Yip Picks Up 1st Win
IM Alice Lee continues to lead the Cairns Cup 2025 after making a draw with GM Nana Dzagnidze. The one decisive result was IM Carissa Yip beating GM Nino Batsiashvili from a position she could have even lost. We saw draws in the rest: GM-elect Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Tan Zhongyi (Assaubayeva accepted a threefold repetition when she was, in fact, winning), GM Koneru Humpy vs. IM Alina Kashlinskaya, and GM Harika Dronavalli vs. GM Mariya Muzychuk.
Round four starts on Friday, June 13, at 1 p.m. ET / 19:00 CEST / 10:30 p.m. IST.
Lee's still in the lead, a half-point ahead of three other players.
Cairns Cup Standings After Round 3
Lee ½-½ Dzagnidze
We start with the leader's game, where Dzagnidze played a provocative opening with the black pieces, fianchettoing both of her bishops. While in previous games Black went into a King's Indian Defense in this line, Dzagnidze's idea of 5...d5N, going for a Grunfeld, was a novelty. Lee pointed out that her opponent isn't really known for playing the Grunfeld, though she handled it exceptionally well in this game.
Lee said, "The opening, I was quite suspicious of the line she played, but somehow I wasn't able to like find an advantage." She later added, "even though I had a nice center, I wasn't sure what my plan was." Overall, Black had the better chances, especially when accounting for the clock times, but after 16...b5 17.Qxb5 we saw both players liquidate down to a draw. A safe result for the tournament leader.
Yip 1-0 Batsiashvili
In an Italian Opening (Yip called her opening play "modest"), Black equalized comfortably and looked threatening on the kingside with two knights, a rook, and queen. Black's buildup led to a knight sacrifice, 29...Nxf2!, that should objectively lead to a draw by perpetual check. But Yip had two choices: run the king to the center or leave it on f1? One draws, the other loses.
Yip said, "I definitely didn't feel that Kf1 was very safe," expanding: "It just felt, you know, my king is still clustered in on the kingside and maybe I would want it to run at some point." After one second, she opted for 31.Ke3??, the losing move—but only if Black takes the b-pawn, something Yip realized only after she'd played her move.
Instead, Black took the g-pawn and went for a plan with ...g5 and ...g4, something Yip had calculated way in advance. She found a nifty way to trap the opponent's queen, saying, "It was basically my one trick in the position." That's our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
That's a second loss for Batsiashvili, while Yip is now on a 50 percent score. The American said, "I feel better with this win. For sure, luck comes and goes."
For sure, luck comes and goes.
—Carissa Yip
Humpy ½-½ Kashlinskaya
Humpy and Kashlinskaya trailed the leader going into the round, and they stay a half-point behind her after making a draw.
"Of course playing Black against Humpy is a challenge," said Kashlinskaya, and she revealed that she didn't expect the Reverse Grunfeld she got in the game. She did, however, prepare the line she played for her round-one game against Tan. It was essentially a memory test, and she passed.
Despite being objectively equal, the opposite-color bishop endgame with four rooks on the board still gave both sides winning chances. She said, "The endgame is of course unpleasant for Black, I have to defend, and in the very end I think Humpy could have played Bf2 instead of Re3 and I couldn't see how [to defend]."
Indeed, it would have been a nice final question to ask of White's opponent, as 30...f5! would have been the only defense. 30...Rc8, the move Humpy expected, allowed 31.g4! with a white advantage. Anyway, the players repeated and we got a draw instead.
Assaubayeva ½-½ Tan
Assaubayeva missed a tremendous chance against the top seed of the tournament. Move 39 could have been a major turning point.
Black's 39...Rxa4? allowed 40.d5!, unleashing the bishop and winning the f-pawn. In fact, Assaubayeva played it and had a winning position, but just as quickly she accepted a threefold repetition and called it a day.
Harika ½-½ Muzychuk
Harika played an interesting attempt in the Four Knights Opening, essaying the quirky 4.a4 followed by 5.Bd3. Despite appearances, the first 11 moves had been played by GM Magnus Carlsen against GM Wesley So in 2021, though in an online tournament.
With 16.d4, the Indian grandmaster sacrificed a pawn and had good play for it. But the compensation was never enough for an advantage, and eventually Black managed to give the pawn back to equalize. Both players had 98 accuracy in the game.
Lee will have the black pieces against the top seed Tan, a big test for the tournament's leader. 
How to review?
You can review the round's broadcast on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube or Twitch channels. The games can also be reviewed from our dedicated 2025 Cairns Cup events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by the all-women team of IMs Nazi Paikidze, Almira Skripchenko, and WGM Katerina Nemcova, with support from GM Yasser Seirawan for interviews.
The 2025 Cairns Cup, taking place from June 10-20 in St. Louis, is one of the strongest women's tournaments in the world. The event is a 10-player round-robin with a classical time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. The event features a $250,000 prize fund.
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