WGP Tbilisi: Assaubayeva sole leader with two rounds to go

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/23/2024 – In a round full of dynamic, interesting chess only 1 of 5 games ended decisively at the Tbilisi Women's Grand Prix. The one winner of the day was Bibisara Assaubayeva, who defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk to grab the sole lead with two rounds to go. Mariya Muzychuk could have joined the Kazakhstani youngster in the lead, but she missed a win in her game with black against Lela Javakhishvili. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
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Superb endgame technique

For the first time in the event, there is a sole leader at the Tbilisi Women's Grand Prix - when there are only two rounds left to be played. Bibisara Assaubayeva showed great fighting spirit and superb endgame technique to defeat Alexandra Kosteniuk with the white pieces on Thursday. The second highest-rated under-20 woman player in the world (only behind Divya Deshmukh) thus became the only player to have scored 2 wins at the tournament in Georgia.

Standing a half point behind Assaubayeva are 4 players: Mariya Muzychuk, Nana Dzagnidze, Alina Kashlinskaya and Stavroula Tsolakidou. Out of the 4, only M. Muzychuk was close to getting a win in round 6, as she failed to find the pawn push that would have granted her a clear advantage while playing black against Lela Javakhishvili.

Javakhishvili v. M. Muzychuk
25...e3, instead of 25...Rc7 (as played in the game), is winning for Black here

This was the one chance that M. Muzychuk got, as Javakhshvili did not falter in defence from this point on, until eventually getting a 55-move draw.

In Friday's penultimate round, Assaubayeva will face Tsolakidou (one of the chasers) with the white pieces. Tsolakidou, who is the lowest-rated player in the field, has been showing a great level in Tbilisi.

Mariya Muzychuk

Mariya Muzychuk | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

Stavroula Tsolakidou

Stavroula Tsolakidou | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

Assaubayeva 1 - 0 Kosteniuk

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Alexandra Kosteniuk | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

Standings after round 7

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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.
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