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Zhu Jiner, Goryachkina finish top two, qualify for Women’s Candidates 2026

Zhu Jiner, Goryachkina finish top two, qualify for Women’s Candidates 2026


FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024-25 Final Leaderboard: China’s Zhu Jiner finished joint top before Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk was declared the winner of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Austria leg due to better tiebreaks on Thursday. However, that didn’t stop the Chinese from topping the leaderboard after all six legs and qualifying for the Women’s Candidates 2026.

Zhu has had identical finishes in all three events at Nicosia (Cyprus), Pune (India) and Grosslobming (Austria), where she failed to win the event after finishing on joint top. In Nicosia and Austria, it was the Ukrainian Muzychuk who ended up winning the event and in Pune, it was local challenger Koneru Humpy who denied Zhu from winning the India leg.

But with a total of 352.5 points via three joint top finishes, which fetched her 117.5 per event, she became the first player to qualify for Candidates. Joining her is Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina, who won the Shymkent (Kazakhstan) leg and collected a total of 308.34 points to finish second.

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Muzychuk was the unluckiest among the 25 players in the field. After winning two events — the Nicosia and the Grosslobming — she finished third and missed out on a Candidates spot by just 1.67 points behind Goryachkina.

Among Indians, Humpy had the best finish. The Pune leg winner was fourth in the leaderboard with 279.17 points, while Divya Deshmukh (180) was seventh, Harika Dronavalli 11th (171.67) and R. Vaishali was 12th (155).

Festive offer

Humpy started her Women’s Grand Prix campaign with a fifth-place finish at Shymkent leg before bagging a silver medal at Monaco leg. She needed an outright first-place finish in Pune to compete for the top two spots, but Zhu didn’t let that happen.

After the Women’s World Cup 2025, the Grand Prix series was the second-most high-profile tournament in this cycle, with two Candidates spots at stake.

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FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Final Leaderboard

Player Tbilisi Shymkent Monaco Nicosia India Austria Total
Zhu Jiner 117.5 117.5 117.5 352.5
Aleksandra Goryachkina 130 106.67 71.67 308.34
Anna Muzychuk 71.67 117.5 117.5 306.67
Koneru Humpy 55 106.67 117.5 279.17
Tan Zhongyi 105 65 85 255
Bibisara Assaubayeva 105 77.5 15 197.5
Divya Deshmukh 55 40 85 180
Nana Dzagnidze 71.67 50 55 176.67
Mariya Muzychuk 50 71.67 55 176.67
Stavroula Tsolakidou 71.67 77.5 25 174.17
Harika Dronavalli 35 71.67 65 171.67
Vaishali Rameshbabu 35 50 70 155
Alina Kashlinskaya 130 20 150
Batkhuyag Munguntuul 15 106.67 20 141.67
Alexandra Kosteniuk 35 50 35 120
Kateryna Lagno 40 65 105
Nurgyul Salimova 30 40 10 80
Polina Shuvalova 65 65
Lela Javakhishvili 20 35 55
Sarasadat Khademalsharieh 10 35 45
Olga Badelka 25 20 45
Elisabeth Pähtz 15 15 10 40
Salome Melia 20 20

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