IM Nurgyul Salimova's win over IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul was the only decisive game of round eight of the 2024 Shymkent FIDE Women's Grand Prix. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina's five-game winning streak was ended by GM Koneru Humpy, but when GM Tan Zhongyi also drew against IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, that left Goryachkina a point clear going into Friday's final round. The day's most dramatic encounter saw IM Stavroula Tsolakidou miss a win in the endgame after being surprised in the opening by IM Divya Deshmukh.

The final round will start two hours earlier on Friday, November 8, at 3 a.m. ET / 09:00 CET / 1:30 p.m. IST.

Round 8 Results

Goryachkina kept her one-point lead over Tan, so that a draw in the final round will guarantee her sole first place. 

Standings After Round 8

For the first time since round two, just one game was decisive in Shymkent, but the draws were significant. Goryachkina could have clinched tournament victory with a sixth win in a row, but queens were exchanged on move 13, and Humpy never felt in danger.

As Humpy explained:

"I think it was a very standard game. After the opening there was a queen exchange and I had an isolated queen’s pawn, but it got eliminated by pushing the d4-break, and then it was just double rook and bishop, which is a very equal position."

Humpy has had a disappointing event and revealed it had been a recent trend. "The whole year I have been struggling a lot, not just this tournament—I had a lot of setbacks in the previous ones as well," she said.

That draw for Goryachkina was a chance for Tan to close the gap at the top to half a point, but she was never able to attain any more than a symbolic advantage in a heavy-piece position against Assaubayeva.

At one point, five draws appeared the most likely outcome of the day, which would have meant a first draw for Munguntuul. But instead, the Mongolian women's number-one kept up her grim record of losing all her games with the white pieces—five in total. She went for unnecessarily forcing play in an equal position and then went astray in a rook endgame. Salimova, who picked up her first win after three losses, felt it was trickier than it looked.  

"Luckily it was around the 40th move, so I spent some time and tried to create some problems, and luckily I managed to create them. She could save it, but it was not easy to find, so I’m happy with my first win here!"

The other two draws were a stark contrast. GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Elisabeth Paehtz was only notable for a rare appearance of the Ginsberg Gambit, with 5.Bc4.

Divya vs. Stavroula, meanwhile, was the day's longest and most dramatic game.

Divya surprised her opponent in the opening, with Stavroula remembering the correct move but not how to play it afterward, so instead, she headed for a difficult endgame. Divya was over an hour up on the clock but commented on what happened next:

"I spent too much time. I had like one hour up after the opening, and then I just started thinking, which was really stupid! I got into time trouble, I was lower than her on time. That’s just ridiculous! Nothing was going my way, but I got lucky with the endgame." 

I just started thinking, which was really stupid!

—Divya Deshmukh

One bad move allowed Stavroula to take over, and if she'd won, she would have put herself a draw in her final game away from picking up a second grandmaster norm. She delayed a pawn push one move, however, and Divya was able to escape. A huge fight!

Stavroula can still earn a grandmaster norm, but now she needs to beat World Championship Challenger Tan with the white pieces in the final round to do it. If she does, she'll also take clear second place.

Tan, meanwhile, needs a win to have any chance of catching up to Goryachkina, though that only comes into play if the leader loses with Black against Salimova. Don't miss all the action, which starts two hours earlier than usual! 

Round 9 Pairings

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