Vaishali’s loss to Zhu shakes up Women’s Candidates race

Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali suffered a costly defeat against China’s Jiner Zhu on Sunday, pushing the Women’s Candidates Chess Tournament wide open with just two rounds remaining in the event that will decide the challenger to reigning world champion Ju Wenjun .

Playing with the white pieces, Vaishali appeared to have a stable position and could have secured a draw that would have kept her in sole lead . However, her aggressive intent to push for a win backfired, and she slipped to her second loss of the tournament both of which have come against Zhu. With this result, Vaishali now stands on 7 points from 12 games , and has been joined at the top by Zhu and Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk , who strengthened her campaign with a well-fought victory over Aleksandra Goryachkina.

The title race has tightened significantly, with Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva also very much in contention. She moved to just half a point behind the leaders after a precise win over Russia’s Kateryna Lagno, effectively ending Lagno’s hopes in the competition. With a rest day ahead, Assaubayeva and Vaishali will be looking to regroup and mount a final push in the closing rounds.

India’s Divya Deshmukh also went down to China’s Zhongyi Tan, a result that ended her chances of a podium finish in the tournament.

In the Open section , Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov continued his dominant run, playing a solid draw with world number two Hikaru Nakamura of the United States. Sindarov now leads with an imposing 9 points from 12 games , moving close to what could become one of the most commanding Candidates victories in recent memory.

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa drew his game against Andrey Esipenko after a relatively quiet encounter, further denting his hopes in the event. With limited rounds remaining, Praggnanandhaa appears to be out of realistic contention and will now aim to regroup for future cycles.

In other Open section results, Matthias Bluebaum drew with Fabiano Caruana, while Wei Yi faced Anish Giri in a closely contested game.

With the Candidates Tournament entering its decisive phase, both the women’s and open sections remain high-stakes affairs, one wide open at the top, and the other increasingly dominated by a runaway leader.