Women's Candidates, Round 11: Goryachkina on the Verge of Winning
The players in the top four places all drew their games, maintaining their relative standings at the top of the wall chart. Unfortunately for three of the players, that only helps one of them, Aleksandra Goryachkina, who maintains a two and a half point lead with three rounds to go.
The games featuring the bottom four were both decisive. Valentina Gunina somehow defeated the plummeting Nana Dzagnidze from an ending where she was down a pawn for nothing, while Tan Zhongyi exploiting a huge mistake from Alexandra Kosteniuk to win a (mostly) very nice game. It was almost a brilliancy, but the Chinese player almost let it slip away.
The games, with my notes to the Tan Zhongyi's win over Kosteniuk, are here. The pairings for the antepenultimate round, which could clinch a world championship match for Goryachkina, are as follows:
M. Muzychuk (5.5) - Gunina (4.5)
Dzagnidze (4.5) - Kosteniuk (4.5)
Tan Zhongyi (5) - Goryachkina (8)
A. Muzychuk (5.5) - Lagno (6)
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