Tan leads Lei half a point after 11 rounds in a two horse race for the Women’s Candidates

Tan Zhongyi took sole lead of the FIDE Women’s Candidates with 7.5/11 after beating
Kateryna Lagno in a Reti. Lei Tingjie managed to draw against Anna Muzychuk and
is half a point behind. With three rounds to go Kateryna Lagno, Humpy Koneru
and Aleksandra Goryachkina are all on 5.5 points, realistically it’s between
Tan and Lei for the title.

Tan played a Reti System, 13…e5 from Lagno could have been met by 14.Nxe5 with
advantage but instead a roughly balance position was arrived at. 27.Rc5? could
have been refuted by 27…f4 when overloaded pieces combined with a kingside attack
win for black. Lagno played the losing 28…Bxb3 (28…f4 is the way to hold the balance
now) and Tan made no mistake in converting.

There were similar goings on in the game Lei Tingjie against Anna Muzychuk. After
a Giuoco Piano opening Muzychuk was at least equal until she failed to find the
correct defence to 19.Bxh6 gxh6? (19…Nh7!) but then Lei played 22.Nxe5? (22.Kh2!)
and black was better and then 30.c4? winning. After 34.Nf5 it came down to
whether black could avoid perpetual check, it was possible but the way to
do it wasn’t 42….Bf7? but 42…Ke8 instead. So a draw in the end.
Humpy Koneru built up a winning position after 30 moves against Nurgyul
Salimova as white in a Slav Defence, she made rather heavy weather of conversion
but got there in the end. Rameshbabu Vaishali won again and
Aleksandra Goryachkina lost again. It ended up in a equal but tricky Queen and Pawn endgame
but 64….d4? lost and Vaishali made no mistake.

Round 11 Standings:
1st Tan 7.5
2nd Lei 7
3rd= Lagno, Koneru, Goryachkina 5.5pts,
6th= Muzychuk, Vaishali 4.5pts
8th Salimova 4pts

Round 12 18th April at 19:30BST:
Lagno-Lei,
Muzychuk-Vaishali,
Goryachkina-Koneru,
Salimova-Tan.