English Chess Forum

Round 1 pairings:
Munguntuul Batkhuyag – Salome Melia
Zhu Jiner – Dronavalli Harika
Kashlinskaya Alina – Shuvalova Polina
Salimova Nurgyul – Divya Deshmukh
Vaishali Rameshbabu – Koneru Humpy

Players: Humpy Koneru, Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Harika Dronavalli, Nurgyul Salimova, Batkhuyag Munguntuul, Zhu Jiner, Alina Kashlinskaya, Melia Salome and Polina Shuvalova.

Humpy Koneru just edged out Zhu Jiner to take first place on tie-break, both scored 7/9

Both Zhu Jiner and Humpy will share the WGP points – they receive 117.5 each. For Humpy this will probably not be enough to contend for the second candidates spot, but Zhu Jiner will have another chance at qualifying for the Candidates in the final leg of the series, to be played in Großlobming, Austria, from the 5th to the 16th of May.

With these results, Alexandra Goryachkina leads the WGP with 308.34 points (three events played), followed by Humpy Koneru with 279.17 points (three events played) and Zhu Jiner with 235 points (two events played). Anna Muzychuk is just behind with 189.17 points and has also only played two events.