4/6/2024 – Tan Zhongyi scored two wins in as many games to become the early leader at the Women’s Candidates Tournament in Toronto. After beating Lei Tingjie in the first round, Tan got the better of Vaishali R on Friday to keep her perfect score. Now in sole second place stands Aleksandra Goryachkina, who defeated Anna Muzychuk with the white pieces. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
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The Chinese domination continues?
At 32, Tan Zhongyi is already one of the most experienced elite players in the women’s chess circuit. Back in 2017, Tan became the women’s world champion by winning a 64-player knockout tournament in Tehran. In 2023, she reached the final of the Candidates Matches, which she lost to her round-1 opponent in Toronto, Lei Tingjie.
The players in the Women’s Candidates are fighting to gain the right to face Ju Wenjun in the next match for the world title. In the latest match, Ju faced Lei in an all-Chinese confrontation — as mentioned above, the finalists in the Candidates both hailed from China as well. Though the likes of Aleksandra Goryachkina, Humpy Koneru and Kateryna Lagno have maintained ratings similar to those of their Chinese colleagues, the players from China have lately been doing better in the official World Championship cycle.
Tan is now the sole leader in Canada, as she beat Lei and Vaishali R to keep a perfect score after the first two days of action. This is a long tournament, though, so her rivals have more than enough time to recover.
Besides Tan’s victory over Vaishali, one more game ended decisively on Friday, with Goryachkina getting the better of Anna Muzychuk with the white pieces.
In round 3, both Tan and Goryachkina will play black, against Muzychuk and Lei respectively.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
The playing hall in Toronto | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
White has calmly transferred her knight, which was initially wrongly positioned in this Karlsbad structure, to the better square on d3. However, neither player has an advantage in this quiet position.19...a420.Nfe5Na521.f3Nd622.Nf4Nac423.Ned3Rfe824.Qf2Re725.Re2Rce826.Rde1
Of course it was nice for White that her opponent no longer had a chance to open up the queenside.26...b627.g4Nb5Better was27...Qd828.Qh4Rc7=28.Qh4Qd6After28...Qd829.Nh5
since all the fight is taking place on the kingside, White's attacking chances have almost inevitably increased. Qg5 is a threat.f6A necessary weakening move, one that further improves White's attack.30.g5
30...f5?Black had probably hoped for a passive but durable defence. But now she's inevitably losing.
Necessary was30...fxg5but after31.Qxg5Rf732.f4
things do not look good for the e6-pawn.31.Rg2Kh832.Ndf4e5
The activity of the white pieces gave sufficient compensation for the missing pawn.25...Rb7?But now this was a mistake.Good was25...Bd8protecting c7.26.Nc8More precise was26.Rc7Rxc727.Rxc7Re828.Nc8+-26...Rd726...Bf8!perhaps still offered a chance of a draw.27.Rc7Rhd828.Nxe7Bc428...Kxe729.Bg5+29.Rxd7Rxd730.Nc8Bxa2
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti
Aleksandra Goryachkina | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
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Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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