Women's GP Pune: Zhu dodges a bullet, still leads

by Michael Rahal
4/19/2025 – Despite expectations of a quiet day before the rest break, round six of the Women's Grand Prix in Pune saw four hard-fought encounters and just one quick draw between Humpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli. Vaishali Rameshbabu scored her first win of the event, while Nurgyul Salimova stunned Zhu Jiner with a brilliant queen sacrifice - though a win slipped away in time trouble. | Photo: Abhilash Shinde

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Vaishali scores

Press release by FIDE

Going into the rest day, one would think that the players would keep it to the vest and play cautiously – no one wants to lose a game and ponder over it too much. But almost the opposite was true!

With the sole exception of the duel between friends and rivals Humpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli, the other four games were heavily contested, to the point where we witnessed a fantastic positional queen sacrifice along with Vaishali Rameshbabu's first win.

For the free day, the organizers have planned a trip to the centre of Pune for some sightseeing and souvenir hunting. Players, arbiters and media will get a chance to bond, at the same time recharging their batteries for the four final rounds, which will decide the winner of the Pune Women's Grand Prix.

Round-five's ceremonial first moves were performed on the Humpy v. Harika board. Mr. Shri Sridhar, Superintendent CID Pune, opened the game for Humpy, while GM Abhijit Kunte, gold winning captain of the 2024 Women's Olympiad Team and the WGP Tournament Organizer, made a move with Harika's black pieces.

Let's take a closer look at Friday's games.

Round 5 results

NameRtg.Nt.Pts.Pts.NameRtgNt.
GM
GM
2528

1
GM
2484
½

2
WGM
2293
½


4
WGM
2500
1

5
GM
2488
½

Ø 2445
3.5/5
2528
3
½-½
2
GM
GM
2488

1
GM
2525
0

2
WGM
2496
½

3
WGM
2402
1

4
GM
2484
½

5
GM
2528
½

Ø 2487
2.5/5
2488
WGM
WGM
2402


2
WGM
2500
½

3
GM
2488
0

4
WGM
2361
1

5
GM
2525
½

Ø 2467
2/5
2402
½-½
GM
GM
2525

1
GM
2488
1

2
WGM
2361
1

3
WGM
2293
½


5
WGM
2402
½

Ø 2408
4/5
2525
WGM

1
WGM
2402
1

2
GM
2484
1

3
GM
2528
0

4
WGM
2293
1

5
WGM
2500
½

Ø 2441
3.5/5
2460
3
½-½
2
WGM


2
WGM
2402
½

3
GM
2484
½

4
GM
2528
0

5
WGM
2460
½

Ø 2474
2.5/5
2500
GM

1
GM
2528
½


3
WGM
2500
½

4
GM
2488
½

5
WGM
2361
1

Ø 2467
2.5/5
2484
1-0
2
WGM

1
WGM
2293
1

2
GM
2525
0


4
WGM
2402
0

5
GM
2484
0

Ø 2440
2/5
2361
WGM

1
WGM
2500
0

2
GM
2488
½

3
WGM
2361
0

4
GM
2525
0

5
WGM
2293
½

Ø 2433
1/5
2496
½
½-½
1
WGM
WGM
2293

1
WGM
2361
0

2
GM
2528
½

3
GM
2525
½


5
WGM
2496
½

Ø 2474
1.5/5
2293

Humpy Koneru ½-½ Harika Dronavalli

The first game to finish was the match between the two best Indian female players of all time, Humpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli.

According to my database, their rivalry goes way back, to 2003. Since then, they have played thirty games against each other, with a very close record – 3 wins a piece and 24 draws.

Humpy opened with a very solid Neo-Catalan declined, but failed to achieve any advantage in the opening. Both players completed their development comfortably and a draw was agreed on move nineteen after a threefold move repetition.

It could be argued that Humpy could have played on in the final position with 19.Bxf6, weakening Harika's castled king, but going into the rest day she preferred to play it safe.

Harika Dronavalli

Harika Dronavalli | Photo: Abhilash Shinde

Alina Kashlinskaya ½-½ Salome Melia

Soon afterwards, Kashlinskaya and Melia, currently occupying the bottom two spots in the standings, also agreed to a draw, albeit after many more moves.

The Polish number one decided to try out the solid Alapin Variation against her opponent's Sicilian Defence. However, after a few moves it already seemed that she was out of book, spending ten minutes for 7.dxc5 and then a further thirteen minutes for 9.h3.

