Vaishali Rameshbabu Candidates 2026 (Screengrab/x)
NAGPUR: Former Chinese world women’s champion Tan Zhongyi did compatriot Zhu Jiner a huge favour by playing passively and holding Vaishali Rameshbabu to a draw in the women’s Candidates in Paphos, Cyprus, on Tuesday.Tan held Vaishali in just 34 moves by repetition.While Vaishali made a couple of midgame inaccuracies, Tan secured a slight positional advantage when she gave her D-line pawn the marching orders. When Vaishali brought the position equal, Tan made her intentions of signing the peace treaty clear on the 26th move.As t turned out, Bibisara Assaubayeva from Kazakhstan joined Vaishali in the lead, with 7.5 points each, after prevailing over Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk in 44 moves.Meanwhile, with an aim to grab sole lead, Zhu made some overenthusiastic moves but faltered her pawn-up advantage in the endgame to snatch a 57-move defeat from the jaws of victory against Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina.Zhu is now in the second spot at seven points, while Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno and Muzychuk are third with 6.5 points.In the final round, Muzychuk will meet Zhu, Vaishali faces Lagno and Divya Deshmukh squares up against Bibisara. Both Vaishali and Bibisara need a draw to take the Candidates match to the tiebreak. Divya can do Vaishali a favour by beating Bibisara.
