Deshmukh in sole second place

Bibisara Assaubayeva kept her lead at Norway Chess Women after defeating Zhu Jiner in Armageddon in round two, while Divya Deshmukh and Anna Muzychuk also won their rapid deciders on a day that saw all three encounters going to the rapid-play tiebreaker.

The Kazakh representative remains the one player to have scored a classical win in the whole event, while Deshmukh stands in sole second place after winning two Armageddons in as many rounds. The two frontrunners are set to face each other on Wednesday.

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Round 2 results

Standings after round 2

Assaubayeva's match against Zhu produced the most eventful classical game of the day. Zhu had White and built up a major advantage after Assaubayeva chose a Benoni-type structure. The Chinese grandmaster handled her space advantage well for a long stretch and reached what should have been a winning position.

Once the queens came off, the balance shifted, and the Kazakh grandmaster was suddenly the one pressing. She later had a direct winning chance with 53...Nxc4, but missed it, and the game eventually ended in a draw. Both players had winning chances, and both let them slip.

Black here played 53...Rd1?, which leads to an equal position, when 53...Nxc4 wins at once due to 54.Rxa2 Re2+ 55.Kf3 Rxb2, and Black emerges with two minor pieces (and an extra pawn) for a rook.

The Armageddon game was even more unstable. Assaubayeva later said she had "blundered everything" and added that she had still been affected by missing her chance in the classical game.

Zhu was given a clear opportunity when 27...Re7? allowed a one-move skewer with 28.Bd8, but the position remained sharp enough for Assaubayeva to keep creating counterplay.

Fritz 21

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Despite being a rook down - for three extra pawns - later in the game, the tournament leader managed to fight her way back and eventually won the game. There were chances for both players in the final time scramble, but the result gave Assaubayeva another 1½ points and maintained her place at the top of the standings.

Zhu Jiner facing Bibisara Assaubayeva | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

Divya Deshmukh also scored an Armageddon win, this time against Humpy Koneru. Their classical game featured an interesting opening battle, but good play by both Indian representatives led to a 32-move draw.

In the Armageddon, Koneru equalised comfortably from the opening, but the position became more difficult after 21...c5?!

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Black’s queenside weaknesses on c5 and a5 proved too difficult to defend. Deshmukh converted her advantage and collected 1½ points from the match.

Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

Anna Muzychuk recovered from her first-round Armageddon loss by beating world champion Ju Wenjun in the tiebreak. In the classical game, Muzychuk chose a quiet and risk-free approach. The game offered little scope for either side to play for more, and ended on move 31. Muzychuk explained afterwards that her plan had been to keep the classical game under control and then play more actively in Armageddon.

Ju repeated the same defensive setup in the Armageddon game, but Muzychuk, needing a win with White, changed the character of the struggle with a more risky approach in the opening. The game later became a time scramble, in which Muzychuk's piece sacrifice with 27.Nxd6!? gave her practical chances. Her active play was rewarded, and the game ended with checkmate on the board.

Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar

In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.

Two experienced fighters - Anna Muzychuk and Ju Wenjun | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

All games - Classical

All games - Armageddon

Links

• Official website
• Norway Chess announces move to Oslo for 2026 edition