Cairns Cup: Five wins in round 1

by Johannes Fischer
6/11/2025 – The Cairns Cup in Saint Louis, one of the strongest women’s tournaments of the year, began with a promising start: all five games in the first round ended decisively. There were also a few minor surprises. Alice Lee (pictured), the youngest participant at just 15 years old and number 10 seed, scored a convincing victory against Nino Batsiashvili. Meanwhile, top seed and 2024 Cairns Cup winner Tan Zhongyi suffered a setback, losing with the white pieces to Alina Kashlinskaya after landing in a difficult position as early as move 21. | Photo: Tournament page
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Tan, entering the tournament as defending champion and first seed, had a rough start. In a well-known variation of the French Defense, she might have forgotten her preparation and after a dubious novelty soon found herself in a losing position. Kashlinskaya capitalized on the advantage without much difficulty.

Alice Lee’s game was less turbulent. In a line of the Queen’s Gambit, she reached a rook endgame with an extra pawn after an inaccuracy by her opponent, Nino Batsiashvili. Although the position was objectively drawn, Batsiashvili was unable to hold it.

Bibisara Assaubayeva won quickly against Mariya Muzychuk in a sharp line of the Caro-Kann Defense, taking advantage of Muzychuk’s failure to bring her king to safety.

Humpy Koneru and Nana Dzagnidze played a sharp and dynamic game, with chances for both sides. In the end, it was Koneru who had the better of it.

The longest game of the day was between Harika Dronavalli and Carissa Yip. After 118 moves Dronavalli won in a rook endgame.

Results

Standings

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Games

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MoveNResultEloPlayers
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1.e4 4 e6 6 2.d4 19 d5 6 3.Nc3 6 Nf6 11 4.Bg5 22 dxe4 13 5.Nxe4 8 Nbd7 10 6.Nf3 1:22 h6 12 7.Nxf6+ 24 Nxf6 6 8.Be3 13 Bd6 36 9.Bd3 32 0-0 1:28 10.Qe2 21 b6 1:51 11.0-0-0 1:21 Bb7 1:01 12.Kb1 2:14 Nd5 12:21 13.c4 3:28 Nb4 7:24 14.Ka1 5:08 Nxd3 34 15.Rxd3 37 Qf6 7:30 16.Bd2 12:20 Rfd8 14:11 17.Bc3 7:50 Qf5 3:17 18.Rhd1 9:57 a5 3:20 19.h3 22:59 Ba6 5:28 20.g4 1:51 Qh7 4:44 21.Nd2 2:54 b5 1:38 22.d5 6:57 bxc4 9:50 23.Re3 11 exd5 17 24.Nf3 6 Bf8 6:57 25.g5 9:48 c5 2:35 26.g6 14 Qxg6 3:11 27.Ne5 4 Qf5 2:37 28.Ng4 6:10 d4 34 29.Rg1 45 Rd6 4:23 30.Rf3 4:13 Qd5 1 31.Rf6 1:01 dxc3 1:42 32.Nxh6+ 9 Kh7 11 33.Rxd6 1:52 Bxd6 4:52 34.Nxf7 21 cxb2+ 22 35.Kb1 4 Qf5+ 29 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Tan,Z2546Kashlinskaya,A24590–12025Cairns Cup 20251.1
Koneru,H2543Dzagnidze,N25051–02025Cairns Cup 20251.2
Assaubayeva,B2509Muzychuk,M24921–02025Cairns Cup 20251.3
Lee,A2389Batsiashvili,N24621–02025Cairns Cup 20251.4
Dronavalli,H2483Yip,C24311–02025Cairns Cup 20251.5

Tournament page

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Topics: Alice Lee, Alina Kashlinskaya
Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".
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Video

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After 1.d4 d5 many players with White avoid the great amount of theory in the Slav, Semi-Slav, QGA and Orthodox Queen's Gambit and do not therefore play 2.c4. This is not very ambitious, but the painful experience of many chess players has been that the Colle System, the Trompowsky Attack, the Torre Attack and the London System are nevertheless extremely dangerous. Black has to be prepared for each of these openings and IM Valeri Lilov offers you some help with his six instructive videos, in which he demonstrates for each single opening a relevant plan for Black. In addition to the openings mentioned, the Bulgarian trainer also delves into the Catalan, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and the Richter-Veresov Opening.
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