GM Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated GM Alexandra Kosteniuk on Friday in what was the third sport of their quarterfinal match in Pool B of the 2022-23 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. Kosteniuk now must win on demand to pressure a tiebreak on Saturday.

The match between GM Tan Zhongyi and GM Kateryna Lagno remains to be equal after three attracts, however Lagno missed an opportunity within the third sport. The fourth and closing sport of the quarterfinals, held in Khiva, Uzbekistan, begins at 2 a.m. Pacific / 11:00 CET on Saturday, December 3.

Kosteniuk struggled however survived her first sport on Tuesday after which drew her sport with Black pretty comfortably the subsequent day. After the remainder day, the reigning ladies’s world speedy chess champion struggled once more as White, and this time she ended up shedding.

After the gamers adopted a topical however quiet line within the Italian, White’s middle offered her a slight edge however round transfer 30 it was roughly equal. Like in that first sport, Kosteniuk then could not discover the correct setup for her items and ended up in a barely worse endgame the place she acquired slowly outplayed.

It was a very good positional sport by Goryachkina, who commented: “All in all, immediately, even supposing I got here out of the opening type of uncertain, the sport went on and my opponent did not appear to determine it out very nicely. So I managed to win it one way or the other, even supposing within the earlier two video games I underperformed just a little bit.”

The different quarterfinal is tied 1.5-1.5. It’s Lagno who has been having the very best probabilities there, with a positional plus in her white sport on Wednesday and an additional pawn in a rook endgame immediately. It was objectively drawn more often than not, however one second she might have gained:

The 2022-23 Women’s Candidates Tournament is an elite occasion that includes eight prime feminine gamers, who compete in a knockout format for a share of the €250,000 prize fund and the correct to play within the Women’s World Championship match towards Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun.

Pool A was gained by GM Lei Tingjie; Pool B takes place November 29-December 11, 2022 in Khiva, Uzbekistan. The prize fund is 70,000 euros, whereas one other 110,000 can be at stake in subsequent yr’s closing. 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 provide earlier than transfer 40 will not be allowed.