen where e4 becomes even stronger with the threat of Bxg5 (in all fairness, Black’s position was already beyond repair). 27…Qd4 was played in the game, to which White responded with 28.Rf1 and now 28…Ncd7?? was Black’s final major blunder as she incorrectly defended her f6-knight. There is a lot of tricky analysis here to look into, but instead I will leave you with the remainder of the beautiful game:

29.Bxg5 Rhf8 30.Be6 Rad8 31.Bxd7 Rxd7 32.e5 Kd8 33.Bxf6 Kc7 34.e6 Qd2 35.Kb1 Rd6 36.e7 Re8 37.Be5 Rxe7 38.Rd1 and Black resigned.

With this victory, Lagno emerged as the tournament leader. As she left the hall, she remarked with a smile that this was the best game she had played in a long time.

Aleksandra Goryachkina - Tan Zhongyi

For the second consecutive day, Goryachkina was the last player to leave the board, battling for nearly five hours. Both players blitzed through the opening in Petroff Defence and entered a slow, positional struggle.

Much like her previous game against Assaubayeva, Goryachkina attempted to squeeze out a win from a seemingly equal position. Several moments arose where a threefold repetition seemed imminent, but each time, one player deviated to continue the fight.

Tan, however, handled the clock better, maintaining a significant time edge—42 minutes against Goryachkina’s mere 3 minutes. Time trouble has led to several blunders in this event, but today, both players held firm, agreeing to a draw after 93 moves.

Humpy Koneru - Alexandra Kosteniuk

A Semi-Slav set the tone for a long positional game, and this is what occurred in the game between Koneru and Kosteniuk, with the opponents performing at 98% accuracy. This stat makes a draw between two chess titans the logical outcome. White obtained a more comfortable position out of the opening and had a 20-minute time advantage by the ninth move. However, this was soon balanced, as became the position.

Play unfolded on the queenside, where both sides made the best moves, leading the game to a natural draw - even though Humpy had chances to push for more. Although we did not see fireworks in this game, it was a display of the high-quality chess that we are witnessing in this event.

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh - Batkhuyag Munguntuul

Another incredibly instructive game was played in which White got a desirable position out of the opening but could not convert it, leading to a draw. Black did not make any obvious error in an Exchange Slav but allowed White to dominate the queenside by controlling the backward c6-pawn without any counterplay.

White solidified her strong position with a3 and b4, eventually activating her queen and taking advantage of Black’s passivity, picking up a pawn:

The h5-pawn is under attack, while White threatens Rxd5 as the c7-rook is hanging.

Despite this material and positional advantage, it was still not that easy to breakthrough - something Khadem attempted to do by pushing her h-pawn. It would have been better for White to be patient, considering that her two rooks were eyeing the queenside weakness. As played, Black managed to escape any kingside trouble by bringing one of her rooks over.

Although the engine assesses this position as better for White, it is still not very easy to convert her advantage. Unfortunately, Khadem relaxed and underestimated her opponent’s resilience. She was unable to progress and instead allowed her opponent to trade off a pair of rooks and activate the black queen. The game eventually concluded in a draw - an impressive feat by Munguntuul who managed to hold on and defend even though she was playing with mere minutes on the clock.

Bibisara Assaubayeva - Harika Dronavalli

The first game of the day to finish was the encounter on board 5 between Bibisara Assaubayeva and Harika Dronavalli. A slow Queen’s Gambit Declined started it off, where Black decided to enter a position with an isolated d-pawn, possibly wanting to shake up an otherwise dry position. An interesting moment came on the 16th move:

The position does not offer too many plans for either side, but a common motif of playing with the IQP is to eventually push the pawn. For this reason, Dronavalli played 16…Kf8 - praised by commentators as “the move of the game” where Black sealed the deal for a draw. Since the king defends the queen, pushing the pawn with …d4 and recapturing with the knight becomes Black’s idea. After 17.Bb5 d4 the pawn was finally advanced followed by multiple trades. By move 27 the game ended in a three-fold repetition draw.

Both players have not had an easy start to the event, and a draw for Bibisara after her 5.5 hour Round 4 loss to Goryachkina, and splitting a point for Harika with the black pieces was a safe result for both sides.

Standings after Round 4:

1	GM	Kateryna Lagno	2515	3
2	IM	Batkhuyag Munguntuul	2331	2½
3	GM	Humpy Koneru	2523	2½
4	IM	Sarasadat Khademalsharieh	2458	2½
5	GM	Alexandra Kosteniuk	2484	2
6	GM	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2546	2
7	GM	Zhongyi Tan	2561	1½
8	GM	Elisabeth Paehtz	2427	1½
9	IM	Bibisara Assaubayeva	2492	1½
10	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2489	1

Round 5 pairings and dates

The fifth round of the third leg in the 2024/25 Women’s Grand Prix series starts on Friday, February 22, at 15:00 CET local time in Monte-Carlo, Monaco.

Round 5 pairings:

Harika Dronavalli - Aleksandra Goryachkina
Elisabeth Paehtz - Bibisara Assaubayeva
Batkhuyag Munguntuul - Kateryna Lagno
Alexandra Kosteniuk - Sarasadat Khademalsharieh
Zhongyi Tan - Humpy Koneru

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.

You can follow the games live and watch the action with our wonderful commentators GM Alojzije Jankovic & IM Almira Skripchenko on YouTube.

Written by Charlize van Zyl

Photos: Niki Riga