Cairns Cup: Tan leads going into second half

by Martina Gerdts
8/16/2026 – All the games in round five ended in draws. As a result, Tan Zhongyi (4/5) maintains her one-point lead at the top of the standings. Alice Lee, Stavroula Tsolakidou, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Divya Deshmukh follow on 3 points. Playing white against Stavroula Tsolakidou, Alexandra Kosteniuk scored her first half-point. Humpy Koneru and Candidates Tournament winner Vaishali Rameshbabu have yet to score a win. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club
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Role reversal between Tan and Vaishali

Comparing the Cairns Cup standings after round five with the final standings of the 2026 Women's Candidates Tournament, it seems as though former women's world champion Tan Zhongyi and Candidates winner Vaishali Rameshbabu have swapped roles. Tan Zhongyi remains unbeaten so far. After three wins and a draw, she added another draw on Friday evening. Vaishali Rameshbabu, meanwhile, is still without a win, with round five bringing her third draw. At the Women's Candidates Tournament, Vaishali lost to only one player and otherwise remained unbeaten, while Tan Zhongyi recorded just one win in fourteen rounds and otherwise either lost or drew.

Vaishali Rameshbabu and Humpy Koneru have yet to score a win at the event in Saint Louis | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Standings after round 5

Weekend begins with five draws

All five games at the Cairns Cup ended in draws on Friday evening. For Tan Zhongyi, this meant retaining her lead. For Alexandra Kosteniuk, it meant scoring her first half-point of the tournament. Kosteniuk had white against Stavroula Tsolakidou.

Alexandra Kosteniuk vs Stavroula Tsolakidou | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Round 5 results

Alexandra Kosteniuk ½ - ½ Stavroula Tsolakidou

The game between Kosteniuk and Tsolakidou lasted 52 moves. In the final position, Kosteniuk had three far-advanced connected passed pawns on the queenside, but also a vulnerable king. She forced Tsolakidou into a draw by threefold repetition; otherwise, she could have exchanged queens and won. Without the queen exchange, she could also have tried to push her queenside pawns further, but in that scenario the black queen would be able to attack the white king while also threatening the key pawns. A draw would still have been White's best outcome in that case.

Alice Lee (3/5) remains among the chasing group | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Round 5 quick analysis

Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

All games

Links

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Topics: Cairns Cup 2026
Martina Gerdts studied Portuguese and Spanish linguistics and nowadays teaches language classes and writes about chess and languages. Having started playing chess for a tournament trip to Paris, she is now active not only as a player but in a diverse range of activities connected to chess. This includes among others teaching chess classes, writing about chess and being active as an arbiter.
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