3/25/2023 – The third stage of the Women’s Grand Prix series, set to take place in New Delhi, did not start as scheduled on Saturday, March 25. It was reported that some of the players were not received by official transport at the airport and that, at the hotel, they were informed that the rooms were not ready and the breakfast was not included in the price. Due to these conditions, Zhansaya Abdumalik withdrew from the event. FIDE and the eleven remaining players decided that the event would take place anyway, albeit starting on Sunday. | Photo: International Chess Federation

6/2/2021 – After an exciting ninth round and a quieter tenth day of action, 21-year-old Zhansaya Abdumalik secured first place at the Women’s Grand Prix in Gibraltar. The young star from Kazakhstan beat Valentina Gunina and signed a quick draw with Kateryna Lagno to get a 1½-point lead with only one round to go. | Pictured: Deputy Chief Minister of Gibraltar Jospeh Garcia makes the first move in Abdumalik v Lagno. | Photo: David Llada

5/31/2021 – Thanks to back-to-back wins in rounds 7 and 8, Zhansaya Abdumalik is now leading the standings of the Women’s Grand Prix in Gibraltar by a full point over closest pursuers Gunay Mammadzada and Mariya Muzychuk. Mammadzada is making a strong impression on the Rock, as she collected three consecutive victories in rounds 6-9, coincidentally over the three Russian participants. Follow the games of round 9 live with commentary. | Photo: David Llada

5/29/2021 – Going into the only rest day at the Women’s Grand Prix event in Gibraltar, Zhansaya Abdumalik and Mariya Muzychuk (pictured) are sharing the lead on 4½/6 points. The co-leaders drew their direct encounter in round 6, much like Kateryna Lagno, who is the only player trailing by a half point. As per the current standings, the Russian is the favourite to get a spot in the Candidates via the Grand Prix. | Photo: FIDE

5/24/2021 – Zhansaya Abdumalik from Kazakhstan is leading the fourth leg of the Women’s Grand Prix in Gibraltar after two rounds. The 21-year-old is the only player to have won both her games so far, as she got the better of compatriot Dinara Saduakassova and Elisabeth Paehtz in the first rounds of the event. Four players stand a half point behind. | Photo: FIDE

9/19/2020 – Zhansaya Abdumalik is one of the most promising young talents of our time. She is from Kazakhstan, a country which has experienced a huge boom in women's chess, especially in recent years. She is a multiple youth and junior world champion, known for a very aggressive and dynamic playing style. "With her lively and open manner it didn't take too long before I took her into my heart," writes IM Elisabeth Pähtz in this personal portrait. | Photo Kazinform

5/18/2020 – Kateryna Lagno and Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial in the women's and open sections respectively. Lagno defeated Lei Tingjie in the Armageddon tiebreaker after both finished the tournament on 12 out of 18. Carlsen scored the same amount of points, but in his case that was enough to secure tournament victory with a round to spare. | Photos: David Llada / Lennart Ootes

5/17/2020 – Russians Kateryna Lagno and Daniil Dubov have taken the lead at the women's and open sections of the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial respectively. The sensation of the day was Dubov's win over Magnus Carlsen, leapfrogging the world champion atop the standings table. Carlsen kept up the pace with the Russian and is now in sole second place a half point back. | Photos: FIDE

3/14/2020 – It was a rather short final day of action at the Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne. All six encounters finished drawn after 33 moves or fewer, which meant the standings table remained unchanged. Nana Dzagnidze and Aleksandra Goryachkina thus shared first place with 7 out of 11 points, while Zhansaya Abdumalik finished third on 6½. Dzagnidze was declared the champion on tiebreaks (total number of wins). | Photos: David Llada

3/13/2020 – World champion Ju Wenjun lost a second game in a row, this time against Aleksandra Goryachkina, who thus caught Nana Dzagnidze atop the standings table of the Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne. The co-leaders will face each other in Friday's deciding round (which kicks off three and a half hours earlier than usual!). Zhansaya Abdumalik is the only player a half point behind. | Photo: David Llada

3/8/2020 – Round six's three decisive results produced important changes in the standings table. Alina Kashlinskaya beat Marie Sebag with the white pieces and caught up with Aleksandra Goryachkina on 'plus two', while Harika Dronavalli — who was co-leading until round five — was defeated by Alexandra Kosteniuk and is now among the chasers. Tied with Harika on 3½ is now Zhansaya Abdumalik, who defeated Antoaneta Stefanova. | Photo: Official site

3/6/2020 – A one-move blunder by Nana Dzagnidze gave Harika Dronavalli a sudden win in round four of the Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne. Harika is now sharing the lead with Aleksandra Goryachkina, who took down Antoaneta Stefanova with the white pieces. The third winner of the day was Zhansaya Abdumalik, who duly took advantage of Alexandra Kosteniuk's bad form to inflict her third straight loss in Switzerland. | Photo: David Llada

