Zhu Jiner's 5th Win In A Row Hits Anna Muzychuk's Candidates Hopes

GM Zhu Jiner's fifth win in a row, this time against GM Nana Dzagnidze, has given her a share of the 2025 Grosslobming FIDE Women's Grand Prix lead and left co-leader GM Anna Muzychuk missing out on a FIDE Women's Candidates spot to GM Aleksandra Goryachkina. Another bloodthirsty day saw a first win for GM Mariya Muzychuk, as well as wins for GMs Alexandra Kosteniuk and Tan Zhongyi.     

Round eight starts on Wednesday, May 14, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 6:30 p.m. IST.

Normal service was resumed after the rest day, with no less than four decisive games. An astonishing 71 percent of the games have been decisive in Grosslobming, with no more than two draws in any round.

Grosslobming FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 7 Results

Those results meant that despite starting with two losses, Zhu has now fought her way into a tie for first place, while Tan has moved up into sole third place, just half a point behind the leaders.

Grosslobming FIDE Women's Grand Prix Standings After Round 7

White against bottom-placed IM Nurgyul Salimova looked like an ideal chance for leader Anna Muzychuk to move closer to both tournament victory and securing a FIDE Women's Candidates spot, but instead a tense game at no point saw either player obtain a clear advantage. A draw was agreed when the players reached move 40 with around a minute each on the clock.

That draw would prove costly when Zhu won again, since although the players are tied in Austria there were big consequences for the overall Grand Prix standings. With Zhu doing so well, only clear first place (and 130 points) will be enough for Anna, who has now dropped below Goryachkina.

FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-25 As It Stands

Of course the margins are very fine, and a lot can change in the final two rounds.

Let's take a look at the decisive action in round seven:

Zhu 1-0 Dzagnidze

GM Viswanathan Anand, commentating on the round, described 22-year-old Zhu as "a huge prospect," adding, "her position was not at all dominating, but she never wanted to stop, and I think credit to her for that!"

The game featured many turning points, with Dzagnidze perhaps unwisely allowing Zhu's d-pawn to get to the sixth rank. Then 35...Rf4??, played with 50 seconds on the clock, was an outright blunder, allowing the game-winning 36.d7!, when the pawn would cost a piece. There was no way back for Black

That win also saw Zhu reach a career best 2550 on the live rating list as she moved up to world number-four. Not bad for a player who wasn't supposed to play the Grand Prix series at all until world number-three GM Lei Tingjie pulled out! 

The other player still in with some chance of Candidates qualification is former Women's World Champion Tan. She needs to take first place and for Zhu and Anna Muzychuk to slump in the last two rounds, which is highly unlikely, but a second win in a row took her within half a point of the leaders.

Tan 1-0 Javakhishvili

Anand, ranking the day's wins, commented, "I think the cleanest and quite impressive was Tan Zhongyi against Lela." Everything had gone wrong for IM Lela Javakhishvili by the time she played 22...Nxe5?, and although Tan might have got the job done quicker her victory never looked in doubt.

The other results weren't crucial to the standings, but Mariya Muzychuk finally picked up a first win, against IM Olga Badelka.   

Badelka 0-1 Mariya Muzychuk

A very eventful game was only finally decided in Black's favor when 37.Qe5? ran into 37...Rff2!, and the threat of checkmate ultimately couldn't be parried. 

That win came too late to give Mariya hopes in the tournament, but she commented, "First of all, I will be rooting for my sister!"  

The remaining game was a second win in a row for Kosteniuk, that took her back to 50 percent.

Kosteniuk 1-0 Vaishali

How did Kosteniuk feel to win two games in a row? "Winning two in a row is better than losing two in a row, I can ensure you, because after losing the second in a row and seeing of course the winning continuation, I regretted that in chess you cannot quit the tournament!" 

After losing the second in a row and seeing of course the winning continuation, I regretted that in chess you cannot quit the tournament!

—Alexandra Kosteniuk 

Anand commented of the game against GM Vaishali Rameshbabu "Kosteniuk cleaned up beautifully after a couple of inaccuracies—20...c6 and 21...Rad8, it’s just planless moves, they seemed like pass moves, and next thing you know the game was over."

That was a fair comment, though 23...c5? (Kosteniuk: "I didn’t really understand, the only move is 23...b5!") was the point of no return.

The game registered as 97.4 accuracy for White, which Kosteniuk was glad to see!

Aleksandra Kosteniuk: "The quality of my games in this tournament... You have this accuracy on https://t.co/fh3ftfXcRF, and when I play #TitledTuesday and see my accuracy is less than 90% I think I’m playing very badly, and in this tournament I had like 75, 73!" pic.twitter.com/QThOtbuusF

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 13, 2025

There are just two rounds remaining.

Round 8 Pairings

The penultimate round will be huge for the FIDE Womens' Grand Prix and FIDE Women's Candidates places. Anna Muzychuk is Black against Javakhishvili, Tan Black against Vaishali, and Zhu has White against Badelka as she aims for six wins in a row.

How to watch?

The 2025 Grosslobming FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the sixth and final leg of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs May 6-15 in Grosslobming, Austria. Players have 90 minutes, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. The top prize is €18,000 (~$20,000), with players also earning Grand Prix points. Each of the 20+ players competes in three events; the top two qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament that decides the World Championship challenger.

Previous Coverage:

• Round 6: Zhu Jiner, Vaishali Close Gap To Anna Muzychuk
• Round 5: Zhu Jiner's 3rd Win In A Row Gives Her Grand Prix Pole Position
• Round 4: Zhu Is Back As Anna Muzychuk Takes Sole Lead
• Round 3: Anna Muzychuk Catches Vaishali In Austria Grand Prix Lead
• Round 2: Vaishali, Tan Still Perfect As Anna Muzychuk Takes Down Zhu
• Round 1: Tan Zhongyi Stuns Zhu Jiner To Boost Candidates Chances
• Humpy Wins Pune Women's Grand Prix, Zhu Closes On Candidates
• Anna Muzychuk Wins Cyprus Grand Prix On Tiebreaks
• Goryachkina Wins In Monaco, Takes FIDE Women's Grand Prix Lead
• Goryachkina Wins Shymkent FIDE Women's Grand Prix
• Kashlinskaya Wins Tbilisi Grand Prix, Earns 2nd GM Norm
• FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-2025: All The Info