Tarjei J. Svensen

5 months

Tan Zhongyi beats Goryachkina to qualify for Woman's Candidates Final

Tan Zhongyi will face her compatriot Lei Tingjie in a match that determines the challenger for reigning Woman World Champion Ju Wenjun. Photo: Timur Sattarov/FIDE

Tan Zhongyi will face her compatriot Lei Tingjie in a match that determines the challenger for reigning Woman World Champion Ju Wenjun. Photo: Timur Sattarov/FIDE

Chinese Grandmaster Tan Zhongyi defeated Women's World #2 Aleksandra Goryachkina to qualify for the final of the Women's Candidates against countrywoman Lei Tingjie. She is now one step closer to challenging for the title.

After the first three games were drawn, the Chinese World #10 won the 4th game in the Pool B final to clinch a chance to qualify for another lucrative World Championship match.

The 31-year-old will now face her countrywoman Pool A winner Lei Tingjie in the first quarter of 2023. The winner of that match plays reigning Woman World Champion Ju Wenjun for the title.

It was an impressive victory for Tan Zhongyi, who was the lowest rated, but still went through the event against World #4 Kateryna Lagno and World #2 Goryachkina without losing a single of her 12 rapid and classical games. She gained 12 rating points and climbed to World #7, just behind her compatriots.

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As in the match between Lei Tingjie and Anna Muzychuk one month ago, we saw three draws and a decisive white win in game 4, avoiding more tiebreak drama.

Tan Zhongyi and Aleksandra Goryachkina during game 3 of the Women's Candidates Pool B final, a game that ended in a draw. Photo: Timur Sattarov/FIDE

Tan Zhongyi and Aleksandra Goryachkina during game 3 of the Women's Candidates Pool B final, a game that ended in a draw | photo: Timur Sattarov, FIDE

It was a solid match with few chances for either player, although it was Tan who pushed for a win in the queen endgame in Game 1 but failed to convert. Games 2 and 3 were rather balanced, but ended in fighting draws after 40 and 45 moves respectively.

In Game 4, Goryachkina's opening blunder was duly punished.

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17...Rac8? 18.c5! Black likely missed that white wins a piece after 18...Bxd3 19.Qxd3 bxc5 20.Nc4. 18...Qa4 This doesn't solve her problems. 19.Bxa6! Qxc2 20.Bxc8 Rxc8 21.Qa6. White achived a clear advantage with a piece for two pawns, but Goryachkina fought well to stay in the game until move 32.

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31.Bb8! g5 32.Qxa7 gxh4? Missing the last chance to hold the game. Instead the computerish 32...Qe6! 33.Ng6 Nd7! would retain drawing chances for Black, with the knight stuck. 33.Qxb6 Ne6 34.a4! The point is that the knight on e6 hangs and now the white pawn is just marching home. 34...Kf7 35.a5 Nd4 36.Qc7! and Black resigned a few moves later. 1-0

The long-time World #1 Hou Yifan has dropped out of Women events, but we will still see an all-Chinese title match, and it now seems increasingly likely that the match will take place in China.

It's another major success for China after their B team won the World Team Championship in Israel recently. Besides now securing the Woman's title for another three years, Ding Liren will face Ian Nepomniachtchi for the main world title in April next year.

Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie will battle it out for €110,000 in the Women's Candidates final, with the winner taking €60,000 of the €250,000 overall prize fund.

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