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At first, round seven looked set to produce plenty of draws. Then it seemed as though the field might close up, before Tan Zhongyi eventually extended her lead to a full point.
Round 7 results
Four wins and three draws is Tan Zhongyi's impressive record at this year's Cairns Cup. She has not won every game convincingly, but she has consistently been alert when opportunities have arisen.
Drawing on the experience of a world champion, Tan Zhongyi (right) defeated the young Indian Divya Deshmukh in an exciting game | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Playing black against Divya Deshmukh, the 35-year-old who became women's world champion in 2017 found herself clearly worse in a wild position. Deshmukh signalled her fighting intentions from the outset with an aggressive Vienna Game. The plan initially worked and she obtained a clear initiative. But later, despite being an exchange and two pawns up, she lost control of the position.
In the battle on opposite flanks of the board, Tan's far-advanced kingside pawns eventually prevailed, helped by the unusually safe shelter she created for her king on h5.
After Alice Lee's strong start to the tournament, calculations had already begun: before round seven, she needed another 2 points to secure her first GM norm. It was therefore all the more frustrating that she failed to convert a position in which she had been clearly better for a long time against Anna Muzychuk. The draw also allowed Tan to restore her one-point lead.
Alice Lee was unable to end Anna Muzychuk's run of draws - the Ukrainian GM has drawn all seven of her games so far | Photo: Lennart Ootes
In a game in which the 16-year-old American took control after the Ukrainian's inaccurate 29th move and made steady progress in a difficult rook endgame with five pawns against four, she failed to take advantage of what should have been Muzychuk's decisive mistake on move 88. Her reply 89.Re7 was still fine, but on move 90 she gave up almost all of her advantage, and the game ended in a draw 19 moves later. Lee now needs 1½ points from the final two rounds to secure her GM norm.
Stavroula Tsolakidou still had chances of securing a GM norm as well. However, the Greek IM lost her game against Bibisara Assaubayeva. The Kazakh player gave her opponent few chances. Although she let a large part of her advantage slip a few times, she eventually won after 50 moves.
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Bibisara Assaubayeva moved into joint second place | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Carissa Yip's hopes of a GM norm also came to an end, as did Tsolakidou's, after her draw against Vaishali Rameshbabu left her tied for fourth to seventh place. The defending champion would in any case have needed to finish the Cairns Cup with 3/3 to achieve the norm. The evaluation in the game between Yip and Vaishali remained close to equality according to the engine throughout, and eventually ended in a draw.
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Carissa Yip now appears unlikely to retain her title | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The other former women's world champion in the field, Alexandra Kosteniuk, has recovered somewhat after her dreadful 0/4 start: she drew for the third game in a row. Her game against Humpy Koneru, between the two players at the bottom of the standings, remained balanced throughout. The pair have a long shared tournament history: they first faced each other in 2002, but Kosteniuk had to wait around 20 years before scoring her first victory over Koneru, at the Cairns Cup!
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A draw between two long-time rivals | Photo: Lennart Ootes
A view of the playing hall in Saint Louis | Photo: Lennart Ootes
