Anna Muzychuk Snatches Sole Lead; Move 6 Blunder Dooms Harika

GM Anna Muzychuk is the sole leader of the 2025 Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix on the rest day after a time-trouble blunder by IM Stavroula Tsolakidou led to a third win in a row. GM Elisabeth Paehtz grabbed the day's only other win after GM Harika Dronavalli mixed up her opening lines and made a losing blunder on move six.

Round six starts on Friday, March 21, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.

Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 5 Results

Anna Muzychuk has now taken over as the sole leader, while Harika's hopes suffered a blow.

Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix Standings After Round 5

Of the three draws, the one with the least incident was between IM Divya Deshmukh and GM Nana Dzagnidze. The lively action on the board disguised the fact it was well-known theory, with the first new move coming on move 24 in an already very drawish position.

The big clash in terms of the standings and overall Grand Prix battle was GM Zhu Jiner vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, which was an Italian that also followed sharp opening theory. Zhu had a healthy lead on the clock but might have faced difficult questions if Goryachkina hadn't decided to take an early draw by repetition.

That draw kept Zhu half a point ahead of Goryachkina, though as we'll see, it wasn't enough to remain in the lead.

The final draw, and the longest game of the day, was IM Olga Badelka vs. GM Mariya Muzychuk, though the rook endgame toward the end wasn't where the excitement happened. That was in the middlegame, where Mariya missed a clear chance to seize a large advantage.

So Mariya had reason for regret, but her sister's rampage continued!

Stavroula Tsolakidou 0-1 Anna Muzychuk

Anna Muzychuk has now won three games in a row, and after facing some of her toughest opponents.

"It’s great, but today it was a difficult game!" she commented before pointing to a pawn sacrifice that she was very unsure about on the board. She allowed 11.Nxb5! in the following position.

Tsolakidou correctly went for it, but the position was equal until the Greek star burned up time on some questionable decisions. Anna also got distracted by some very complex lines, saying of her strong 24...h6! move, played after 20 minutes: "I was going crazy with all these lines and in the end, after 20 minutes, I played h6, and I was like, Anna, couldn’t you play h6 in one minute?"

It was Tsolakidou under pressure, however, and in the end she cracked, making the losing move, 33.Qf2??, with just seven seconds on her clock. She half-laughed as she immediately spotted what she'd done.

Anna pounced with 33...Rxb2!, exploiting that the d2-rook is cross-pinned against the rook on d1. Resignation followed immediately, while if Tsolakidou had found the only move 33.Qe1!, the game could easily have lasted another hour.

The other decisive game was remarkable for Black being essentially lost on move six.

Elisabeth Paehtz 1-0 Harika Dronavalli

"It’s my first win in about 30 games against women, so it’s breaking a long, long streak!" said Paehtz, who revealed she'd suffered allergies in Germany before the tournament and then caught the flu on arrival in Cyprus. Three losses in her first four games had left her in the mood to do something different:

I decided to play some kind of bs line—my coach didn’t even tell me to play this—but at least now it’s time to have some fun and play some lines usually you would never do in your life because, objectively speaking, this line is not very good, but somehow I was lucky that she confused everything!

Paehtz's 3.d4 in the Vienna Game brought remarkable dividends, since 6...d5? was losing on the spot.

Black just gives up a crucial central pawn, and while Paehtz felt it must be wrong, she wasn't sure it was quite as bad as it is:

I was sure this can’t be the move because from the logical point of view, they play d5 when I can’t play 0-0-0, so here I was sure this was imprecise. I was very upset that I didn’t check it, but on the other hand, it’s not so difficult because everything is more or less forced.

Paehtz explained that Harika may have been confused by the fact that 5...d5 was playable a move earlier, but in any case, White was winning, and the German grandmaster went on to convert in impressive style.

That was a much-needed win for Paehtz, but she explained she hasn't changed her decision to end her career in classical chess this year except perhaps for playing in occasional league games.

To be honest, I expect nothing, because in general for me this is going to be my last year anyway, so at some point I wanted to leave the arena of chess in style. I managed to leave it in a disaster, at least so far, but, honestly speaking, I’m 40 years old now and I’m objective. My energy level’s not as it was before, and currently I’m also into other businesses now. I have a very interesting phone call tomorrow. It may change something, it may not, but in general I want to focus on other things.

This is going to be my last year.

—Elisabeth Paehtz

Thursday is a rest day for the players, while Anna Muzychuk vs. Zhu Jiner on Friday will be a crucial game to start the second half of the tournament.

Round 6 Pairings

How to watch?

The 2025 Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the fourth of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs March 15-24 in Nicosia, Cyprus. 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.

Previous Coverage:

• Round 4: Anna Muzychuk Beats Divya To Catch Leader On Day Of 4 Wins
• Round 3: Anna Muzychuk Beats Dzagnidze Twice To Climb To 2nd
• Round 2: Zhu Jiner Takes Sole Lead On 2/2
• Round 1: Tsolakidou, Zhu Jiner Grab Wins As Nicosia Women's Grand Prix Begins
• Goryachkina Wins In Monaco, Takes FIDE Women's Grand Prix Lead
• Goryachkina Wins Shymkent FIDE Women's Grand Prix
• Kashlinskaya Wins Tbilisi Grand Prix, Earns 2nd GM Norm
• FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-2025: All The Info