Cairns Cup, Round 5: Four draws and a win

by Johannes Fischer
6/16/2025 – After five of nine rounds, three players share the lead at the Cairns Cup in Saint Louis: Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli and Alice Lee. All three drew in round 5 and now have 3.5 points. The only win in round 5 went to Carissa Yip (pictured), who defeated Nana Dzagnidze. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club
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However, Carissa Yip's victory did not go entirely smoothly. After a nice sacrifice in the middlegame, Yip missed an immediate tactical win and instead had to win an endgame with an extra pawn. Both sides handled this endgame imprecisely, but in the end Yip prevailed.

Yip, Carissa24311–0Dzagnidze, Nana2505
Cairns Cup 2025
Saint Louis14.06.2025[Johannes Fischer]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.d4 e6 6.Be3 Nd7 7.c4 Qc6 8.Nc3 Ngf6 9.h3 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Qc7 11.Be2 b6 12.Bf3 Bb7
13.Bf4? White wants to use her advantage in development, but this is too ambitious. Better was 13.0-0 Be7 14.Rc1 with a balanced position. 13...Qc8? Black trusts her opponent, but misses a good chance. After 13...Qxf4 14.Bxb7 Ra7 15.Bc6 Bc5 Black is clearly better. 14.0-0 Bc5 15.Nb3 Be7 16.Bxb7 Qxb7 17.Bd6 Rc8 18.Bxe7 Kxe7 19.Qe2 White managed to keep Black's king in the middle, but the position is still equal. Rhd8 20.Rad1 Qc6 21.Nd5+ Kf8
22.Nd4!? An interesting pawn-sacrifice that poses Black problems. Qxc4 23.Nxf6 gxf6 But not 23...Nxf6? 24.Qxc4 Rxc4 25.Nxe6+! and White wins. 24.Qh5 Kg7 25.b3 Qc5 26.Qg4+
26...Qg5? A tactical oversight. Better was 26...Kh8 White has compensation for the pawn, but the position is still roughly equal. 27.Nxe6+! fxe6 28.Qxe6 White wins the sacrificed material back with interest. Ne5 29.Rxd8 Even stronger was 29.f4! though you have to see that White is winning after Qh5 30.fxe5 Rxd1 31.exf6+ Kg6 32.f7+ Kg7 33.Qf6+ Kf8 34.Qh8+ Ke7 35.f8Q+ 29...Rxd8 30.f4 Qg3 31.fxe5 Qxe5 32.Qxb6
Now White is a pawn up and has to win this difficult endgame. 32...Rd6 33.Qc7+ Kg6 34.Qc8 h5 35.Qg8+ Kh6 36.Qf7 Qd4+ 37.Kh1 Qe5 38.b4 Qe6 39.Qxe6 Rxe6
40.Rf5?! This move makes the win more complicated. Easier was 40.a4! to put the rook behind the passed pawn - with a technical win for White. Rb6 41.Rb1 Kg6 42.b5 axb5 43.axb5 Kg5 44.Kg1 Kf5 45.Kf2 Kf4 46.Rb4+ Ke5 47.Kf3 Kf5 48.Ke3 Ke5 49.Rb2 Kd6 50.Kf4 and White is winning. 40...Kg6 41.Ra5 h4 42.Kg1 Rb6 43.a3 Rd6 44.Kf2 f5 45.Ke3 Kg5 46.a4 Re6+
47.Kd3? Karsten Müller: "White loses time." Better was 47.Kd4 Kf4 Or 47...Re4+ 48.Kc5 Re5+ 49.Kb6 Re2 50.Kxa6 Rxg2 51.b5 Rb2 52.b6 and White is winning. 48.b5 axb5 49.axb5 Kg3 50.Ra2 f4 51.Rb2 Rb6 52.Kc5 Rb8 53.b6 f3 54.gxf3 Kxh3 55.Rb4 with a win for White. 47...Kf4 48.b5 axb5 49.axb5
49...Re3+? With 49...Kg3 Black could have saved the game, e.g. 50.Ra6 50.Ra2 also leads to a draw: f4 51.Rb2 Rb6 52.Kc4 f3 53.gxf3 Kxh3 54.Kc5 Rb8 55.b6 Kg3 and Black saves herself. 50...Re4 51.Rg6+ Kh2 52.b6 Rb4 53.Kc3 Rb1 54.Kc4 f4 55.Kc5 Rb2 56.Rg4 Rxg2 57.Rxg2+ Kxg2 58.b7 f3 59.b8Q f2 with a well-known draw. 50.Kc4 Ke5 After 50...Kg3 protects the pawn with 51.Ra2 and wins. 51.b6+ Kd6 52.Rxf5 Kc6 53.Rf6+ Kb7 54.Rg6 Re2 55.Kd3 Re1 56.Rg4 Kxb6 57.Rxh4 Kc5 58.Re4 Rg1 59.Re2 Kd5 60.Ke3 Rf1 61.Rf2 Ra1 62.Kf4 Ke6 63.Kg5 Ra3 64.Rf3 Ra8 65.g4 Ke7 66.Kh4 Rh8+ 67.Kg3 Ke6 68.h4 1–0

