Candidates 2024, Round 11: Vaishali pips Goryachkina; Humpy overpowers Salimova; Zhongyi regains sole lead

It was the best day, so far, for the two Indians in the FIDE Women’s Candidates 2024.

In Toronto, R. Vaishali put aside the disappointing run of losses to bring down Russian top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina before K. Humpy kept alive her chances of a strong finish by overpowering the lowest seed Nurgyul Salimova.

The day also reinforced the growing belief that it could well be a Chinese 1-2. Tan Zhongyi regained the sole lead by beating a previously undefeated Russian Kateryna Lagno. Lei Tingjie fell half-a-point behind, in the second spot, after drawing with Anna Muzychuk.

In short, the day proved a fruitful one for India and China but for Russia, it was a double disaster.

Goryachkina’s second successive loss has put paid to her chances of emerging as the challenger. As things stand, the rest of the field is a minimum of 1.5 points behind Lei and two points from Tan. Only three rounds remain.

Vaishali should consider herself lucky to win after she faltered more than once to cash in on the advantage. In a game that saw quite a few swings with Vaishali getting several opportunities to regain the upper hand, Goryachkina played her part by overlooking the precise defence.

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Eventually, after Vaishali traded her rook for a bishop and two pawns, both players inched closer to bringing a second queen on the board. Vaishali chose to bring back a knight after the pawn stood promoted to the eighth rank. This also brought about a ‘fork’ involving Goryachkina’s king and queen. Once Vaishali captured the queen, the Russian resigned.

Humpy held the upper hand from around the 35th move but took time to convert her overwhelming advantage in 90 moves against Salimova. Positionally, Humpy was so superior to the Bulgarian that some of her moves of not-so-strong moves did not give Salimova any chance to escape.

Lei did have a better position in the middle-game against Anna but she lost her way. Deeper into the contest, Anna cracked the whip. But Lei used the lone queen to unleash checks on the black king and raised her tally by half a point.