Ju Wenjun Powers Into 2-Point Lead

Defending champion GM Ju Wenjun has scored a third win in four games to take a commanding 4-2 lead over GM Tan Zhongyi into the second half of the 2025 FIDE Women's World Championship. Ju took over just after the opening and had winning chances in the middlegame, but her choice to steer into a technical ending proved inspired as she easily outplayed Tan before clinching victory in a knight endgame. 

The players now have two rest days as they travel from Shanghai to Chongqing, and game seven, where Ju will have the white pieces, starts on Sunday, April 13, at 3:00 a.m. ET / 09:00 CEST / 12:30 p.m. IST.

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

In their 2018 world championship match, Ju won three of the last four games in Shanghai to take a two-point lead at the halfway stage, and she's repeated that feat in 2025 after winning with Black in game six.

Tan again stuck to her 1.c4 opening, though after Ju repeated the 1...Nf6 of game two, Tan varied with 2.Nf3 instead of 2.Nc3. 

Tan Zhongyi once again starts 1.c4 in Game 6, but after 1...Nf6 2.Nf3 we already have a new position for the match! https://t.co/ZzA0xNQ6rD#JuTan pic.twitter.com/soAkPnSPUx

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 10, 2025

It soon became a radically different approach, with Tan eschewing control of the center to fianchetto both her bishops. It's notable that Tan's second, GM Jeffery Xiong, has played a number of games in the line, as have many legends of the game.

Vishy Anand beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda from this position with Black after playing 11...Bf5 in the 2023 Global Chess League, though White had a healthy position out of the opening#JuTan pic.twitter.com/Fej4Lg9agt

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 10, 2025

Here, Ju followed Anand's 11...Bf5, while Tan's 12.Ne5!?, instead of the earlier 12.Nc4, was a new move that already gave Ju comfortable play. 

In what followed, Tan looked to go astray positionally when she failed to give up her dark-squared bishop for Black's knight on f6, since when the knight survived and reached e4, it was ready to combine with the black queen and create havoc.

The difference in the power of the knights couldn't have been made clearer than by Tan spending four moves in this position to transfer her knight from a3 to e1, while Ju took over by pushing pawns to b5, f5, and g5. 

Suddenly Black was winning but, not for the first time in the match, Ju chose a modest approach, 22...Bf6?!. Instead, she could have pushed her pawns further to g4 or c4, when one idea is to put a black pawn on c3 and hit the bishop on b2.

Ju noted afterward that her style is "more quiet, more peaceful, and more positional" than her opponent's, and she said the bishop move was "nice and easy," even if she also conceded it gave Black only "a very small initiative."

Tan seized the opportunity to swap off bishops and then rooks to reach what IM Jovanka Houska called a "dream position" for the challenger, at least in terms of what she'd been facing only a few moves earlier. The dream would soon sour, however, since it proved enough for Ju to simply keep the game alive to provoke a blunder, which came with 31.h4?.

Tan said she was focused on "trying to prevent Qd5 somehow," but the pawn move took away the h4-square from her knight, and the long-term problem was that after 31...g4! there was no longer any hope of White creating a passed pawn on the kingside with h3 and g4. Black, meanwhile, would inevitably create a passed pawn on the queenside.

When Tan later pushed 35.f4, Ju once again didn't make the mistake of capturing (this time en-passant) but simply left the backward pawn on g3 as a second weakness, which would fall nine moves later. As Houska explained, it was a masterclass by Ju!

Jovanka: "This position is a masterclass on how Ju plays. She takes control, she positions the pieces well, she stabilizes them, she slowly comes forward, she trades everything into a fantastic knight endgame... and then she just wins. A dream game!" #JuTan pic.twitter.com/HbZiPmwFVs

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 10, 2025

The conversion into a win felt completely inevitable and almost child's play...

Enjoying Women's World Championship Game 6 pic.twitter.com/UpooihyuJz

— agadmator (@agadmator) April 10, 2025

...though all the smooth positional chess was based on precise short-range calculation of the pawn race that concluded the game. IM Irene Sukandar was showing one of the potential finishes when Tan finally threw in the towel. 

Ju Wenjun showed perfect endgame technique to win a 2nd game in a row and take a 4-2 lead in the Women's World Championship match! #JuTan pic.twitter.com/7oquZNG7Hg

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 10, 2025

That means that with six games to go, Ju has a two-point lead and every chance of retaining her title. Somewhat ominously for her opponent, she mentioned that after being unsatisfied with her first two games, she feels she's getting better and better.

There are also some reasons for hope for Tan. One is that back in 2018, when the match switched to Chongqing, she won the first game in the new venue to reduce the gap to one point. Ju still clinched the title with draws in the remaining four games, but the match went down to the wire. Meanwhile, this time around there will be one more game in the second half, since the overall length of the match has climbed from 10 to 12 games.

Tan played down home advantage, since "Chongqing is such a huge city the site is far away from my home," but has vowed to fight to the end, describing herself as "a very experienced professional player who knows how to handle this pressure."

There are now two rest days before the battle begins again on Sunday. Will Tan manage to strike back or will Ju be able to deliver a decisive blow while playing with the white pieces? 

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 started on April 3 in Shanghai and boasts a €500,000 ($540k) prize fund.

Previous Coverage

• • Game 5: Ju Wenjun Wins Game 5 To Take World Championship Lead
  • Game 4: Ju Wenjun Survives Heavy Pressure As Game 4 Goes To Bare Kings
  • Game 3: Ju Wenjun Strikes Back To Win Game 3
  • Game 2: Tan Zhongyi Stuns Ju Wenjun To Win Game 2
  • Game 1: Tan Holds Ju To Draw As Women's World Championship Starts In Shanghai
  • 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