The other four games in the round ended in draws without any major excitement.

Results

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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
Harika,D2483Yip,C24311–02025Cairns Cup 20251.5
Dzagnidze,N2505Assaubayeva,B25091–02025Cairns Cup 20252.1
Muzychuk,M2492Lee,A23890–12025Cairns Cup 20252.2
Kashlinskaya,A2459Yip,C2431½–½2025Cairns Cup 20252.3
Tan,Z2546Koneru,H2543½–½2025Cairns Cup 20252.4
Batsiashvili,N2462Harika,D2483½–½2025Cairns Cup 20252.5
Harika,D2483Muzychuk,M2492½–½2025Cairns Cup 20253.1
Yip,C2431Batsiashvili,N24621–02025Cairns Cup 20253.2
Lee,A2389Dzagnidze,N2505½–½2025Cairns Cup 20253.3
Assaubayeva,B2509Tan,Z2546½–½2025Cairns Cup 20253.4
Koneru,H2543Kashlinskaya,A2459½–½2025Cairns Cup 20253.5
Kashlinskaya,A2459Batsiashvili,N2462½–½2025Cairns Cup 20254.1
Koneru,H2543Assaubayeva,B25091–02025Cairns Cup 20254.2
Muzychuk,M2492Yip,C24311–02025Cairns Cup 20254.3
Dzagnidze,N2505Harika,D24830–12025Cairns Cup 20254.4
Tan,Z2546Lee,A2389½–½2025Cairns Cup 20254.5
Lee,A2389Koneru,H2543½–½2025Cairns Cup 20255.1
Yip,C2431Dzagnidze,N25051–02025B28Cairns Cup 20255.2
Harika,D2483Tan,Z2546½–½2025Cairns Cup 20255.3
Batsiashvili,N2462Muzychuk,M2492½–½2025Cairns Cup 20255.4
Assaubayeva,B2509Kashlinskaya,A2459½–½2025Cairns Cup 20255.5

Tournament page

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Topics: Cairns Cup 2025, Carissa Yip
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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Cairns Cup, Round 9 - Live!

– The decision in the Cairns Cup, one of the strongest women’s tournaments of the year, will come today in the ninth and final round, in the direct encounter between Carissa Yip and Alice Lee. After eight rounds, Yip leads with 5.5 out of 8, half a point ahead of Alice Lee, who has scored 5 points from 8 games. This means a draw will be enough for Yip, who has White, to win the tournament. Harika Dronavalli and Humpy Koneru share third and fourth place with 4.5 out of 8, but no longer have a chance to win the event, regardless of the outcome between Yip and Lee. | Follow the action live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST)
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