I don’t deserve this point: Vaishali on win against Tan in FIDE Candidates 2026, Round 7

India’s R. Vaishali was scathingly honest in her analysis of her performance during the seventh round of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 in Cyprus on Sunday.

Vaishali notched up her second consecutive win of the tournament after beating China’s Tan Zhongyi. This helped the Indian jump to second place on the standings, just half a point behind leader Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine at the halfway stage. However despite the win, Vaishali said she wasn’t at her best on the board.

“It was a horrible game. I don’t deserve this point at all. She [Tan] just blundered towards the end, it was just a bad game from me. Everything went wrong from the beginning,” Vaishali said after the match during an analysis of her match.

The blunder she’s talking about came in the sequence around moves 36 to 38 — Rc6, Kg7, Ra1 — which ensured Vaishali walked away with the full point.

Zhongyi began pushing pawns on the flank instead of consolidating her king position, and one of Vaishali’s key moments came on move 38 with Rxf6, winning a pawn and opening lines towards the black king.

“When she blundered, it was a full piece so it was not that hard to convert with less time. There are games where it is harder, but in this one, it was easy,” she added.

Vaishal will return to action in Round 8 with a game against Bibisara Assaubayeva.

Published on Apr 06, 2026