Zhu Jiner Leads In Cyprus As Badelka Beats Anna Muzychuk
GM Zhu Jiner has regained the sole lead in the 2025 Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix after brilliantly beating IM Divya Deshmukh while GM Anna Muzychuk missed a tactical blow that gave IM Olga Badelka her first win. GM Nana Dzagnidze scored the day's other win, bouncing back a second time, this time against IM Stavroula Tsolakidou.
Round eight starts on Sunday, March 23, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 7 Results
The results mean that Zhu and Anna Muzychuk swapped roles, with Zhu taking a half-point lead while the same three players are in third place, a point behind the leader.
Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix Standings After Round 7
GM Elisabeth Paehtz had suffered four losses in Nicosia, so it was perhaps a surprise when GM Aleksandra Goryachkina acquiesced to a lightning-fast 11-move draw by repetition. A draw with the black pieces is seldom bad, however, and Goryachkina's unbeaten run in her last of three Grand Prix events leaves her very well-placed to qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament from the series.
The day's other draw was more predictable, with third-placed GMs Harika Dronavalli and Mariya Muzychuk playing out a solid 28-move draw, where both players showed 99.3-percent accuracy scores.
It wasn't a quiet day, however, since the wins were wild and highly significant!
Olga Badelka 1-0 Anna Muzychuk
"It’s better to win late than never!" said Badelka, whose first win came against the tournament leader. The game essentially came down to Anna Muzychuk missing one devastating in-between move, 16.dxe6!!, that Badelka played instead of taking the knight on d2.
16...f6! is the only way to fight on in a difficult position, while after 16...Ne4? as played in the game, "the position is just collapsing," as Badelka said.
Anna's mistake had come just before this, with 14...Ne4?. Badelka commented: "Maybe she wasn’t really happy with her outcome of the opening, so she spent already half an hour and maybe she wanted to simplify things immediately, but it turned out you cannot!"
That slip by the leader was pounced on by Zhu.
Zhu Jiner 1-0 Divya Deshmukh
Divya's French Defense seemed to backfire, though in the middlegame she briefly got a chance to take over. When that was missed, however, Zhu found a wonderful knight maneuver that led to a spectacular win—if Divya hadn't resigned, we would have seen underpromotion to a knight to clinch victory.
The knight had started its journey with 30.Nd1!.
So Zhu leads her first Grand Prix of the 2024-2025 season.
Stavroula Tsolakidou 0-1 Nana Dzagnidze
For the second time in the tournament, Dzagnidze bounced back from a tough loss with a win. This time it was over Tsolakidou, who has now lost three of her last four games.
The clash was fantastically complicated, with Tsolakidou ultimately going astray by offering up an exchange for one move too many with 18.Bf2?, an interesting but flawed idea.
That dramatic round has shaken up the standings, but there are still two rounds to go. Anna Muzychuk has White against Paehtz in round eight, while Zhu is Black against Tsolakidou.
Round 8 Pairings
How to watch?
You can watch the broadcast on FIDE's YouTube channel. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 2025 Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich and GM Alik Gershon.
The 2025 Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the fourth of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs March 15-24 in Nicosia, Cyprus. 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: Harika On Bounce-Back Win: 'The Game Is Cruel, So I Can't Be Friendly!'
- Round 5: Anna Muzychuk Snatches Sole Lead; Move 6 Blunder Dooms Harika
- Round 4: Anna Muzychuk Beats Divya To Catch Leader On Day Of 4 Wins
- Round 3: Anna Muzychuk Beats Dzagnidze Twice To Climb To 2nd
- Round 2: Zhu Jiner Takes Sole Lead On 2/2
- Round 1: Tsolakidou, Zhu Jiner Grab Wins As Nicosia Women's Grand Prix Begins
- 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
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
