Fujairah Superstars: Zhu Jiner, the only female participant, among co-leaders

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/28/2025 – Round four of the Fujairah Global Chess Championship’s Superstars tournament concluded with nine players sharing the lead on 3 points. Wins by Amin Tabatabaei, Gleb Dudin and Zhu Jiner with the white pieces allowed them to join the players who entered the round as co-leaders. Zhu, the only female participant and lowest seed, defeated Alexander Motylev to continue her rise. Her performance has lifted her to fourth place in the women's live ranking. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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A highly competitive open event

Round four of the Superstars tournament in Fujairah saw three decisive results on the top seven boards, leaving nine players tied for first place on 3 points each. The victories allowed Amin Tabatabaei, Gleb Dudin and Zhu Jiner to join the six players who had begun the day as co-leaders.

Third seed Tabatabaei, representing Iran, secured a win with the white pieces to stay firmly in contention. Dudin, seeded 33rd, also prevailed to reach the leading score, underlining the depth of the field. The most striking result came from Zhu Jiner, the 44th seed (out of 44) and the only female participant in the Superstars category. Zhu defeated former European champion Alexander Motylev with white, continuing a strong run of form.

The 22-year-old has recently impressed in the Turkish League, which combined with her strong performance in Fujairah has added 26.3 rating points to her tally. This progress has lifted her to fourth place in the live women's ranking, joining compatriots Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie at the top of the global list.

In round five, scheduled for Thursday, Zhu will face Azerbaijan's 20-year-old rising star Aydin Suleymanli with the black pieces.

Amin Tabatabaei, Arkadij Naiditsch

After losing in the first round, Amin Tabatabaei scored three wins in a row - here pictured facing Arkadij Naiditsch in round two | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Zhu 1-0 Motylev

Standings after round 4

Rk. Name Pts. TB1
1 JACOBSON, Brandon 3 10,5
2 SULEYMANLI, Aydin 3 10
3 PRANAV, V 3 9,5
4 HONG, Andrew 3 9,5
5 SJUGIROV, Sanan 3 9
6 MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo 3 8
7 DUDIN, Gleb 3 7,5
8 TABATABAEI, M. Amin 3 7
9 ZHU, Jiner 3 7
10 CHEPARINOV, Ivan 2,5 9,5
11 MISHRA, Abhimanyu 2,5 9,5
12 SADHWANI, Raunak 2,5 7,5
13 SHANKLAND, Sam 2,5 7,5
14 ADITYA, Mittal 2,5 7,5
15 THEODOROU, Nikolas 2,5 6,5
16 MOTYLEV, Alexander 2 10,5
17 ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan 2 9,5
18 NARAYANAN, S L 2 9
19 PRANESH, M 2 9
20 MURADLI, Mahammad 2 9
21 GREBNEV, Aleksey 2 8,5
22 PICHOT, Alan 2 8,5
23 SALEM, A.R. Saleh 2 8
24 NIHAL, Sarin 2 7,5
25 DANESHVAR, Bardiya 2 7

...44 players

All games - Superstars

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Carlos 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.