With the queens off the board, it all fell down to Kashlinskaya's endgame technique – would she be able to squeeze water from a stone in an opposite-coloured bishop endgame with two rooks still on the board?

She continued to push, and even sacrificed a pawn to get an outside passer, but Salome was able to hold the balance at all time and engines confirmed the equality. A draw was eventually agreed on move forty-one, with both players clocking-in a 98% accuracy score.

Alina Kashlinskaya

Alina Kashlinskaya | Photo: Abhilash Shinde

Divya Deshmukh ½-½ Polina Shuvalova

A very equal game all along. Divya prepared a twist in the exchange variation of the Queen’s Gambit that definitely caught Shuvalova off-guard. The move 8.Nge2, instead of the more common 8.Qf3, forced Shuvalova into the tank for more than seventeen minutes.

Polina eventually found the correct defence, but Divya pressed on for most of the game, working her way towards the only weakness in Shuvalova's position – the pawn on b7.

But Polina was on point and defended accurately, simplifying into a totally drawn theoretical rook and pawn endgame. The game indeed ended in a draw, with both players performing above 98% accuracy!

Polina Shuvalova

Polina Shuvalova | Photo: Abhilash Shinde

Vaishali Rameshbabu 1–0 Munguntuul Batkhuyag

An important win for Vaishali, that leaves her on 50% going into the rest day. She opened the game with the Reti, 1.Nf3 and 2.g3, followed by an early exchange of queens.

Very solid but with hardly any aggression – Munguntuul equalised comfortably and one could even argue that Black had the upper hand.

Additionally, on move twenty-five, Munguntuul had twenty-five minutes left while Vaishali was already under her final ten minutes. Up to this point both players were being very accurate (around 98%), and according to the engine the position remained in balance but at the same time extremely dynamic.

Vaishali finally decided to go for an attack, and the risk reaped the reward. After several inaccuracies, the Indian IM took advantage of her opponent's final mistakes and won the game.

She was also kind enough to join us in the media centre to go over her game on the screen, and talk about her performance in the tournament.

Nurgyul Salimova ½-½ Zhu Jiner

If Zhu Jiner ends up winning this tournament, it will be largely because she saved this game by the skin of the teeth.

In a fashionable London Opening, Zhu obtained the bishop pair in exchange for a slight kingside pawn weakness. Both players made some small positional inaccuracies in the early middlegame, but eventually the position evened out, and a draw was looking to be the most likely outcome.

After some more exchanges and manoeuvres, Salimova was even proposing some move repetitions, while Zhu Jiner was avoiding them at all costs: she wanted the game to carry on, probably counting on some mistakes in Salimova's time trouble.

And then this happened!

Zhu Jiner could have just exchanged rooks and the game would have headed to a draw. But instead she played 44…Nd5? and got hit by a fabulous queen sacrifice. Salimova played 45.Qxd5! exd5 46.Rxc7 with a massive positional advantage for the material.

The game eventually ended in a draw as Salimova missed a couple of wins. We were lucky to catch her leaving the playing hall and convinced her to pop into the media centre and see where she had missed the win.


Standings after round 5

Rk.NameRtg.Nt.Pts.n
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
TBPerf.
1
GM
GM
2525

