4-time US Women’s Champion Anna Zatonskih called it the best achievement of her chess career as she won the $45,0000 top prize in the Cairns Cup with a round to spare, despite starting as the lowest-rated player. The tournament was rocked midway through by the withdrawal of the top seed and defending champion Humpy Koneru, with Alexandra Kosteniuk and Nana Dzagnidze both upset to have wins chalked off.

The Cairns Cup in Saint Louis was established in 2019 as a female equivalent of the Sinquefield Cup, using the maiden name of Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield. Valentina Gunina won in 2019, while Humpy Koneru claimed the title in 2020, before the pandemic forced a 2-year hiatus. It’s back again, however, with $180,000 up for grabs in the 2023 event that runs June 3 to June 12.

The Cairns Cup players | photo: Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club

Humpy Koneru withdraws

The tournament got off to a spectacular start as the two highest rated players clashed in Round 1, with Alexandra Kosteniuk defeating Humpy Koneru.

In Round 2 Alexandra then also beat the other Indian star in the event, Harika Dronavalli, to take the lead, before the whole tournament changed dramatically in Round 4. Anna Zatonskih outplayed Alexandra on the black side of the French Defence to take over as leader, while Humpy Koneru’s game against Nana Dzagnidze ended spectacularly, in more ways than one.

This was Humpy Koneru's last game in the 2023 Cairns Cup | photo: Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club

With three moves to go before the time control the defending champion was completely winning.

The winning move was 38.Re7!, when 38…Qxg4 runs into 39.Re8+ and you have to give up the d8-rook or it’s a quick checkmate. 38…Qd6 would likely have been played, offering a repetition, but then various moves win, including 39.Re8+! If all the pieces are exchanged on e8 and f8 it turns out the pawn endgame is winning for White, while 39…Kg7 can be met by the beautiful 40.Qh1!, and there’s no time to take the rook without getting checkmated.

Humpy was down to just over a minute, however, and made a move which she must have thought wouldn’t spoil anything, 38.f3?. Alas, after 38…d3! things had changed dramatically. The problem is 39.Re7 now runs into 39…d2!. Humpy needed suddenly to switch to the defensive, but 39.Qe3? was a losing move, and after 39…Qc8 she lost on time while playing 40.Rd6.

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, since 40…Qc2+ and 41…Qd1+ delivers checkmate.

It wasn’t just that the game was dramatic, however, since shortly afterwards it became known that the Humpy had withdrawn from the tournament as a result of ill health. We wish her a swift recovery, but for Nana Dzagnidze and Alexandra Kosteniuk it proved a tough blow to take.

As Humpy Koneru had played less than half of her games, her results were discounted for the tournament standings.

It was the same thing we’d seen in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, when Ian Nepomniachtchi’s loss to Magnus Carlsen was wiped out when Magnus left the event. In this case, however, it was wins that were cancelled, with both affected players expressing their disapproval. Alexandra Kosteniuk commented:

She added:

Nana Dzagnidze went on to lose her next two games, before beating Kosteniuk in Round 7, and in the interview after that game she was still upset.

Nana directly blamed “the influence of the previous day” for failing to finish off her game against Bella Khotenashvili in Round 5.

29.Rh8+! Kd7 30.Qxf7+ Re7 31.Qf8 and White wins, but after 29.cxd5? Re7! Bella was better and went on to win instead. In fact Bella posted one of the most remarkable tournament performances you’ll witness, since she started by beating two IMs before going on to beat four GMs in a row.

The most remarkable performance of the tournament, however, came from the winner.

Anna Zatonskih with “career best” result

Anna Zatonskih, who was born in Mariupol, Ukraine and won the Ukrainian Women’s Championship in her youth, went on to win four US Women’s Championships and attain a peak rating of 2537.

The win over Alexandra Kosteniuk was when it became clear that this might be a very special tournament for Anna Zatonskih | photo: Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club

That rating, and her last US Championship, were in 2011, however, and coming into the Cairns Cup, Anna was by far the lowest-rated participant at 2327. It’s fair to assume she owed her spot to representing the home country, as well as the absence of some young stars who might have taken her place.

What followed was incredible, as Anna blew away the field with 5.5/7, enough to win the title with a round to spare.

Anna was struggling to believe it herself, and called it, “my best achievement in my chess career, definitely!”

Zatonskih didn’t just win the tournament, but also picked up a grandmaster norm, and half-joked that she was, “trying to prove that age is just a number!” She called Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, who became a grandmaster at around age 40, “one of my role models”, while it would be even more impressive if Anna, currently an International Master and Women’s Grandmaster at 44, still managed to pick up the top title.

Anna largely owed her success to outplaying her opponents in endings, particularly in long grinding wins with the black pieces. 68 moves were needed to take down Bella Khotenashvili, 61 for Alexandra Kosteniuk and then 73 for Gunay Mammadzada.

It just hasn't been Zhansaya Abdumalik's tournament | photo: Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club

The game that won the title, however, came with the white pieces against 23-year-old Zhansaya Abdumalik, who got off to a disastrous 0/3 start but seemed to have steadied the ship with four draws.

Anna again shone in an endgame, after she managed to swap off queens on move 11 and then took advantage of Zhansaya not stopping for serious consideration of how to approach the unusual position.

15.g4! fxg4 16.Bg2! was a bold and correct way to play, and although there were chances for Black it was largely the perfect situation of Anna being able to play for a win without any risk. It was all over on move 51.

That meant that Anna gets to play her great rival Irina Krush in the final round under no pressure whatsoever. Irina, meanwhile, is locked on 4 points with Alexandra Kosteniuk and Bella Khotenashvili, so that 2nd place is very much on the line.

Apart from Krush-Zatonskih we have Khotenashvili-Harika, Dzagnidze-Mammadzada and Paehtz-Kosteniuk in the final round.

Watch all the Cairns Cup action here on chess24!