Candidates 2024, Round 13: Vaishali stuns Lei Tingjie for fourth straight win; Tan Zhongyi a draw after from title

Busy resurrecting her campaign in the FIDE Women’s Candidates 2024, R. Vaishali stunned defending champion Lei Tingjie and brightened the title prospects of Tan Zhongyi after the 13th and penultimate round in Toronto on Saturday.

For the second successive round, Vaishali emerged as the only winner of the day after posting a fourth successive victory. Indian young Grandmaster storms back after a four-game losing streak, winning four in a row.

By holding back second-placed Lei, Vaishali did leader Tan a huge favour. Much before Vaishali converted her advantage into a worthy victory, Tan drew with top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina to move a point ahead of the field.

On Sunday, Tan needs only a draw against a winless Anna Muzychuk to win the title. In case of a loss for Tan and a victory for Lei, over K. Humpy, in the final round, the two Chinese would be involved in the tie-break games on Monday to decide the champion.

With the title race following a predictable course, Vaishali is busy doing her reputation a world of good. After a narrow victory against lowest seed Nurgyul Salimova in the 10th round to end her four-game losing streak, Vaishali stunned World No. 3 and top seed Goryachkina, World No. 8 Anna and now World No. 4 Lie to make heads turn.

ALSO READ | Vaishali beats Lei Tingjie in round 13 to grab fourth win in succession

The second lowest-rated player in the field, Vaishali now shares the third spot with compatriot Humpy and the Russian duo of Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno.

In a game where Vaishali lost her advantage more than once, she eventually capitalized on a blunder from Lei on the 61st move. A forced queen-trade left Vaishali in a favourable position to promote her central pawn. Though both players had four pawns each on the board, Lei realized she could not prevent Vaishali from emerging stronger.

The Humpy-Anna game saw the Ukrainian hold some advantage in the middle game but not enough to force the issue. Once Humpy recovered and took the game into an endgame involving queens and pawns, a draw looked like the most justified outcome.

Out of contention for the top prize, Goryachkina showed no keenness to continue an equal battle with Tan and the players repeated moves to draw in just 29 moves.

Salimova escaped a lost position after Lagno twice faltered to find the precise continuation. The game eventually ended in a draw.