1
GM
2488
1

2
WGM
2361
1

3
WGM
2293
½


5
WGM
2402
½

Ø 2408
4/5
2525
4.0
5
7.25
2648
2
GM
GM
2528

1
GM
2484
½

2
WGM
2293
½


4
WGM
2500
1

5
GM
2488
½

Ø 2445
3.5/5
2528
3.5
5
9.25
2594
3
WGM

1
WGM
2402
1

2
GM
2484
1

3
GM
2528
0

4
WGM
2293
1

5
WGM
2500
½

Ø 2441
3.5/5
2460
3.5
5
7.25
2590
4
GM

1
GM
2528
½


3
WGM
2500
½

4
GM
2488
½

5
WGM
2361
1

Ø 2467
2.5/5
2484
2.5
5
6.25
2467
5
GM
GM
2488

1
GM
2525
0

2
WGM
2496
½

3
WGM
2402
1

4
GM
2484
½

5
GM
2528
½

Ø 2487
2.5/5
2488
2.5
5
5.50
2487
6
WGM


2
WGM
2402
½

3
GM
2484
½

4
GM
2528
0

5
WGM
2460
½

Ø 2474
2.5/5
2500
2.5
5
5.00
2474
7
WGM
WGM
2402


2
WGM
2500
½

3
GM
2488
0

4
WGM
2361
1

5
GM
2525
½

Ø 2467
2/5
2402
2.0
5
5.25
2395
8
WGM

1
WGM
2293
1

2
GM
2525
0


4
WGM
2402
0

5
GM
2484
0

Ø 2440
2/5
2361
2.0
5
2.50
2368
9
WGM
WGM
2293

1
WGM
2361
0

2
GM
2528
½

3
GM
2525
½


5
WGM
2496
½

Ø 2474
1.5/5
2293
1.5
5
4.25
2325
10
WGM

1
WGM
2500
0

2
GM
2488
½

3
WGM
2361
0

4
GM
2525
0

5
WGM
2293
½

Ø 2433
1/5
2496
1.0
5
2.00
2193
TBs: Sonneborn-Berger

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MoveNResultEloPlayers
Position not in LiveBook
1.e4 30 c5 5 2.Nf3 0 Nc6 14 3.d4 0 cxd4 11 4.Nxd4 0 e5 31 5.Nb5 0 d6 12 6.N1c3 18 a6 28 7.Na3 4 Be6 21 8.Nc4 1:28 Rb8 37 9.a4 15:26 Nf6 8:45 10.Bg5 2:53 Nd4 7:04 11.Bd3 12:04 Be7 8:09 12.0-0 10:34 0-0 6:41 13.Bxf6 9:24 Bxf6 27 14.Nd5 1:58 Bg5 9:10 15.c3 2:57 Nc6 31 16.Ncb6 3:10 g6 35 17.b4 3:55 Kh8 3:40 18.a5 4:38 Bh6 6:08 19.Ra3 12:25 f5 6:41 20.exf5 58 gxf5 58 21.Qh5 1:17 Bg7 4:54 22.Bb1 42 e4 13:12 23.f3 43 exf3 5:39 24.Rxf3 3 Qe8 4:05 25.Qh3 2:28 Ne5 4:11 26.Rf1 13 Ng4 1:08 27.Qd3 5:31 Qh5 5:25 28.h3 27 Ne5 12 29.Qc2 4:08 Bh6 1:16 30.c4 15 Rf7 1:08 31.c5 5:18 dxc5 1:43 32.Qxc5 16 Nc6 1:11 33.Raf3 2:13 Bg7 37 34.Kh1 23 Bd4 49 35.Qd6 6 Bxd5 26 36.Nxd5 24 Rd8 19 37.Qe6 2 Qg6 45 38.Bxf5 23 Qxe6 29 39.Bxe6 2 Rxf3 26 40.Rxf3 1:41 Be5 34 41.g4 8:49 Nd4 14:55 42.Re3 19 Bd6 2:27 43.Re4 3:37 Nf3 3:53 44.Rc4 3:18 Ne5 6:02 45.Rc8 1:52 Rxc8 58 46.Bxc8 3 Nc6 29 47.Bxb7 12 Nxb4 6 48.Ne3 1:15 Bc5 3:44 49.Nc4 1:33 Kg7 3 50.Kg2 41 Kf6 14 51.Kf3 1:28 h5 2:15 52.Kf4 2:23 Nd3+ 48 53.Kg3 3:22 hxg4 34 54.hxg4 12 Nb4 31 55.Kf4 43 Nd3+ 6 56.Ke4 9 Nb4 22 57.Ne5 11 Kg5 46 58.Bc8 4 Be7 37 59.Bd7 2:51 Bf6 14 60.Nf3+ 1:53 Kg6 14 61.Be8+ 26 Kg7 58 62.Nd4 31 Kh6 44 63.Ne6 11 Nc2 30 64.Kf5 37 Bc3 26 65.g5+ 29 Kh7 3 66.g6+ 1:35 Kh6 52 67.Ke4 7 Nb4 39 68.Nd4 2:48 Kg7 23 69.Nf5+ 2 Kf8 27 70.Bd7 3 Bf6 38 71.Ba4 1:14 Na2 21 72.Bc6 37 Nb4 40 73.Bb7 11 Bc3 30 74.Ke3 44 Bf6 12 75.Kd2 1:28 Be5 40 76.g7+ 1:28 Kg8 34 77.Bc8 18 Bxg7 10 78.Nxg7 1 Kxg7 54 79.Bb7 3 Kf6 17 80.Kc3 2 Na2+ 18 81.Kc4 19 Ke7 46 82.Bxa6 20 Kd6 12 83.Bb5 47 Kc7 38 84.Kb3 10 Nc1+ 48 85.Kb2 55 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Munguntuul,B2361Melia,S22931–02025B32FIDE Women GP Pune 20251.1
Zhu,J2525Harika,D24881–02025C10FIDE Women GP Pune 20251.2
Kashlinskaya,A2496Shuvalova,P25000–12025C88FIDE Women GP Pune 20251.3