3/3/2020 – The third leg of the Women's Grand Prix 2019/20 kicked off with draws on all six boards at the Mövenpick Hotel in Lausanne. World champion Ju Wenjun played Black against Zhao Xue's replacement, Zhansaya Abdumalik, while her latest challenger, Aleksandra Goryachkina, could not take advantage of the slim edge she got against Alina Kashlinskaya. Goryachkina will get a second White in a row on Tuesday. | Photo: Official website

1/28/2020 – Chess players have taken over the Rock of Gibraltar once again and, as usual, the festival has proven why players and spectators alike have made it a fixture in their calendar. After seven rounds, four players share first place in the Masters — Wang Hao, Parham Maghsoodloo, Andrey Esipenko and David Paravyan (pictured) have all collected 6 points so far. Bela Khotenashvili and Zhansaya Abdmualik are the top scorers among the women. | Photo: John Saunders

1/1/2020 – Happy New Year! World Champion Magnus Carlsen heads into 2020 with a 50 Elo point lead in the classical ratings and a 45 point lead on the rapid list. Yet, despite winning the recent World Blitz Championship in a playoff over Hikaru Nakamura, the American clings to a 13 point margin atop the world blitz rankings. Alireza Firouzja, who gave both a run for their money in Moscow, is now #1 on the Juniors rankings. | Photos: Amruta Mokal / Jingda Chen on Unsplash

11/1/2019 – The November rating list is out and reflects the performances of two of the most important tournaments on the calendar this year: The World Cup and the Grand Swiss, both qualifying events for the 2020 Candidates tournament which attracted a massive turnout of elite players. Every member of the top 40 was in action in the rating period except for the retired Vladimir Kramnik, Richard Rapport and Veselin Topalov. | Pictured: World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov, runner-up Ding Liren, third place finisher Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and fourth placed Yu Yangyi at the close of the Khanty-Mansiysk festivities. | Photo: FIDE

10/24/2019 – Alireza Firouzja is the world's highest rated junior player and is currently proving his strength at the Hoogeveen Chess Festival. After three games he leads Jorge Cori 3-0. The match between Jan Timman against Zhansaya Abdumalik remains balanced. In the top Open group, 13 year old Javokhir Sindarov is in sole possession of first place with 5½/6. | Photo: Harry Gielen / Official site

10/22/2019 – At the 2019 Hoogeveen chess festival, Jan Timman joins a youthful trio for six-game matches from October 20th 26th. The Dutch legend plays against Zhansaya Abdumalik. Alongside them, the second match features Iranian Alireza Firouzja against Peruvian Jorge Cori. The traditional Open tournament runs in parallel. Live games from 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 EDT) | Photo: Hoogeveen chess

5/15/2019 – The International Mind Sports Association World Masters Championship is taking place in Hengshui, China from 13th until 18th of May. It includes 5 sports — bridge, chess, draughts, go, and xiangqi — with 17 disciplines in total. 170 players have gathered from 36 countries. 16 players in open and 16 in women will indulge in 11 rounds of rapid and 11 rounds of blitz. After four rounds on day 1 we have Dominguez and Fedoseev leading in the open, while Mariya Muzychuk, Nana Dzagnidze Valentina Gunina and Zhansaya Abdumalik lead in the women's section.

4/3/2019 – April ratings came out like clockwork on Sunday night. Our own internal PlayerBase update — not so much. Apologies for the delay in our monthly tour through the Elo lists. Of special interest on the April list: 28 players from the Top 100 exhibited rating swings of +/- 10 Elo points or more — a rare occurrence. Pictured: Ju Wenjun, David Anton Guijarro, Jan Krejci, winners at the Prague Challengers. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

2/15/2019 – The Russian participants are the only ones with a chance to take home the first prize of $40,000 at the Cairns Cup. Valentina Gunina will enter her final round game against direct rival Alexandra Kosteniuk a half point ahead…but she will have the black pieces. Both players drew their Thursday games in Saint Louis, albeit through very different paths: Gunina was close to lost against Abdumalik while Kosteniuk had the upper hand during most of her encounter against Dzagnidze. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/10/2019 – Four decisive results in round four of the Cairns Cup left Alexandra Kosteniuk at the top of the standings with 3½/4. She cannot sit back and relax though, as both chasers — Valentina Gunina and Irina Krush — also won and are still half a point behind. The games were full of ups and downs, with the players showing great fighting spirit on all boards. Sunday's fifth round will be the last one before the rest day. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/7/2019 – Over the past decade, the Saint Louis Chess Club has expanded its roster of events from US-centric tournaments for top players, to the international elite, junior tournaments, norm tournament, and now, with the Cairns Cup, a new initiative to support women and girls. The instigators, Rex Sinquefield and Dr Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield welcomed ten of the world's best women chess players to the "chess capital of the USA". | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

11/14/2018 – The four semi-finalists of the 2018 Women's World Championship — all of which qualified to an upcoming Candidates tournament — have been decided. Ju Wenjun and Kateryna Lagno got their tickets in the classical portion, Alexandra Kosteniuk defeated Anna Muzychuk in a tense 25+30 rapid phase, and Mariya Muzychuk (pictured) eliminated Zhansaya Abudmalik in the second 5+3 blitz game, after the players traded blows all throughout the match. | Photos: Official site