Tan Holds Ju To Draw As Women's World Championship Starts In Shanghai

Challenger GM Tan Zhongyi played the Sicilian Defense and made a comfortable 39-move draw against World Champion Ju Wenjun as the 2025 FIDE Women's World Championship began in Shanghai. "From the first game I think Tan is going to be a very tough opponent for Ju!" said GM Judit Polgar, while both players were satisfied with a solid start.

When the same opponents played for the title in 2018, the first game was also drawn, but then the next five games were decisive!

Game two, when Tan will have the white pieces, starts on Friday, April 4, at 3:00 a.m. ET / 09:00 CEST / 12:30 p.m. IST. 

GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed game one of the match below.

The first game of a world championship match is often the moment of greatest peril, as we saw when 18-year-old GM Gukesh Dommaraju, the heavy favorite to beat GM Ding Liren in the 2024 FIDE World Championship, lost a dramatic opening clash. Everyone who has experienced it has noted that you can't really prepare for the new level of pressure and attention of playing your first match for the crown. 

In Shanghai, however, both players are veterans. Ju is playing her fourth match, while Tan is playing her second, after she lost the title to Ju seven years ago. That perhaps helped explain how calm both players stayed, though Tan's choice of the combative Sicilian Defense hinted at sharp chess.

The 2025 Women's World Championship match between Champion Ju Wenjun and Challenger Tan Zhongyi starts with a Sicilian! #JuTan pic.twitter.com/gQ3c1XQ4fN

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 3, 2025

Tan herself noted, however, that the variation Ju picked was "quite calm," with 5.Bd3 and 7.Bf4 steering away from the well-trodden paths, while the computer-approved 9.Bg5 was almost a new move. 

Polgar called it "a nice surprise," though one she also labelled "not deadly dangerous." Tan, speaking through an interpreter at the post-game press conference, said she "evaluated the psychological reason behind that move and decided it's better not to think too much and just go with the [flow]."

"Provocation works!" said Polgar as Tan went for 9...h6, but the move was good, with the white bishop dropping back to h4 only to get exchanged for its counterpart on e7 a few moves later. Ju could have kept the bishop on the board with a more complex game, but said "she didn't want to take too much risk," while also noting Tan's "very strong defense."

A tense struggle developed, where Tan was on the brink of equalizing completely, but Ju's 18.Qe3!, hitting the h6-pawn and threatening to take on d5, kept some hope alive.

It was easy for Tan to drift into trouble, but she found "the most difficult move in the game" (GM Leitao) 18...Qg5!, accepting a broken pawn structure in exchange for swapping off queens.

It might have been better for Ju to keep queens on the board by bringing hers to c3, but her advantage over Tan arguably lies in calm, maneuvering positions, and she may have welcomed the endgame that arose.

When Tan took on d5 with her pawn, Polgar was shocked, but it turns out that White's potential advantage is illusory.

This is an interesting generational clash.

I am also brought up with the idea that black should be really worried if the knight enters d4 here, but the computer says black is just completely fine. https://t.co/xNqtXiXW5Z

— Peter Heine Nielsen (@PHChess) April 3, 2025

In a way, the discussion became moot, since the knight never did make it to the outpost on d4. By attacking the b-pawn to provoke b3, and then playing g4, Tan shut off the routes to that square, with the knight instead dropping back to f1.

When the energetic 23...a4! appeared on the board, our commentators were sure a draw would follow.

Here Ju stopped for 18 minutes, and it turned out she was having the same thoughts. The interpreter explained: "She thought at that moment the game could be most likely ended in a draw. She tried her best to squeeze something, but in fact at the end she thought it is probably the best to keep it that way."

In fact, some micro-imprecisions from Ju gave Tan the upper hand, and even if a win looked extremely unlikely, Polgar pointed out that such situations can escalate fast, citing the way Carlsen beat GM Viswanathan Anand in game five of their first world championship match in 2013.

Judit: "It's frustrating to defend something which is completely drawish—just because objectively it is it doesn't mean that you can hold it!" #JuTan pic.twitter.com/CBalcB4VBM

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 3, 2025

In the end, however, any danger was smoothed over by the fact that both players were clearly very happy to get into the match with a draw. The biggest challenge was, in fact, the rule banning draw offers before move 40, so that the game could only finish on move 39 after a three-fold repetition of the position.

Game 1 of the 2025 Women's World Championship ends in a draw, just as in their match in 2018 — back then the next 5 games were decisive! #JuTan pic.twitter.com/wx7beEvQm0

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 3, 2025

Ju called it "a very reasonable result," while Tan had absolutely no problem making a comfortable draw with Black to start her attempt to claw back the crown.

Tan will have White in game two, when we'll see what weapons she's brought to the table. In 2018, games two to six were all decisive, with Ju winning three and Tan two. It's unlikely we'll see a repeat of that explosion, but the dynamics of a match can change fast. 

The 2025 FIDE Women's World Championship is the most important women's over-the-board event of the year. The defending women's world champion, GM Ju Wenjun, faces the challenger, GM Tan Zhongyi, to see who will be crowned world champion. The championship starts on April 3 in Shanghai and boasts a €500,000 ($540k) prize fund.

Previous Coverage

• • Can Ju Wenjun Win 5th World Championship?
  • 2025 FIDE Women's World Championship: All The Information
  • Gukesh Youngest Ever Candidates Winner, Tan Takes Women's By 1.5 Points
  • Ju Wenjun Wins 4th Women's World Championship Title