Salimova,N2402Divya Deshmukh24600–12025A46FIDE Women GP Pune 20251.4
Vaishali,R2484Koneru,H2528½–½2025C55FIDE Women GP Pune 20251.5
Melia,S2293Koneru,H2528½–½2025C45FIDE Women GP Pune 20252.1
Divya Deshmukh2460Vaishali,R24841–02025C84FIDE Women GP Pune 20252.2
Shuvalova,P2500Salimova,N2402½–½2025B01FIDE Women GP Pune 20252.3
Harika,D2488Kashlinskaya,A2496½–½2025E92FIDE Women GP Pune 20252.4
Munguntuul,B2361Zhu,J25250–12025B90FIDE Women GP Pune 20252.5
Zhu,J2525Melia,S2293½–½2025B31FIDE Women GP Pune 20253.1
Kashlinskaya,A2496Munguntuul,B23610–12025D51FIDE Women GP Pune 20253.2
Salimova,N2402Harika,D24880–12025E08FIDE Women GP Pune 20253.3
Vaishali,R2484Shuvalova,P2500½–½2025C55FIDE Women GP Pune 20253.4
Koneru,H2528Divya Deshmukh24601–02025A34FIDE Women GP Pune 20253.5
Melia,S2293Divya Deshmukh24600–12025B13FIDE Women GP Pune 20254.1
Shuvalova,P2500Koneru,H25280–12025C54FIDE Women GP Pune 20254.2
Harika,D2488Vaishali,R2484½–½2025D85FIDE Women GP Pune 20254.3
Munguntuul,B2361Salimova,N24020–12025B12FIDE Women GP Pune 20254.4
Zhu,J2525Kashlinskaya,A24961–02025C24FIDE Women GP Pune 20254.5
Kashlinskaya,A2496Melia,S2293½–½2025B22FIDE Women GP Pune 20255.1
Salimova,N2402Zhu,J2525½–½2025D02FIDE Women GP Pune 20255.2
Vaishali,R2484Munguntuul,B23611–02025A07FIDE Women GP Pune 20255.3
Koneru,H2528Harika,D2488½–½2025A14FIDE Women GP Pune 20255.4
Divya Deshmukh2460Shuvalova,P2500½–½2025D35FIDE Women GP Pune 20255.5
Melia,S2293Shuvalova,P25000–12025B50FIDE Women GP Pune 20256.1
Harika,D2488Divya Deshmukh2460½–½2025B44FIDE Women GP Pune 20256.2
Munguntuul,B2361Koneru,H25280–12025C57FIDE Women GP Pune 20256.3
Zhu,J2525Vaishali,R24841–02025B30FIDE Women GP Pune 20256.4
Kashlinskaya,A2496Salimova,N2402½–½2025C42FIDE Women GP Pune 20256.5
Salimova,N2402Melia,S2293½–½2025D37FIDE Women GP Pune 20257.1
Vaishali,R2484Kashlinskaya,A2496½–½2025D12FIDE Women GP Pune 20257.2
Koneru,H2528Zhu,J25251–02025E15FIDE Women GP Pune 20257.3
Divya Deshmukh2460Munguntuul,B23611–02025D12FIDE Women GP Pune 20257.4
Shuvalova,P2500Harika,D2488½–½2025C42FIDE Women GP Pune 20257.5
Melia,S2293Harika,D2488½–½2025C77FIDE Women GP Pune 20258.1
Munguntuul,B2361Shuvalova,P2500½–½2025B90FIDE Women GP Pune 20258.2
Zhu,J2525Divya Deshmukh24601–02025C26FIDE Women GP Pune 20258.3
Kashlinskaya,A2496Koneru,H2528½–½2025C77FIDE Women GP Pune 20258.4
Salimova,N2402Vaishali,R2484½–½2025D43FIDE Women GP Pune 20258.5
Vaishali,R2484Melia,S2293½–½2025D05FIDE Women GP Pune 20259.1
Koneru,H2528Salimova,N24021–02025D13FIDE Women GP Pune 20259.2
Divya Deshmukh2460Kashlinskaya,A2496½–½2025C07FIDE Women GP Pune 20259.3
Shuvalova,P2500Zhu,J25250–12025C54FIDE Women GP Pune 20259.4
Harika,D2488Munguntuul,B2361½–½2025A07FIDE Women GP Pune 20259.5

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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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