Next month, the World Chess Championship will be played in NY

Tan Zhongyi sacrificed two pawns and looked in grave danger in Game 1 of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Final in Chongqing, China, but Lei Tingjie blundered with seconds on her clock and fell to defeat. That was a huge step towards Tan Zhongyi forcing a World Championship rematch against Ju Wenjun, but Lei Tingjie still has five games in which to hit back.

The 2023 Women’s World Championship is an all-Chinese affair, with Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie competing over six classical games for the right to challenge Ju Wenjun to a World Championship match in July.

On paper Lie Tingjie went into the match as the favourite, rated 2545 and world no. 6 compared to Tan Zhongyi’s 2526 and no. 8, but neither player has been prolific recently, and Tan has experience playing for the World Championship title.

That rollercoaster game was Lei Tingjie’s first classical loss in over three years, since the 2020 Gibraltar Masters, with neither player having lost a game in the Candidates before the final. It made Tan Zhongyi the clear favourite, but there are five games, and possible playoffs, to go, so that absolutely nothing is decided yet.

The games start at 15:00 in China, which is 3am ET, 09:00 CEST and 12:30pm IST. Watch all the FIDE Women’s Candidates games on chess24

• Official website
• FIDE Women’s Candidates games on chess24

Chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who defected from Russia to the West in 1976, has died in Switzerland aged 85.

Born in 1931 in what is now St Petersburg, Korchnoi survived the siege of Leningrad during World War Two and is seen as one of the best players never to be World Champion.

He was a four-time USSR champion and ranked number one in the world in 1965.

However, he became convinced he had to leave the Soviet Union after being banned from playing internationally.

He played three matches against Soviet rival Anatoly Karpov, losing the 1974 final of the Candidates Tournament – which determines the challenger to play the world champion.

Mr Karpov became world champion in 1975 after the American Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title.

Korchnoi was then allowed by the Soviet authorities to compete internationally again the following year and sought political asylum in the Netherlands after a tournament there.

He later progressed to the World Championship final in 1978 and 1981, but lost to Mr Karpov on both occasions.

Korchnoi continued playing chess well into old age.

He was the oldest active chess grandmaster on the international tournament circuit for many years and won the World Senior Chess Championship in 2006.
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Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has now won his home supertournament for a second year in a row, with his +2 score built on wins with the black pieces over Wesley So, Pavel Eljanov and Vladimir Kramnik.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov retained his Gashimov Memorial title after an anticlimactic final round in Shamkir. His game against Veselin Topalov raced to a draw, meaning only Wesley So could force a playoff if he beat Harikrishna with the black pieces. Soon, however, there was nothing Wesley could hope for but a draw, which he safely achieved.

The day was saved, however, by Vladimir Kramnik, who emerged victorious from a complicated 6-hour battle with Pavel Eljanov. That second win in a row for Big Vlad took him up to second place on the tiebreak of most wins.

See also:

• Official website
• All the games with computer analysis on chess24
• Shamkir Chess 1-2: So’s streak ends, Eljanov leads
• Shamkir Chess 3-5: Mamedyarov leads, So back at no. 2
• Shamkir Chess 6: A bad day for Russia
• Shamkir Chess 7-8: Mamedyarov rocked by Wojtaszek

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