Women's Candidates 2024 R12: Vaishali scores a hat-trick of wins after losing four in-a-row
GM Vaishali scored a hat-trick of wins after suffering four losses in-a-row at FIDE Women's Candidates 2024. Vaishali defeated GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) in Round 12. The former World Rapid and Blitz Women's champion sacrificed an exchange. After getting a slight compensation, she could not find a way to maintain it. Eventually, Vaishali managed to turn things around and win the game. Tournament sole leader GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) survived a big scare against IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL). She escaped with a draw to stay at the top 8/12. GM Tingjie Lei (CHN) missed a great opportunity against GM Kateryna Lagno. She is still trailing by a half point at 7.5/12. Today is the last rest day. Round 13 starts tomorrow Saturday at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Michal Walusza
Zhongyi escapes against Nurgyul
GM Vaishali R became the second woman after GM Tingjie Lei (CHN) to score a hat-trick of wins at this event.
Anna - Vaishali
GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR, 2520) decided to push the e5-pawn 24.e6 Rfe8 25.Re1 Re7 26.c4 dxc4 27.d5 Bd3 28.d6? was not the best idea. Instead, 28.Qb4 would have been a better continuation for White. 28...cxd6 29.Bxd6 Ree8 30.e7 Qg4 31.Qf2 Bf5 32.Rf1 Bg6 33.Re1 Rac8 and things started turning in favor of Black.
Nurgyul - Zhongyi
IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL, 2432) had a substantial advantage for the better part of the game. She needed to go 43.g6 Nd6 44.Be6 grab the e5-pawn and soon win the game. Instead, she went 43.f6 gxf6 44.gxf6 Rc7 White slightly lost the upper hand. It was still not over until she decided to trade her bishop with Black's knight at f7. Then all White's advantage faded and the game ended in a draw.
Kateryna - Tingjie
26...Qb6 is what GM Tingjie Lei (CHN, 2550) needed to play 27.Rb1 Nf5 28.Bxf5 exf5 29.Rxd8+ Rxd8 is one of the ways to maintain the upper hand. Instead, Black made a big positional error 26...Nf3? 27.Bxf3 gxf3+ 28.Kxf3 and the game meandered into a draw.
Time control
The time control for each game is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Prizes
The total prize fund is €250000. The top three prizes are €24000, €18000 and €12000. All prize money shall be divided equally among the players with the equal score after 14 rounds regardless tie-break results. In addition, each player gets €1750 euros for every half point scored.
Replay Round 12 live stream
Replay Round 12 games
Round 12 results
Standings after Round 12
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | CHN | 2521 | 8 | 45,50 | 5 | 0 | |
| 2 | 3 | GM | Lei, Tingjie | CHN | 2550 | 7,5 | 43,50 | 4 | 0 | |
| 3 | 8 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | FID | 2542 | 6 | 35,75 | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | 5 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | IND | 2546 | 6 | 35,00 | 2 | 0 | |
| 5 | 1 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | FID | 2553 | 6 | 33,75 | 2 | 0 | |
| 6 | 4 | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IND | 2475 | 5,5 | 27,75 | 4 | 0 | |
| 7 | 7 | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | BUL | 2432 | 4,5 | 29,00 | 1 | 0 | |
| 8 | 2 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | UKR | 2520 | 4,5 | 26,75 | 0 | 0 |
Round 13 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 2475 | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | GM | Lei, Tingjie | 2550 | 3 | ||||
| 2 | 7 | 2432 | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | 2542 | 8 | ||||
| 3 | 6 | 2521 | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2553 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 2546 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | 2520 | 2 |
