Bibisara Assaubayeva leads FIDE Women’s Candidates tournament

Following round three, two players — neutral athlete competing under the FIDE flag Kateryna Lagno and Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva — share the lead in the standings.

The third-round match between China’s Zhu Jiner and Bibisara Assaubayeva proved to be a complex and highly tactical battle that could have gone either way. Assaubayeva once again demonstrated her strength in counterattacking, and upon sensing an opportunity to turn the game around and target Zhu’s king, she launched a direct and energetic counteroffensive.

To Zhu’s credit, she managed to avoid an immediate checkmate threat and steer the game into an opposite-colored bishops endgame — a type of position that often leads to a draw, even when one side has one or two extra pawns. However, this time the usual rules did not apply. Assaubayeva maintained the initiative and converted the advantage with impressive precision, ultimately finishing the endgame without giving her opponent any chance to escape.

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that young Kazakhstani chess player had confirmed International Master title.