India’s GM Vaishali Rameshbabu held Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine to a calculated draw in the final round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix to finish in 4th position at Grosslobming, Austria, on Thursday.
She ended the tournament with 5 points from the nine rounds but missed out on her potential maiden podium finish of the 2024-25 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series.
In a 58-move-long French defence system, Vaishali, with black pieces, and Anna played out a draw on a three-fold repetition, where both players had a decent accuracy rate of 95.7.
This draw was enough for Anna to clinch the title at Grosslobming FIDE Women’s Grand Prix, having 6/9 points and a better tiebreak over Zhu Jiner of China, who also had 6/9 points.
Zhu might have missed out on the individual title, but she clinched the overall FIDE Women’s 2024-25 Grand Prix title and qualified for the 2026 Candidates after having 352.5 grand prix points from three tournaments.
Meanwhile, Anna, despite winning the tournament, missed out on a Candidates spot by 2 grand prix points as she had only 306.67 points in comparison to Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina on 308.34 points.
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On the other hand, Koneru Humpy was best placed Indian player on the 2024-25 Grand Prix circuit, finishing in fourth place with 279.17 Grand prix points.
The other three Indian players, Divya Deshmukh (180), Harika Dronavalli (171.67), and Vaishali (155) finished in seventh, 11th, and 12th positions on the circuit, respectively.
Final standings of the Austrian Grand Prix
- 1.Anna Muzychuk (UKR) – 6 pts
- 2. Zhu Jiner (CHN) – 6 pts
- 3. Tan Zhongyi (CHN) – 5.5 pts
- 4 Vaishali Rameshbabu (IND) – 5 pts