Nicosia GP: Wagner remains in the lead, Assaubayeva scores

Assaubayeva beats Khotenashvili

The fourth and final Grand Prix tournament of the 2022–23 series is gradually coming to an end. Sixteen players participated, each playing in three of the four tournaments.

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In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

The two players ranked at the top of the overall ranking will get spots in the next Women’s Candidates Tournament. Zhu Jiner leads the standings with 308 points, but is not playing in Nicosia. Aleksandra Goryachkina is in second place and will probably qualify, as it looks at the moment.  In the open cycle, by the way, FIDE has abolished the elaborate Grand Prix series.

However, the leader after eight rounds in Nicosia is — somewhat surprisingly — the German representative Dinara Wagner.

Dinara Wagner | Photo: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

After her third win of the tournament, where she defeated Kateryna Lagno, Wagner drew with Polina Shuvalova in Wednesday’s round 8. Playing white, Wagner came under pressure out of a Catalan Opening, but defended tenaciously and also successfully.

Five of the six games ended in draws in the eighth round, which is rather unusual for a women’s tournament.

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

Bibisara Assaubayeva celebrated the only win, as she beat Bella Khotenashvili. After the rarely played 9...Qc7 (instead of 9...Nc6) in the Exchange Variation of the Grünfeld Defence, the Georgian was rather careless while manoeuvring her queen and later even had it captured. For Assaubayeva, who had not a good start in Cyprus, this was her second win in a row.

“I am happy to have reached fifty percent, and now I just want to play chess and see what happens. To relax here, I sometimes go to the gym, go for a walk or just watch some videos”, the young Kazakh grandmaster explained in the interview.

In addition to Olga Milko, the representative of the sponsor Freedom Finance Europe, the organizers were pleased to welcome Alexandra Attalides, a member of parliament from the Green Party, Annita Demetriou, the speaker of the Cypriot House of Representatives, and Criton Tornaritis, the president of the Cypriot Chess Federation. 

Alexandra Attalides following the game between Bibisara Assaubayeva and Bela Khotenashvili | Photo: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

Results - Round 8

Standings - Round 8

All games

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Links

• Tournament page
• Kateryna Lagno wins Astana Women’s Grand Prix
• Kosteniuk wins Women’s Grand Prix in Munich
• Goryachkina, Zhu and Assaubayeva tie for first at New Delhi Grand Prix