A one-move mistake cost Indian GM Vaishali Rameshbabu a loss to Greek IM Stavroula Tsolakidou as the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024 began in Tbilisi. The other winner of the day was Kazakhstani IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who surprisingly defeated Iranian-born Spanish IM Sara Khadem on the first move. The tie between Ukrainian GM sisters Anna and Mariya Muzychuk was entirely predictable, but they found an entertaining way to achieve it by improving on a famous game.
Round two starts on Friday, August 16, 7am ET / 1pm CEST / 4:30pm IST.
A new FIDE Grand Prix for women begins
The 10-player tournament in Tbilisi, Georgia, is the first of a six-event FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series that will ultimately select two players for the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. There are 20 players in the running and two events more than the last Women’s Grand Prix series, but both Anna Muzychuk and Assaubayeva pointed out that this is not a significant change for the players, as they are still competing in a total of three events each.
The difference is that each event will have ten players instead of twelve, and nine rounds instead of eleven. Here, the ten players will compete for a prize pool of €80,000 (€18,000 or ~$20,000 for 1st place) and up to 130 Grand Prix points in Tbilisi.
The event started lively with two decisive games and an incredibly hard-fought draw in 66 moves.
Results of the first round
Of course, that meant that we had two frontrunners early on.
Table after round 1
Let’s take a look at the events of the day.
Anna Muzychuk ½-½ Mariya Muzychuk
This pairing of two incredibly talented Ukrainian sisters has long been the most predictable draw in chess, but at least on this occasion the moves played were somewhat odd. Mariya “unleashed” the 11…Bxh3!! Sacrifice used by Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi to score a stunning victory over GM Hikaru Nakamura in the second round of the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Toronto this year.
Vidit gave up a pawn against Nakamura, but scored a hit with his bishop on h3! #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/A4Y2roGgyg
— chess24 (@chess24com) 5 April 2024
The game ended so badly for the American superstar because he only needed five minutes before he made a mistake with 12.Nc4? and lost after 29 moves.
Back then, Vidit had shown that White had no problem capturing the bishop when playing at his best, and that’s exactly what Anna demonstrated in Tbilisi – we reached a 21-move draw by repetition, using the computer’s top line.
The other quiet tie was between IM Alina Kashlinskaya and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, but it was an exciting match before it finally fizzled out.
The remaining games were either decisive or bitter battles.
Tsolakidou – Vaishali 1:0
The biggest surprise of the first round was that the lowest seeded Tsolakidou defeated one of the favorites, Vaishali.
It was a game in which the 24-year-old Greek star constantly applied pressure, but essentially there was a turning point: Vaishali, who had only five minutes left on the clock, took a bishop on e5 with 25…Nxe5?If Tsolakidou had captured the knight, the balance of power would have remained roughly the same, but she played 26.dxc5! Instead, the Indian grandmaster could essentially give up because both her rook and her queen were under attack.
Vaishali continued playing, but there was no turning back.
The other victory was a complex battle full of twists and turns.
Assaubayeva – Khadem 1:0
20-year-old Assaubayeva revealed that she had experienced the first big surprise of the day early on:
I liked it because the whole game went according to my plan and I think it was a good game. I surprised them with the first move, usually I play 1.d4 or 1.c4 but here I played 1.e4. I just wanted to play something new and it worked well.
Khadem had to defend a difficult, passive position, which caught fire when Assaubayev made the spectacular 19.Rf6!. There were many twists and turns after that until Khadem finally collapsed on move 31 with less than a minute on the clock, allowing for some devastating tactics.
A good start for Assaubayeva, who revealed that she last visited Georgia eight years ago when she won the U12 Girls’ World Championship in Batumi.
The last game of the day to be completed was the one we missed.
Dzagnidze ½-½ Dzhavachishvili
Georgia has an incredibly rich history when it comes to women’s chess, as testified by 83-year-old former Women’s World Chess Champion Nona Gaprindashvili, who attended the opening ceremony.
This spirit is still present today, as we saw in a combative draw between the two Georgian players in this last tournament. GM Nana Dzagnidze seemed to be on the verge of overthrowing IM Lela Javakhishvili when 30.Txe6! appeared on the board …
…but a few inaccuracies eroded the advantage until we reached a rook endgame with equal pawns that was sure to end in a draw. It did, but only after Dzagnidze had once again created serious winning chances. 53.h5?! could have been the step that dashed the last hopes.
There are still eight rounds left in Tbilisi.
The 2024 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Tbilisi is the first of six stages of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin tournament will take place in Tbilisi, Georgia, from August 15 to 24. Players will have 90 minutes per game, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second bonus round per move. The top prize is €18,000 (approximately $20,000), with players also receiving Grand Prix points. Each of the 20 players will compete in three of the six events, with the top two players qualifying for the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament, which will determine the challenger for the World Championship.
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