FIDE Candidates 2026 Round 2
draws =/= yawns
Tactic appetizer:
Divya - Vaishali
White is threatening a queen capture or mate in 1. How to continue? I’ll give the answer at the bottom of the article.
Lagno - Jiner
The curse of time trouble.
Zhu got a very nice French position against Kateryna who played several inaccuracies in middlegame under time pressure.
Black is technically dominant in this position, and after 27.Qxg5, has many moves (27…Rd7, Rb8, Ra8, or even Rxd1) that would keep the game going in Black’s favor. The g-file is a long-term problem for White, and the light squares are extremely weak, not to mention the two-pawn minus; unfortunately, Zhu only has two minutes on her clock when this position arrives. However, White has the initiative due to some tactical ideas on the back rank, making powerful use of the dark squares around Black’s king, and Zhu has to play carefully to get out with the advantage. However, two minutes is not a lot of time to check all your calculations, and she responded with 27…Rc8?, losing all her advantage, but White has to find the correct followup.
Kateryna was also short on time, and played 28.Rd2. It would be hard to find the move 28.Nb5!, threatening a huge knight fork on d6 and/or a skewer via Rc1 (this is why Rb8 or Ra8 were superior moves to Rc8). However, Rd2 allowed, and Zhu missed, 28…Qg4!, forcing White’s queen away from control of g8, and allowing Black to finally consolidate via castling with a huge material advantage. Alas, with only a few seconds on her clock, Zhu resorted to 28…Qb4, which allowed Kateryna the draw with 29.Rxe6!! and a perpetual shortly thereafter.
Vaishali - Divya
The curse of time trouble… again.
The two Indian players in the Women’s Candidates had a very fiery game. Divya came out with an aggressive start to get this position on the 34th move of the game.
Both players burned a lot of time, and with a minute on her clock, Vaishali had flinched first with 34...Ne4, allowing 35.Rxb7 Rxb7 36.Rxb7 Ng5.
Being up a comfortable pawn, Divya could offer a queen trade with 37.Qg4 and have a nice rook endgame ahead of her. However, this is hard to work out low on time (is the rook endgame drawn?), so she played 37.Qg3? which allows Black back into the game.
Vaishali found the way: 37…Rxc5!! 38.Qe5+ Kh7 39.Rb8. Now we come back to a position that will surely find its way into a modern tactics book — were you able to find the idea?
Solution: Vaishali calmly played 39…Rc1+ 40.Kh2 Qxh3+!! 41.gxh3 Nf3+ 42.Kg2 Nxe5 43.dxe5 Ra1 44.Ra8 and the players agreed to a draw. Another incredible save by Vaishali, and an unfortunate miss for Divya.
All draws today for both the Open and Women’s Candidates tournaments, but the chess was not boring at all.