Tan Zhongyi on the verge of winning the Women’s Candidates tournament

Tan Zhongyi could not ask for a better chance to win the Women’s Candidates
in Toronto going into the final round. Tan hardly played the most
critical continuation against Aleksandra Goryachkina but a quiet game
suited her and a draw by repetition was agreed on move 29. She now
leads the Lei Tingjie by a point with no-one else able to catch her.
Tan faces Anna Muzychuk with the black pieces in the final round, Muzychuk
hasn’t won a game yet, although she generated enough chances to have been
in contention.

The key result of the day was Rameshbabu Vaishali’s fourth win in a row,
a streak that followed four losses in a row and which started with
a game she probably should have lost also. Today she took down
Lei Tingjie and practically ruined her chances of winning the event.
This was a 3.Bb5+ Sicilian 12…Bf8? (12…Be7=) was too passive
and white was better for some time, some inaccuracies from Vaishali
meant that black was back in it by move 25 and after first
time control black had equality. The game was decided by a single move
blunder, 61…Kf7? (61…h6 was equal) when 62.g5! meant
all king an pawn endgames were winning for white, and there really was no escaping that.

Nurgyul Salimova had a lucky escape against
Kateryna Lagno who was busy converting a huge advantage
before the inaccurate 42…Rc8? (42…Qd7!) undid all her
good work and a draw was soon agreed. Two of the pre-event
favourites Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk played out a 45
move draw but I think both will just want this to be over.

Round 13 Standings:
1 Tan Zhongyi 8.5pts,
2 Lei Tingjie 7.5pts,
3 Koneru, Lagno, Goryachkina, Vaishali 6.5pts
7 Salimova, Muzychuk 5pts.

Round 14 21st April at 19:30BST:
Lagno-Vaishali,
Lei-Koneru,
Muzychuk-Tan,
Goryachkina-Salimova.