Abdumalik, Muzychuk Lead Gibraltar Women's Grand Prix
IM Zhansaya Abdumalik and GM Mariya Muzychuk are sharing the lead at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Gibraltar on the rest day. With five rounds to go, the fight for the two spots in the 2022 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament is far from decided.
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Abdumalik and Muzychuk are on 4.5/6. Half a point behind them is GM Kateryna Lagno, who is currently on schedule to take over third place in the overall Grand Prix standings and qualify for the Candidates because GP leader GM Aleksandra Gorachkina has already qualified as the runner-up of the last world championship match.
At the moment, the other qualifier is GM Humpy Koneru, who had to withdraw from the Gibraltar leg. She is in second place in the overall standings, but she can also be overtaken by Dzagnidze and Anna Muzychuk, besides Lagno. Only if two of these three players take the first two places in Gibraltar, Humpy is out. (For more details on the situation, see our first report.)
Gibraltar Women GP | Round 6 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Abdumalik,Zhansaya | 2472 | 2666 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 4.5/6 | 11.75 | |||||||
| 2 | Muzychuk,Mariya | 2544 | 2665 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4.5/6 | 11.5 | |||||||
| 3 | Lagno,Kateryna | 2546 | 2611 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 4.0/6 | ||||||||
| 4 | Paehtz,Elisabeth | 2456 | 2540 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3.5/6 | 8.75 | |||||||
| 5 | Mammadzada,Gunay | 2443 | 2549 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.5/6 | 8.25 | |||||||
| 6 | Dzagnidze,Nana | 2524 | 2545 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.5/6 | 7.75 | |||||||
| 7 | Muzychuk,Anna | 2535 | 2500 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 3.0/6 | 10.25 | |||||||
| 8 | Gunina,Valentina | 2421 | 2500 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3.0/6 | 6 | |||||||
| 9 | Stefanova,Antoaneta | 2470 | 2418 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 2.5/6 | ||||||||
| 10 | Bulmaga,Irina | 2440 | 2294 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.5/6 | 4.75 | |||||||
| 11 | Kashlinskaya,Alina | 2494 | 2293 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1.5/6 | 3.5 | |||||||
| 12 | Saduakassova,Dinara | 2500 | 2221 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1.0/6 |
Both leaders haven't lost a game yet, with three wins and three draws each. The start of their tournament, however, couldn't be more different.
With players from the same federation always being paired at the start of such a tournament, Mariya and Anna Muzychuk played and drew quickly (as they always do), while Abdumalik defeated her compatriot Dinara Saduakassova:
Former Women's World Champion Muzychuk (Mariya) scored a nice win with the black pieces against IM Gunay Mammadzada, who was well prepared in one of the current mainlines of the Sveshnikov but made a big error two moves after leaving theory.
IM Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany is having quite a good tournament so far. She scored plus one over six rounds and won a nice game vs. GM Nana Dzagnidze:
Games rounds 1-6
The tournament in Gibraltar is the fourth and final leg of the FIDE Grand Prix series. The first three took place in Skolkovo, Monaco, and Lausanne in 2019-2020. Then the series was interrupted by the pandemic.
The prize fund is 80,000 euros, with 15,000 euros and 160 Grand Prix points being awarded to the winner.
Previous report
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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