Women's Candidates Tournament 2024

Tan Zhongyi, the winner of the tournament, will advance to the Women's World Chess Championship 2025 match.
Tournament information
Sport	Chess
Location	Toronto, Canada
Dates	3 April–22 April 2024
Administrator	FIDE
Tournament format(s)	Double round-robin tournament
Participants	8 from 5 nations
Final positions
Champion	Tan Zhongyi
← 2022–23

The FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2024 was an eight-player chess tournament held to determine the challenger for the Women's World Chess Championship 2025. It was held from 3 April to 22 April 2024 in Toronto, Canada, alongside the Candidates Tournament 2024.^[1][2]

It was a double round-robin tournament.^[3] Tan Zhongyi won the tournament and will play in the Women's World Chess Championship match in 2025 against the current Women's World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun.

The eight players who qualified^[4] are:

Qualification method	Player	Age	Rating	Rank
		(April 2024)
2023 Women's World Championship runner-up	Lei Tingjie	27	2550	4
The top two finishers in the Women's Grand Prix 2022–23	Kateryna Lagno[a] (winner)	34	2542	6
	Aleksandra Goryachkina[a] (runner-up)	25	2553	3
The top three finishers in the Women's Chess World Cup 2023[b]	Nurgyul Salimova (runner-up)	20	2432	36
	Anna Muzychuk (third place)	34	2520	8
The top two finishers in the Women's Grand Swiss 2023[c]	Vaishali Rameshbabu (winner)	22	2475	15
	Tan Zhongyi (third place)	32	2521	7
Highest-rated active player for January 2024[b]	Koneru Humpy	37	2546	5

The tournament is an eight-player, double round-robin tournament, meaning there are 14 rounds with each player facing the others twice: once with the black pieces and once with the white pieces. The tournament winner will qualify to play Ju Wenjun for the Women's World Chess Championship 2025.

Players from the same federation are required to play each other in the first rounds of each half^[7] to avoid collusion. The players affected in the 2024 Women's Candidates are Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina representing FIDE^{[citation needed]} Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi representing China, and R Vaishali and Koneru Humpy representing India. They will face each other in rounds 1 and 8.

In March 2024, FIDE announced pairings for the tournament.^[8]

The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move 1. Players received 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 points for a loss.

Tiebreaks for the first place would have been addressed as follows:^[7]

• Players would have played two rapid chess games at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If a three- to six-way tie had occurred, a single round-robin would be played. If seven or eight players had been tied, a single round-robin would be played with a time limit of 10 minutes plus 5 seconds per move.
• If any players had still been tied for first after the rapid chess games, they would play two blitz chess games at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. In the case of more than two players being tied, a single round-robin would be played.
• If any players were still tied for first after these blitz chess games, the remaining players would play a knock-out blitz tournament at the same time control. In each mini-match of the proposed knock-out tournament, the first player to win a game would win the mini-match.

Ties for places other than first were broken by, in order: (1) Sonneborn–Berger score; (2) total number of wins; (3) head-to-head score among tied players; (4) drawing of lots.

The prize money was €24,000 for first place, €18,000 for second place, and €12,000 for third place (with players on the same number of points sharing prize money, irrespective of tie-breaks), plus €1,750 per half-point for every player, for a total prize pool of €250,000.^[7]

Tan Zhongyi led from start to finish to win the tournament. She was the only player who won in the first round (against Lei Tingjie), and when she won again in the second round, she built up a lead over her rivals. In the first half of the tournament Aleksandra Goryachinka kept pace with Tan, but Tan stayed half a point ahead. A momentous round 8 saw Lei - who had won in rounds 6 and 7 - win a third consecutive game against Tan. This led to a three-way tie for first. However, Tan won again in round 9, while Goryachinka lost in round 10 to fall behind. By round 12, only Tan and Lei were still in with a realistic chance. When Lei lost to Vaishali in round 13, Tan was effectively champion. A draw in the final round gave Tan the tournament victory, with a 1.5-point margin.

