The Women’s Candidates semifinals match between GM Anna Muzychuk and GM Lei Tingjie began with two attracts. If the match stays tied within the remaining two video games, a tiebreak shall be performed on Sunday. The third sport is scheduled to start out on Friday, November 4, at 7 a.m. PT / 15:00 CEST.

Following the dramatic tiebreak between Muzychuk and GM Humpy Koneru, the subsequent stage of the 2022-23 FIDE Women’s Candidates has been extra quiet—to this point no less than. Halfway the primary semifinal match (keep in mind that the opposite half of the bracket will begin on November 28 in Uzbekistan) the rating is 1-1 after two attracts.

The first sport was the extra fascinating of the 2. Lei had performed the Petroff twice towards Anna Muzychuk’s sister Mariya, however in her third black sport the Chinese GM performed a 2…e6 Sicilian. Probably caught without warning, Muzychuk went for a sideline with an early g3, however her opponent knew precisely methods to take care of it.

The queens had been quickly traded, and extra items left the board shortly, however the remaining endgame with rooks and knights remained considerably difficult. Avoiding errors, the gamers agreed on a draw simply after the time management. Note that draw affords are solely allowed after transfer 40.

In the second sport on Wednesday it was Muzychuk’s flip to play a gap shock. After taking part in 1…d5 4 instances towards Koneru’s 1.d4, this time the selection was the Grunfeld Defense. She could not rely an excessive amount of on preparation as Lei performed the 7.Be3 variation, which she had by no means achieved earlier than. Still, also on this sport there was numerous principle with Lei following play that, amongst others, GM Dmitry Andreikin has tried so much lately.

The vital second occurred after transfer 18, when Lei determined to go for the thematic pawn push e4-e5. Cutting off the g7-bishop can provide White the benefit generally (particularly if h4-h5 and hxg6 are thrown in), nevertheless it comes at the price of dropping management over the d5-square and Muzychuk used that sq. completely to equalize.

The 2022-23 Women’s Candidates Tournament is an elite occasion that includes eight high feminine gamers, who compete in a knockout format for a share of the €250,000 prize fund and the precise to play within the Women’s World Championship match towards Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun. The match’s first quarterfinals started on October 25; the ultimate shall be within the first quarter of 2023. The time management is 90 minutes for the primary 40 strikes, adopted by half-hour for the remainder of the sport with an increment of 30 seconds per transfer ranging from transfer one. A draw supply earlier than transfer 40 will not be allowed.

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