Nicosia GP: Zhu and Tsolakidou strike first

by Michael Rahal
3/16/2025 – The first round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Cyprus saw four closely contested games and two decisive results. Greece's Stavroula Tsolakidou defeated Germany's Elisabeth Paehtz, while China's Zhu Jiner (pictured) overcame Olga Badelka. The tournament, held at Hilton Nicosia, features a strong lineup, including Grand Prix leader Aleksandra Goryachkina and Ukrainian stars Anna and Mariya Muzychuk. | Photos: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

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Two decisive results

Press release by FIDE

The first round of the Cyprus WGP was highly entertaining. Except for the encounter between the Muzychuk sisters, which ended in a quick draw, the four remaining games were fought to the bitter end, resulting in two important wins for Stavroula Tsolakidou and Zhu Jiner.

The fourth leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-25 kicked off this afternoon at 15:00 in the fantastic Hilton Nicosia. Evgenii Tiapkin, executive director of main sponsor Freedom24, performed the ceremonial first move for Stavroula Tsolakidou.

One of the toughest events of the six that compose the Grand Prix, Cyprus features leg-two winner Aleksandra Goryachkina, former Women's World Champions Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, side-by-side with young powerhouses such as China's Zhu Jiner and Greece's own Stavroula Tsolakidou.

If the fighting spirit displayed this afternoon at is a prelude to the rest of the tournament, glorious afternoons of great chess await us. Let's take a closer look at all five games.

Round 1 results

FIDE Women's Grand Prix Series

Round one is underway in Nicosia

Aleksandra Goryachkina ½-½ Nana Dzagnidze

Thanks to her two excellent results in Shymkent and Monaco, Goryachkina currently leads the Grand Prix and is widely considered the favourite here: a strong performance in Cyprus would practically secure her spot in the next Women's Candidates Tournament. Starting off the tournament with white against Georgia's Nana Dzagnidze, with whom she has a +3 =8 record with no defeats, couldn't be better.

But Dzagnidze is a very experienced player, and her international rating of 2513 is no small feat. She tends to play with strength and focus: defeating her takes a lot of energy and commitment.

Goryachkina opened with the Queen's Gambit, one of her usual openings, against which Dzagnidze had prepared a line in the Accepted Variation, in which she played against an isolated queen's pawn. Although Goryachkina developed a small initiative during the first moves, Dzagnidze neutralized White's attack and ultimately exchanged queens.

The endgame seemed to favour the Georgian GM very slightly but, low on time, she wasn't able to capitalize, and the game petered out into a draw. Both players performed this afternoon at the highest level with an all-around 98% accuracy score.

Aleksandra Goryachkina

Aleksandra Goryachkina

Anna Muzychuk ½-½ Mariya Muzychuk

The Muzychuk sisters have faced each other in classical chess on twenty-one occasions in the past. Except for a single win by Anna in the 2002 U-12 Ukrainian Girls Championship, all the other games have ended in draws, and this afternoon's encounter was no exception.

Today they battled it out in a 99% accuracy Najdorf Sicilian, more specifically a line that features eleven master games that all end in equal endings and subsequent draws: for example, a 2009 bout between elite GMs Akopian and Miroshnichenko.

Although the tournament rules forbid draws before 40 moves have been played, a threefold repetition is one of the few exceptions to the rule, and a peaceful outcome was signed on move 27.

Mariya Muzychuk, Anna Muzychuk

Ukrainian sisters Mariya and Anna Muzychuk

Divya Deshmukh ½-½ Harika Dronavalli

As per the rules, players of the same federation must face each other in the first round. Both Indian players, playing in their second tournament of the cycle, decided to go for a fight, but proceeded with caution trying not to overplay their hands.

The result? A long, 50-move, 98% accuracy draw, more than enough for both players to be content with their over-the-board efforts. In their previous three encounters, Harika scored two wins and one draw, but today she had to settle for a half-point.

For most of the game, in a well-known solid line of the Ruy Lopez Berlin, fan-favourite Divya nurtured a very small edge with white. But the pawn structure was symmetrical and Harika managed to force some interesting exchanges – it soon became clear that the talented young player from Nagpur wasn't getting anywhere.

Moreover, her experienced opponent finally obtained the bishop pair and, for a moment, entertained the idea of pressing for the advantage, but to no avail.

Divya v. Harika
The position right after the queens left the board - the pawn structures are symmetrical, but Black has the bishop pair

Divya kept things under control and a threefold repetition was recorded on move 50.

Harika Dronavalli

Harika Dronavalli

Zhu Jiner 1-0 Olga Badelka

A six-event cycle that runs over several months is bound to produce replacements. Players that may fall ill or run into other commitments vacate their spots for other contenders, under the specific rules of the competition. Both Zhu Jiner and Olga Badelka fall into this category.

Although Nicosia is the fourth of six tournaments, and all players are set to play three, funnily enough, for both of them this is their first event! Olga Badelka replaced Regina Theissl-Pokorna and will play in Cyprus and her home country Austria, while Zhu Jiner is replacing China's own Lei Tingjie and will add the India and Austria legs to Cyprus.

Even though the game's opening was a Ruy Lopez, it soon developed into a slow Italian. Going into the middlegame, it seemed that Badelka had equalised comfortably, but a couple of minor inaccuracies – 15…Bxf3 and above all 20…Nh7 - landed her in a very difficult position.

Zhu v. Badelka
Position after 20...Nh7

Zhu Jiner had the two bishops against her opponent's two knights plus a superior pawn structure. To top it all, Badelka was slowly running out of time while attempting to defend against her opponent's attack.

With excellent combinatorial play, the Chinese prodigy won a couple of pawns and opened up the gate to her opponent’s king, forcing the Austrian to resign on move 47.