For the other competitors, Muzychuk achieved several winning positions, but she did not manage to win them, and she finished the tournament as the only player who did not win a game. Salimova, the only non-grandmaster in the field (Vaishali was a GM-elect), also had a difficult tournament, finishing joint-last with Muzychuk. Humpy started the tournament poorly with losses in rounds 4 and 6, but recovered in the second half to finish on +1. Vaishali had an even more turbulent tournament, at one point losing four games in a row to be solidly last, but then winning five consecutive games at the end to tie for 2nd-4th.

Standings of the 2024 Candidates Tournament

Rank	Player	Score	SB	Wins	Qualification		TZ		KH		LT		VR		AG		KL		NS		AM
1	Tan Zhongyi (CHN)	9 / 14	60.5	5	Advance to title match				½	½	0	1	1	1	½	½	1	½	½	½	1	½
2[d]	Koneru Humpy (IND)	7.5 / 14	52.25	3			½	½			0	1	1	½	½	½	½	½	1	0	½	½
3[d]	Lei Tingjie (CHN)	7.5 / 14	52	4			0	1	0	1			1	0	½	1	½	½	½	½	½	½
4[d]	Vaishali Rameshbabu (IND)	7.5 / 14	47.5	6			0	0	½	0	1	0			1	½	0	1	1	1	½	1
5	Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE)	7 / 14	47	2			½	½	½	½	0	½	½	0			½	½	½	1	1	½
6	Kateryna Lagno (FIDE)	6.5 / 14	45	1			½	0	½	½	½	½	0	1	½	½			½	½	½	½
7[e]	Nurgyul Salimova (BUL)	5.5 / 14	39.5	1			½	½	1	0	½	½	0	0	0	½	½	½			½	½
8[e]	Anna Muzychuk (UKR)	5.5 / 14	38.75	0			½	0	½	½	½	½	0	½	½	0	½	½	½	½

Tie-breakers for first place: (1) results in tie-break games for first place;

Tie breakers for non-first place: (1) results in tie-break games for first place, if any; (2) Sonneborn–Berger score (SB); (3) total number of wins; (4) head-to-head score among tied players; (5) drawing of lots.^[7]

Note: Numbers in the crosstable in a white background indicate the result playing the respective opponent with the white pieces (black pieces if on a black background). This does not give information which of the two games was played in the first half of the tournament, and which in the second.

This table shows each player's cumulative difference between their number of wins and losses after each round. Green backgrounds indicate the player(s) with the highest score after each round. Red backgrounds indicate player(s) who could no longer win the tournament after each round.^[f]

Rank	Player	Rounds
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
1	Tan Zhongyi (CHN)	+1	+2	+2	+2	+2	+3	+3	+2	+3	+3	+4	+4	+4	+4
2	Koneru Humpy (IND)	=	=	=	–1	–1	–2	–2	–1	−1	−1	=	=	=	+1
3	Lei Tingjie (CHN)	–1	–1	–1	–1	–1	=	+1	+2	+2	+3	+3	+3	+2	+1
4	Vaishali Rameshbabu (IND)	=	–1	=	=	=	–1	–2	–3	−4	−3	−2	–1	=	+1
5	Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE)	=	+1	+1	+1	+1	+2	+2	+2	+2	+1	=	=	=	=
6	Kateryna Lagno (FIDE)	=	=	=	=	=	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	=	=	=	–1
7	Nurgyul Salimova (BUL)	=	=	–1	=	=	–1	–1	–1	−1	−2	−3	–3	–3	–3
8	Anna Muzychuk (UKR)	=	–1	–1	–1	–1	–2	–2	–2	−2	−2	−2	–3	–3	–3

First named player is white. 1–0 indicates a white win, 0–1 indicates a black win, and ½–½ indicates a draw. Numbers in parentheses show players' scores prior to the round. Final column indicates opening played, sourced from Lichess.^[10]

• Candidates Tournament 2024

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Women's Candidates Tournament 2024.

• Official website, FIDE
• Regulations for the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2024, FIDE