Tan Zhongyi Takes Sole Lead; Humpy, Goryachkina Also Grab Wins
GM Tan Zhongyi demolished GM Kateryna Lagno in a rare line of the London System to take the sole lead on 2.5 points after three rounds of the 2024 Shymkent FIDE Women's Grand Prix. IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul had won in 17 moves in round two, but was lost in almost the same number of moves against GM Koneru Humpy. The day's other win came for GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, who pounced on a time-trouble blunder by IM Divya Deshmukh. The clash between pre-round co-leaders IM Bibisara Assaubayeva and Stavroula Tsolakidou was a fighting draw.
Round four will start on Saturday, November 2, at 6 a.m. ET / 11:00 CET / 3:30 p.m. IST.
Round 3 Results
For the first time we have a sole leader in Shymkent.
Standings After Round 3
Top-seed Tan had needed great resilience and some luck to survive against Humpy in round two, but in round three she smashed through against GM Kateryna Lagno, whose rare system against the London only left her a pawn down for no visible compensation. 22...b6? was the last straw, inviting a sacrifice on e6.
Tan thought for 22 minutes before going for the sacrifice, and she wrapped up victory in sparkling style.
That was enough for Tan to take the sole lead after her co-leaders at the start of the day drew, though their King's Indian Defense was anything but a quiet draw between two players who were happy to maintain the status quo. Assaubayeva went for a known pawn-sac early on, Tsolakidou hit back to sacrifice a piece, and ultimately the Greek star emerged with an extra pawn but couldn't convert against excellent defense.
The only other draw saw GM Elisabeth Paehtz get on the scoreboard after two losses when she correctly claimed a slightly disguised draw by three-fold repetition against IM Nurgyul Salimova, who said she's looking to stabilize after a first-round loss on her Grand Prix debut.
The remaining two games saw convincing wins for the black pieces. Fortunes change fast in chess, and after Munguntuul won in 17 moves the day before, she found herself lost in 19 in round three. Humpy had missed a great chance to beat Tan, but this time hit back: "Yesterday I missed a lot of winning chances so today I played much better and it was a very convincing victory."
The crucial mistake by Munguntuul was the quickly-played 19.Qe2?, which Humpy called "a very bad plan" and set out to punish brilliantly.
The day's other win came for Goryachkina, who felt her young opponent Divya was caught in two minds: "Today everything was easy for me, because I didn’t understand what my opponent wanted—either to make a quick draw by the opening, or play for a win."
In the end Divya missed a chance to make a draw with 27.Nxd5! and then slipped to defeat when she blundered with 32.b4? as her time ran out.
That took Goryachkina into a four-player tie for second place. She has the white pieces in round four, while leader Tan is Black against Divya.
Round 4 Pairings
How to watch?
You can watch the broadcast on FIDE's YouTube channel. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 2024 Shymkent FIDE Women's Grand Prix events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by IM Irine Sukandar and GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko.
The 2024 Shymkent FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the second of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs October 30-November 8 in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Players have 90 minutes, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. The top prize is €18,000 (~$20,000), with players also earning Grand Prix points. Each of the 20 players competes in three events; the top two qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament that decides the World Championship challenger.
Previous Coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