In her post-game interview, Zhu Jiner shared her thoughts on her fine performance.

Olga Badelka

Olga Badelka

Stavroula Tsolakidou 1-0 Elisabeth Paehtz

The other victory of the day was achieved by Greece's top-ranked female player, Stavroula Tsolakidou. The 24-year-old player from Kavala, who actually turns 25 during this event, gave a fine performance against the very experimented GM Elisabeth Paehtz, representing Germany.

Both players went down a rabbit hole in an extensively pre-analysed variation of the Sicilian Rossolimo Attack. On move 13, with both opponents having used hardly any time on the clocks, Paehtz offered a draw by means of a threefold.

Eager to continue the fight, Stavroula went into the tank, considered her options, and after thirty minutes (!) declined the offer and began to make progress on the queenside. Both players went back and forth, but the edge was always on the White's side.

But Stavroula spent a lot of time during the struggle and, with twelve moves to go before reaching the time control, she was down to her last ten minutes – meanwhile, Paehtz still had more than forty to work with.

Moment of the day

The moment of the day occurred just before the time control. Stavroula had just captured the pawn on e5 with 38.Qxe5

Tsolakidou v. Paehtz

Paehtz could have played now 38…h6, vacating the h7-square for her king, and try to hold a worse position. Instead, she opted for 38…Rxc2, which indeed is the most human move in the position, with the idea of invading with her rook on the seventh file.

But after 39.Bh6! Black is totally lost. The threat of mate on g7 forced 39…Qxe5 and after 40.Nxe5 the dark-squared bishop is overloaded and Black loses material.

The game ended after 40…Kh8 41.Nxc6 Bh4 and now 42.g3 forced resignation because the bishop is trapped. If Black captures the pawn on g3, 43.Rf8 wins on the spot.

Check out Stavroula's post-game interview, in which she talks about the game and shows some fantastic lines on the computer!

Stavroula Tsolakidou

Stavroula Tsolakidou

Standings

Rk.NameRtg.Nt.Pts.n
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
TBPerf.
1
2514
1.0
1
0.00
3229
2
2445
1.0
1
0.00
3224
3
2548
0.5
1
0.25
2513
4
2516
0.5
1
0.25
2490
5
2513
0.5
1
0.25
2548
6
2490
0.5
1
0.25
2516
7
2483
0.5
1
0.25
2470
8
2470
0.5
1
0.25
2483
9
2429
0.0
1
0.00
1714
10
2424
0.0
1
0.00
1645
TBs: Sonneborn-Berger

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1.d4 10 d5 13 2.c4 11 dxc4 9 3.e3 33 c5 18 4.Bxc4 2:45 cxd4 12:52 5.Nf3 2:09 Qc7 51 6.Qb3 7:00 e6 1:36 7.exd4 2:29 Nf6 1:11 8.Nc3 41 a6 2:59 9.Bg5 4:14 Nc6 18:44 10.Bd3 2:26 Be7 3:20 11.0-0 4:40 0-0 10 12.Rfe1 3:55 Rd8 6:08 13.Be3 14:22 Nb4 9:48 14.Bb1 1:32 Bd7 14:15 15.Bg5 5:01 Bc6 6:15 16.Bxf6 5:26 gxf6 41 17.Be4 44 Rac8 1:09 18.Rad1 3:50 Bxe4 1:10 19.Rxe4 1:32 Qc4 2:23 20.Qxc4 4:39 Rxc4 2 21.g4 8:16 Nd5 3:59 22.Nxd5 2:52 Rxd5 2 23.Re2 2:34 f5 4:50 24.gxf5 4:15 Rxf5 3 25.Ne5 37 Rc8 3:01 26.Rd3 1:06 Rd8 3:51 27.Re4 2:15 Bf6 2:04 28.Rb3 2:45 Bxe5 33 29.Rxe5 41 Rf4 1:44 30.d5 2:35 exd5 10 31.Rxb7 21 d4 31 32.Re2 2:40 Rd6 11 33.Rb3 1:15 d3 40 34.Rd2 23 Rg6+ 54 35.Kf1 42 Rh4 29 36.f3 1:13 Rd6 35 37.Kg2 1:12 Rhd4 3 38.Kf2 42 Rh4 26 39.Kg2 30 Rhd4 4 40.Kf2 5 Rh4 4 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Goryachkina,A2548Dzagnidze,N2513½–½2025D21FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20251.1
Muzychuk,A2516Muzychuk,M2490½–½2025B90FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20251.2
Divya Deshmukh2470Dronavalli,H2483½–½2025C67FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20251.3
Tsolakidou,S2445Paehtz,E24241–02025B31FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20251.4
Zhu,J2514Badelka,O24291–02025C65FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20251.5
Dzagnidze,N2513Badelka,O2429½–½2025D20FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20252.1
Paehtz,E2424Zhu,J25140–12025D38FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20252.2
Dronavalli,H2483Tsolakidou,S2445½–½2025B31FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20252.3
Muzychuk,M2490Divya Deshmukh2470½–½2025C11FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20252.4
Goryachkina,A2548Muzychuk,A2516½–½2025B40FIDE Women GP Cyprus 20252.5

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Born in England in 1970, Michael Rahal is an International Master and a FIDE trainer. Currently living in Barcelona (Spain), Michael is fluent in English and Spanish and has been coaching chess players of all ages and levels for more than 25 years. More recently he has developed his career as a chess broadcaster, covering both online and on-site many top events on Playchess and the ICC, including a leg of the recent FIDE Grand Prix. You can also follow him on Youtube where more than 10.000 subscribers enjoy his instructive chess videos.
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