Grandmaster R Vaishali continued her impressive run at the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026, converting a seemingly balanced position into a full point to climb to four out of seven and move into second place in the standings, just behind leader Anna Muzychuk.
Vaishali seized upon Tan Zhongyi’s mistakes in the late middlegame, capitalising on a series of critical errors that led Zhongyi to be inaccurate – such as playing Rc6, Kg7, and Ra1 – when the game seemed destined to end up in a draw before Zhongyi’s mistake.
After Vaishali took advantage of the situation with a decisive Rxf6 on move 38, winning a pawn and opening up lines to attack the black king, Zhongyi responded with Kxf6, further exposing her king and not giving it enough cover from the pawns.
Vaishali’s rooks and king worked together very effectively, putting more and more pressure on Zhongyi before eventually forcing her to resign.
In the women’s section, Muzychuk maintained her lead with 4.5 points after a solid draw against Bibisara Assaubayeva, while Zhu Jiner was held by Aleksandra Goryachkina.
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R Praggnanandhaa Settles for Draw vs Caruana in Candidates Round 7
Meanwhile, in the open section, R Praggnanandhaa once again pressed hard for a win but had to settle for a threefold-repetition draw against Caruana after an intense battle in the Candidates round 7.
Elsewhere, Hikaru Nakamura, still searching for momentum in a challenging campaign, drew with Matthias Bluebaum.
Anish Giri halted the winning streak of tournament leader Javokhir Sindarov, holding him to a draw. Despite the result, Sindarov continues to lead the open standings with six points from seven rounds heading into the rest day on Monday.
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In another result, Wei Yi secured a victory over Andrey Esipenko, adding further intrigue to an increasingly competitive field.
