Women's Candidates 2024 R3: Vaishali bounces back against Nurgyul
GM R Vaishali made a strong comeback in the third round of FIDE Women's Candidates 2024. After losing her second round game against GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN), Vaishali made a nice knight sacrifice to expose her opponent, IM Nurgyul Salimova's (BUL) kingside. There was no immediate win. However, it was certainly not easy to defend in a practical game. The Bulgarian could not manage to find a precise defense and eventually she succumbed. GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) also was on the verge of a bouncing back after a loss in the previous round. Unfortunately, she could not find the precise winning continuation and the game ended in a draw. GM Koneru Humpy drew against the sole leader, Zhongyi to move to 1.5/3. Round 4 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photos: FIDE/Michal Walusza
Anna misses a win
It was a good day for the Rameshbabu siblings. After a tough second round where both siblings lost their games, they bounced back well in the third round by winning their respective games.
Vaishali - Nurgyul: 1-0
IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL, 2432) employed Petroff's Defense with the black pieces for the second time at this event. GM R Vaishali (2475) sacrificed her knight 14.Nxf7! to expose her opponent's kingside.
14.Nxf7! Kxf7 15.Bc4+ Kf8 16.Qd3 Bg5+? instead 16...Bf6 17.Qh7 Be6 18.Bxe6 Rxe6 19.Qf5 Nxf2 would have kept Black in the game. 17.Kb1 Ne5?? turned out to be the final mistake. Black returned the material incorrectly 18.Bxe5 Bf6 19.Bxd6+ cxd6 20.Qxd6+ Qe7 21.Qxd7 and White eventually went on to win the game, thanks to her three extra pawns.
Anna - Lagno
37.Qe8+ was the winning continuation. It was not easy to find. The natural move is 37.Qg4+ which was played in the game and it ended in a draw. In less time, it was difficult to play a computer like move and precision 37.Qe8+ to win the game.
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 3 live stream
Replay Round 3 games
Round 3 results
Standings after Round 3
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2553 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | 2475 | 4 | ||||
| 2 | 8 | 2542 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | GM | Tan, Zhongyi | 2521 | 6 | ||||
| 3 | 7 | 2432 | IM | Salimova, Nurgyul | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2546 | 5 | ||||
| 4 | 2 | 2520 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | GM | Lei, Tingjie | 2550 | 3 |
