Tan Zhongyi leads the Women’s Candidates at the half way stage with 5/7

The FIDE Women’s Candidates tournament reached the half way stage
and round 7 saw the meeting of the top two placed players.
Aleksandra Goryachkina remained half a point behind
Tan Zhongyi after their 40 move draw. This was a modern move
d-pawn/Queen’s Gambit move order, that ended up in some sort of Catalan.
Goryachkina was a little better and 18.Ne1 might have kept some advantage
but 18.Ng5 was more or less equal 20.e4 was also perhaps a bit better
for white but after that there were trades to a truly drawn position.
They meet again in Round 13.

Lei Tingjie was the only winner of the round beating
Rameshbabu Vaishali who lost her second game in a row.
On a trivial note the four knights in the centre of the board
that happened on move 20 was unusual. 26…Bc8 was the start
of trouble for Vaishali and 28…Qb8? was a losing move failing
to a hidden tactic 29.Qd5!! that Lei didn’t spot but she saw a similar
tactic a few moves later. 31…Rxd8? was the losing move, 31…Bxb3
was about equal 34.Nf6+ was a well spotted win.

Kateryna Lagno pressed for some time against Nurgyul
Salimova in a 3.Nge7 Ruy Lopez. There was nothing clear
but after 27.Rxd6 it was pretty clear the game was going
to be drawn.

Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru might both have expected to
be fighting for first place, not last and so their draw suited
neither player. A 4…Nge7 Ruy Lopez white was a bit better for
a while but after 23.e6 the position was dead level and remained so.

Round 7 Standings:
1st Tan Zhongyi 5pts
2nd Goryachkina, Aleksandra 4.5pts
3rd= Lagno, Lei Tingjie 4.0pts
5th Salimova 3.0pts
6th= Koneru, Muzychuk, Vaishali 2.5pts

Rest Day 12th April 2024.

Round 8 13th April at 19:30BST:
Lagno-Goryachkina,
Salimova-Muzychuk,
Tan-Lei,
Koneru-Vaishali.