Draws for the leading trio of GMs Anna Muzychuk, Zhu Jiner, and Tan Zhongyi in the penultimate round of the 2025 Grosslobming FIDE Women’s Grand Prix left the standings unchanged, but mean Zhu has booked a FIDE Candidates spot, while Tan misses out. The day’s wins came for GM Nana Dzagnidze, who won a rollercoaster game against IM Nurgyul Salimova, and GM Mariya Muzychuk, who pounced on a mistake by GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.
Round nine starts one hour earlier on Thursday, May 15, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
Round eight was the quietest yet, with “only” two wins.
Grosslobming FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Round 8 Results
That meant that Anna Muzychuk and Zhu are still tied for first place going into the final round, with Tan half a point back, while Dzagnidze joins GM Vaishali Rameshbabu within a point of the leaders.
Grosslobming FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Standings After Round 8
Round eight was the day Zhu’s five-game winning streak finally came to an end, but it did so with the most comfortable of possible draws against IM Olga Badelka. It’s fair to say 11…Ndxe5 didn’t catch the Chinese 22-year-old off-guard, since she blitzed out the tactical sequence that followed, and on move 17 had five minutes more than she started the game with. She had a slight edge, but was content to safely take a draw.
That draw didn’t change the overall Grand Prix standings in terms of points, but now having one round less made a big difference to the potential outcomes.
FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024-25 As It Stands
| Rank | Player | Tbilisi | Shymkent | Monaco | Nicosia | Pune | G’lobming | Total |
| 1 | Zhu Jiner | 117.5 | 117.5 | 117.5 | 352.5 | |||
| 2 | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 130 | 106.67 | 71.67 | 308.34 | |||
| 3 | Anna Muzychuk | 71.67 | 117.5 | 117.5 | 306.67 | |||
| 4 | Koneru Humpy | 55 | 106.67 | 117.5 | 279.17 | |||
| 5 | Tan Zhongyi | 105 | 65 | 85 | 255 |
Even if Zhu now loses in the final round, she can at worst finish in a tie with one other player for third place (Anna Muzychuk and Vaishali play each other, so they can’t both win), earning 77.5 points, and giving her a minimum of 312.5, ahead of GM Aleksandra Goryachkina. That means we can congratulate the Chinese rising star for becoming the first player confirmed for the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament.
Tan’s draw against Vaishali means that she’s now mathematically out of the race for the two spots, since even sole first in Grosslobming would only give her 300 points, below at least Zhu and Goryachkina. Tan, in fact, had to be careful to make the draw, since what Vaishali described as a “very interesting pawn structure” clearly favored White.
Anna Muzychuk, after a three-game winning streak, has now made a fourth draw in a row, this time in a 28-move draw by repetition against IM Lela Javakhishvili. To qualify for the Candidates, Anna must now take sole first place in Grosslobming, which likely means beating Vaishali in the final round while Zhu fails to beat Kosteniuk. A draw could also be enough, but then Zhu must lose and Tan fail to beat Anna’s sister Mariya.
There were also two decisive games in round eight.
Mariya Muzychuk 1-0 Kosteniuk
Wins have been like London buses for Mariya Muzychuk—you wait around for seven rounds to get one, then another comes along right away. The round-eight win turned completely on one moment. Kosteniuk could have taken a piece with 17…Nxd3! and then played 18…e5, but instead played 17…e5?? first, dropping a piece and the game. “It seems to me that she simply made the second move of the variation,” said Mariya.
Let’s end with the game of the round!
Dzagnidze 1-0 Salimova
Salimova’s 6…Qb6?! already took a 1.c4 c5 English off the trodden path, and when she got down to just over half an hour on her clock before playing the losing move 11…Nxe4? it looked set to be a comfortable win for Dzagnidze.
Instead, the Georgian star struggled to remember analysis that likely didn’t exist, went astray herself, and admitted it was a “miracle” that she avoided getting checkmate in what followed.
It was one of the wildest games of what’s been a wild tournament.
Round 9 Pairings
So it all comes down to a final round where the focus will be on Kosteniuk-Zhu, Tan-Mariya Muzychuk, and Anna Muzychuk-Vaishali. Don’t miss the action, which begins one hour earlier than usual.
How to watch?
You can watch the broadcast on FIDE’s YouTube channel. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 2025 Grosslobming FIDE Women’s Grand Prix events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by Angelika Valkova and GM Felix Blohberger.
The 2025 Grosslobming FIDE Women’s Grand Prix is the sixth and final leg of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs May 6-15 in Grosslobming, Austria. Players have 90 minutes, 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 events; the top two qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament that decides the World Championship challenger.
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