Bibisara Assaubayeva regains sole lead at Norway Chess Women

Assaubayeva led the standings after Round 4 with seven points, but India’s Divya Deshmukh overtook her after Round 5. Deshmukh defeated Zhu Jiner to reach 8.5 points, while Assaubayeva, after drawing her classical game and losing the Armageddon tiebreak to Anna Muzychuk, dropped to second place with eight points.

However, in Round 6, Assaubayeva defeated India’s Koneru Humpy in Armageddon to regain sole possession of first place with 9.5 points.

Current statistics for the Kazakhstani chess star: 6 games played; 1 win in classical chess; 5 draws in classical games; 3 Armageddon victories; No losses in classical chess.

In the sixth round, Assaubayeva drew her classical game against Humpy Koneru before winning the Armageddon tiebreak, allowing her to return to the top of the standings.

Her closest challengers are Divya Deshmukh of India with 8.5 points, while China’s Ju Wenjun and Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk each have eight points.

Assaubayeva is competing against a very strong field of competitors that includes reigning world champion Ju Wenjun and several top-ranked female grandmasters.

In the open tournament, American grandmaster Wesley So moved into sole first place with 11.5 points after six rounds.

France’s Alireza Firouzja dropped to second place with 10 points, while Germany’s Vincent Keymer climbed to third with eight points after securing his first win of the tournament.

Earlier, Qazinform reported Kazakhstan's Assaubayeva rises in the FIDE rankings after the Candidates event.