Vaishali Breaks The Deadlock In Tbilisi
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu smoothly outplayed IM Sara Khadem in round three of the 2024 Tbilisi FIDE Women's Grand Prix to recover from a tough start and move up into the seven-player pack on 50 percent. All the other games were drawn, so that IMs Bibisara Assaubayeva and Stavroula Tsolakidou continue to lead by half a point.
Round four will start on Sunday, August 18, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Vaishali ensured that two days of fighting chess didn't end in 10 draws!
Round 3 Results
That meant she'd recovered from her first-round defeat to return to 50 percent, a spot occupied by no fewer than seven of the participants.
Standings After Round 3
The first game to finish was the clash between GMs Anna Muzychuk and Alexandra Kosteniuk, which was an exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez that suddenly burst into life when Kosteniuk chose to castle on the opposite side of the board to her opponent. She admitted she was unsure of the wisdom of her choice:
It was a complicated game and I'm not sure whether my plan with long-side castles was really worth a try because it looked pretty risky. I was hoping that my counterplay would be enough, but I think Anna found a very nice plan with Nf5, and I was not sure about my position almost to the very end.
She was happy, however, that Anna kept exchanging pieces, and particularly queens, solving the problem of Black's out-of-play queen on a7.
In the end we got a rook endgame with all 16 pawns still on the board, and it ended as rook endgames usually do, despite Kosteniuk having concerns about her play.
The longest game of the day saw GM Nana Dzagnidze pressing in a heavy-piece endgame against IM Alina Kashlinskaya, but once again Dzagnidze's willpower wasn't quite enough and the game fizzled out into a draw.
The leaders both dodged bullets, with Tsolakidou's 30.Rab1!? allowing the amazing resource 30...c3!!, sacrificing the queen.
IM Lela Javakhishvili played the natural queen retreat instead but has made a strong start to the tournament with three fighting draws. The Georgian player noted that she lives five minutes from the venue, though she decided to stay in the hotel to avoid family distractions during the event.
The other leader, Assaubayeva, might have been in trouble if not for GM Mariya Muzychuk making a move some say never should be made, 21...f6?!. Instead 21...Kg8! would leave White in danger of getting trampled by Black's rampant knights.
Amid all those tricky tactical battles, one game stood out: Vaishali's dominant positional win against Khadem. The Indian star summed up afterward: "It feels good! I think it went smooth from the opening. I’m happy with the win, especially after the first two games."
Vaishali had taken a draw in a winning position in round two, while in round one she made a one-move losing blunder that she spotted the moment she picked up the knight to make it—alas, there was no better square on which to put it.
In round three, however, everything went Vaishali's way, as she built up a huge advantage without even exchanging off any pawns.
No pawns have been exchanged, but Vaishali has a huge advantage vs. Khadem! https://t.co/sS2rpsgMZg pic.twitter.com/mDjIlo9QqH
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 17, 2024
Vaishali played 29.b5! next, correctly realizing that all possible ways of trading pawns would cement her advantage. She went on to win a sparkling game.
With nine of the players within half a point, everything is still up for grabs in Tbilisi. There are six rounds to go, and in Sunday's round four, the leaders both have Black, with Tsolakidou facing Mariya Muzychuk, while Assaubayeva takes on Kashlinskaya.
How to watch?
You can watch the broadcast on FIDE's YouTube channel. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 2024 Tbilisi FIDE Women's Grand Prix events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and GM Valeriane Gaprindashvili.
The 2024 Tbilisi FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the first of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs August 15-24 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Players have 90 minutes per game, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. The top prize is €18,000 (~$20,000), with players also earning Grand Prix points. Each of the 20 players competes in three of the six events, with the top two overall qualifying for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament that decides the World Championship challenger.
Previous Coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
