The second round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Cyprus began punctually this afternoon at 15:00 at the Hilton Nicosia. The ceremonial first move was performed by Valeriya Avksenteva, Deputy Executive Director of main sponsor Freedom24. She opened the game for Mariya Muzychuk, who faced Divya Deshmukh.
Although only one game ended in a decisive result, with Zhu Jiner emerging as the new leader of the tournament, all five were quite entertaining in their own right. Let’s take a closer look at all five games.
Mariya Muzychuk 0.5 – Divya Deshmukh 0.5
With a 99% accuracy score, the first game to finish was the encounter between former Women’s World Champion Mariya Muzychuk and up-and-coming young Indian star Divya Deshmukh. Although a bit under the radar with a cold, Divya equalised comfortably in the Steinitz variation of the French defence.
The opponents followed a 2023 game between Caruana and Carlsen until move nine, when Divya tried 9…cxd4 instead of the main line 9…Be7. It looked like Divya had it all worked out in her home preparation – she hardly spent any time finding the precise follow-up manoeuvre 12…Nb8 and then 13…Nc6, fighting for the d4-square.
After the subsequent exchange of queens, Muzychuk also allowed the four rooks to be traded, resulting in an absolutely equal light-squared bishop endgame. A draw was agreed on move forty. “Most of the game was prepared before-hand but in the end, I had to do some serious calculations to make the draw. I am sure that there must be many different ways to achieve it,” said Divya in a conversation with us after the game.
Nana Dzagnidze 0.5 – Olga Badelka 0.5
The Austrian International Master is playing in her first Grand Prix cycle. Unfortunately, being drawn number six on the cross table, she has been forced to play two consecutive games with Black in her first two challenges.
In today’s game against seasoned Grand Master Nana Dzagnidze, she went for the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, a somewhat risky choice as Nana herself played this defence successfully yesterday against Goryachkina. Moreover, although Dzagnidze has been around forever, this was the first classical game between them.
Dzagnizde surprised her opponent with the move 9.Bg5 and Badelka went into the tank for more than twenty minutes, trying to figure out the right setup. Although she managed to force the exchange of queens, the ending was better for Dzagnidze: a healthier pawn structure and better placed minor pieces. The engine was suggesting a +1.5 White’s advantage around move twenty.
But, low on time, Dzagnidze started to lose the thread of the game and gave Badelka some breathing space. Displaying excellent defensive technique, Badelka neutralized her opponent’s advantage and a draw was finally agreed in a close-to-equal position on move forty-three.
Elisabeth Paehtz 0 – Zhu Jiner 1
Playing with White, and in an attempt to recover from yesterday’s defeat, Paehtz opted for the 5.Qb3 line in the popular Ragozin defence. Zhu Jiner chose to deviate from mainline theory by playing 5…a5 instead of 5…c5, but then went into the tank for more than fifteen minutes when Paehtz pinned her knight with 7.Bg5.
The game progressed in a principled manner, ending up in a middlegame position in which Black enjoyed more active short-term options with her bishop pair, but White had the superior pawn structure. It would all boil down to the weakness of the isolated d-pawn: would it hold or not?
And indeed, the d5-pawn finally fell but in exchange for the a2-pawn and the game headed into an equal rook and bishop ending, with four pawns apiece. A draw should have been the logical result but Zhu Jiner kept setting little traps and finally Paehtz fell for one of them.
Nonetheless, even a piece down the engine still considered the position to be a draw, but it was very tricky to hold and eventually Paehtz blundered, allowing Black to create a passed pawn. Elisabeth fought for another 24 moves, but had to resign in the end.
In her postgame interview, Zhu Jiner showed us some of the key lines that she considered to pick up her second point.
Aleksandra Goryachkina 0.5 – Anna Muzychuk 0.5
A perfect game by both contenders!
Playing White for the second time in a row, the former Women’s World Championship challenger opened with 1.e4 instead of 1.d4, which she used unsuccessfully yesterday against Dzagnidze.
Anna Muzychuk, the younger of the two sisters, and former World Blitz and Rapid World Champion, defended with the Two Knights variation of the Sicilian Defence.
Displaying excellent opening preparation, Goryachkina opted for a secondary line, first with 4.Bd3 and then trading knights on c6, a system that has recently become quite trendy. Although the choice of opening might have come as a surprise for Muzychuk, she reacted in a very principled way, developing her pieces comfortably and securing a safe, symmetrical position.
However, Goryachkina conserved a small but nagging advantage: a slightly superior dark-squared bishop and, more importantly, a big advantage on the clock. On move twenty, Muzychuk had only thirty minutes left against Goryachkina’s full hour.
To her credit, Anna defended superbly, neutralizing any intent of aggression, and traded down to a no-risk, bishop ending. A draw was agreed on move forty-two.
Harika Dronavalli 0.5 Stavroula Tsolakidou 0.5
Definitely the most entertaining game of the round!
Harika went for the Rossolimo Attack – an enterprising option bearing in mind that Stavroula won her game yesterday with precisely this opening.
Playing the sharp 6.Qxd4 line, Black was forced to weaken her kingside, but theory maintains that Black is more than OK: a solid pawn structure and bishop pair. Indeed, even Carlsen defeated Vachier-Lagraeve in 2019 in this line.
After fifteen minutes of thought, and definitely out of her opening preparation, Harika threw a spanner into the works with 11.b4, an unbalancing move with pros and cons for both sides.
Stavroula offered a three-fold repetition on move twenty-one but Harika decided to play on. With fifteen moves to the time control and both players under their last ten minutes anything could happen.
Moment of the Day
You don’t often see that winning a queen for a rook and a minor piece is not the best option but precisely that happened in the game.
Harika has been pressing since the opening, slowly accumulating the advantage of a pair of strong knights and a clearly safer king position. Here, the engine suggests 28.Rxf8+, trading off rooks and followed by 29.Rb1. The weak c4 pawn should be sacrificed for the attack.
Instead, Harika played 28.Nb6 and Stavroula, with only a minute for her last twelve moves, immediately spotted a sort of fortress and sacrificed her queen with 28…Rxb8! 29.Nxd7 Bxd7.
Although the engine still gives White the advantage, it’s not at all easy to progress, and a draw was soon agreed. After the game, Harika immediately suggested that maybe going for the queen wasn’t the best option!
During the round, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky discussed the world of women’s chess, exploring key questions such as: Do we need women-only titles and tournaments? Why most of the leading female players dropped rating significantly in recent years? Support today or dream big?
The full conversation can be found below:
Round three pairings and dates
The third round of the fourth leg in the 2024/25 Women’s Grand Prix series starts on Monday, March 17th at 15:00 CET local time in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Round 3 pairings:
MUZYCHUK, ANNA – DZAGNIDZE, NANA
DIVYA, DESHMUKH – GORYACHKINA, ALEKSANDRA
TSOLAKIDOU, STAVROULA – MUZYCHUK, MARIYA
ZHU, JINER – DRONAVALLI, HARIKA
BADELKA, OLGA – PAEHTZ, ELISABETH
More information about the event, including the regulations and details of the pairings, as well as live games can be found on the official website: womengrandprix.fide.com
You can follow the games live and watch the action with our wonderful commentators GM Alik Gershon and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich on YouTube.
Written by Michael Rahal
Photos: Mark Livshitz
