By Tatarstan.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119360328
The Match
The 2025 FIDE Ladies’s World Chess Championship will happen from April 1 to 23 between Shanghai and Chongqing, China. The present Ladies’s World Chess Champion, GM Ju Wenjun, will face off in opposition to the challenger, GM Tan Zhongyi, in 12 video games of classical chess. Every spherical might be streamed by Lichess on YouTube and Twitch; extra particulars might be coming quickly.
Participant Profile
Tan Zhongyi has already gained the Ladies’s World Championship — that in 2017 in opposition to GM Anna Muzychuk. She subsequently misplaced the title to Ju Wenjun in 2018, so the present match might be of explicit curiosity to each gamers. In our interview with Tan, she did actually state that she wished to “end her revenge”.
Other than having gained essentially the most prestigious title of all of them, Tan has additionally loved an extended and storied profession. We be aware a few of her different most noteworthy achievements:
- U10 Women World Champion (twice, in 2000 and 2001)
- U12 Women World Champion (2002)
- Asian Ladies’s Blitz Champion (2014)
- Chinese language Ladies’s Chess Champion (2015)
- Ladies’s Speedy Champion (2022)
Path to Ladies’s World Chess Championship 2025
Tan certified to the 2024 Ladies’s Candidates by ending in third place within the FIDE Ladies’s Grand Swiss Match 2023. Solely two qualification spots have been accessible, however GM Anna Muzychuk, who completed in second, had already certified, so Tan obtained the second qualification spot. Tan then went on to win the 2024 Ladies’s Candidates with a crushing efficiency, solely sharing the lead in rounds 8 and 10 and in any other case sustaining a lead over the remaining rounds. You will discover extra data on Tan’s win by studying our blogs, ranging from spherical 1 to spherical 14.
Notable Video games
Tan’s fashion has produced a myriad of tactical masterpieces. We be aware the next three video games which illustrate Tan’s brilliance fairly nicely.
Within the first sport, a younger Tan sacrifices piece after piece to search out WGM Zhang Xiaowen‘s king.
https://lichess.org/412KxPpd#0
Our second sport, performed in opposition to WGM Natalija Pogonina, showcases yet one more tactical onslaught by Tan:
https://lichess.org/7t116lJ7#0
Lastly, Tan has had her justifiable share of victories in opposition to her Ladies’s World Championship opponent, GM Ju Wenjun; one notable sport is the next, a robust defensive show by Tan:
https://lichess.org/F3PbATJU#0
Preview
Keep tuned for the subsequent preview submit, which can take a look at the present Ladies’s World Champion, Ju Wenjun. The third preview submit will take a look at the 2025 championship and current some statistics-based predictions as we have provided earlier than.
