Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk finished shared first at the Women's Grand Prix in Kazan, Russia. Both the Indian and the Slovenian scored 7.5/11 and according to the regulations, prizes and GP ranking points are shared equally, in case of a tie, for the individual GP tournaments. World Champion Hou Yifan leads the overall Grand Prix standings, with 420 points out of three tournaments.

The winners in Kazan: Humpy Koneru & Anna Muzychuk | Photos by Rashit Shiriyazdanov & Anastasiya Karlovich, courtesy of FIDE

The 2nd FIDE Women's Grand Prix series started in August last year in Rostov, Russia where Hou Yifan emerged as the winner. The Chinese GM also won the second event, held already a month later in Shenzhen, China. Her compatriot Zhao Xue finished first, with a super score, one month after that in Nalchik, Russia.

The 4th tournament took place in the past two weeks in the capital of Tatarstan: Kazan – indeed, where last year the men's Candidates matches took place. Instead of eight men, this time the Korston Hotel hosted twelve ladies: Hou Yifan (GM, CHN, 2623), Anna Muzychuk (GM, SLO, 2598), Humpy Koneru (GM, IND, 2589), Kateryna Lahno (GM, UKR, 2546), Tatiana Kosintseva (GM, RUS, 2532), Nadezhda Kosintseva (GM, RUS, 2528), Antoaneta Stefanova (GM, BUL, 2518), Viktorija Cmilyte (GM, LTU, 2508), Alisa Galliamova (IM, RUS, 2484), Elina Danielian (GM, ARM, 2484), Alexandra Kosteniuk (GM, RUS, 2457) and Betul Cemre Yildiz (WGM, TUR, 2333).

A group photo taken at the opening ceremony

One game, from the second round, turned out to be crucial for the final standings. Normally Hou Yifan would win her game against Betul Cemre Yildiz of Turkey, a clear rating outsider. However, to everyone's surprise the Chinese World Champion lost that game, where an extra point in the final standings would have meant clear first and a third Grand Prix victory.

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Yildiz (r.) beats Hou Yifan in a crazy game

This game wasn't the best advertisement for women's chess perhaps, if you feel that quality of moves is more important than spectacle. However, it must be said that 13...Qe4! was a great move to find over the board, and soon after both players were already getting into time trouble...

Thanks to another loss to Viktorija Cmilyte in round 4 and a few draws, Hou Yifan was on "minus one" after five rounds. A more champion-like score of five points out of the last six rounds eventually resulted in a third place, shared with Cmilyte, behind the winners.

The playing hall in Kazan

Both Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk played a very solid event, remaining undefeated with seven draws and four wins. Koneru's win against Lahno, with many back rank ideas, was especially nice.

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Co-winner Humpy Koneru in her game against Kateryna Lahno

We liked the following game of Muzychuk the most:

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Co-winner Anna Muzychuk in her game against Stefanova

Koneru and Muzychuk shared both the Grand Prix points and the money prizes (1st: € 6,500, 120 points + 40 bonus / 2nd:  € 4,750, 110 points + 20 bonus). Below you'll find the final standings as well as the unofficial current GP standings according to our calculations. 

4th Women's Grand Prix, Kazan | Final standings

Overall Standings