Vaishali Scores 1st Win, Zhu Survives Salimova's Queen Sac
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu beat IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul to score the only win of round five of the 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix, but we were a move or two away from seeing leader GM Zhu Jiner toppled. The Chinese star was hit by a fine queen sacrifice from IM Nurgyul Salimova but never gave up, and even played an objectively lost position for a win. Salimova eventually forced a draw by repetition on move 71, so that Zhu remains the sole leader.
Round six, after a rest day, starts on Sunday, April 20, at 5:30 a.m. ET / 11:30 CEST / 3:00 p.m. IST.
Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 5 Results
In the end only Vaishali scored a win in round five, moving up to a 50 percent score, so that the situation remained the same at the top, with Zhu in the sole lead, half a point ahead of GM Humpy Koneru and IM Divya Deshmukh.
Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Standings After Round 5
After a nearly all-decisive round four at first it seemed we'd get an all-drawn round five. Humpy and GM Harika Dronavalli were the first to end their game with a 19-move draw by repetition.
IMs Alina Kashlinskaya and Salome Melia were both licking their wounds after tough tournaments and were content to play out a quiet 41-move draw in an Alapin Sicilian where queens were exchanged on move eight.
It seemed unlikely blood would be spilled in Divya's clash with IM Polina Shuvalova, but Divya was hunting a fourth win in five games and went about it just as she had the day before against Melia—looking to grind out a small edge in a heavy-piece endgame.
The edge ultimately became an extra pawn, but one that could only win the game with a blunder from Black. That never came, and Divya finished things by sacrificing her rook on f7 to force a draw by stalemate on move 72.
Elsewhere, however, the quiet day suddenly sparked into life, including with a first win of the event for Vaishali.
Vaishali 1-0 Munguntuul
Nothing foretold the drama we'd see in this game except, perhaps, what had gone before on previous days. Munguntuul had made no draws in four rounds, and in round four she'd gone astray in her opponent's time trouble. History would repeat itself.
Vaishali got down to under a minute on her clock by move 27, and when she played 33.Rc7 she had only four seconds to spare. Munguntuul still had almost eight minutes, but her 33...Nd7? (33...Bxd4!) was a mistake. Vaishali didn't punish it immediately, but the same move by Black six moves later would lead to a hopeless position when the dust had settled after the time control.
Vaishali scores her 1st win of the Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix! https://t.co/GPHVEQLzwg pic.twitter.com/VPapEr0vlE
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 18, 2025
That win wasn't the game of the day, however, since that was, by some margin, the leader's near disaster against Salimova.
Salimova ½-½ Zhu
Salimova picked the London System for her clash with Zhu, but didn't achieve anything out of the opening. By around move 25, Zhu had achieved a stable structural advantage, and her rejection of a draw by repetition on move 29 made it clear she was hoping to extend her tournament lead.
The position seemed to be too level, however, and after the time control a draw was a heavy favorite, until suddenly, over the course of a couple of moves, Zhu wrecked her position. 44...Nd5? invited a brilliant but very findable sacrifice, 45.Qxd5!!.
White immediately gets not just the d5-knight but the rook on c7, so only has a small material deficit, while the threat to the black king from the white rooks and bishops is obvious.
Objectively White is simply winning, but if ever a position was an illustration of the dubious chess saying that "nothing is harder than to win a won position" it was this one. Zhu made things difficult, Salimova rushed at certain moments, and the win slipped away. What was remarkable, however, was that it was Zhu who pushed harder to win at the end, even going as far as to play 65...Qf6? when she could simply have repeated moves with 65...Re1! and a draw.
Salimova had seen enough, however, and soon did go on to force a 71-move draw, in a position where she could still have played on. A true rollercoaster of a game!
The crazy Salimova-Zhu Jiner clash ends in a draw, with Nurgyul, who earlier played a brilliant queen sac, taking a draw in what was still a winning position! https://t.co/GqkH3YJybo pic.twitter.com/8CH80Z5u0g
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 18, 2025
That near-miss leaves Zhu in the sole lead on the rest day.
Round 6 Pairings
When the players return on Sunday for round six, Zhu will have White against Vaishali, while the two closest pursuers, Divya and Humpy, both have the black pieces.
How to watch?
You can watch the broadcast on Chess.com India's YouTube channel. The games can also be checked out on our dedicated 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by IM Rakesh Kulkarni and Sahil Tickoo.
The 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the fifth of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs March April 14-23 in Pune, India. 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.
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Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
