(Picture: Stev Bonhage, FIDE)

Ju Wenjun stared at her place, a bishop-down endgame, for a number of seconds earlier than extending her hand in resignation. Usually at this degree of chess she would have resigned a number of strikes earlier, however Ju appeared reluctant to concede the sport in a match the place wins have been exceedingly laborious to come back by.

Up to now the 2023 FIDE Girls’s World Championship has been a gritty battle with good protection stymying good offense, the one exception a superb victory in recreation 5 by the challenger Lei Tingjie. With the opposite video games all drawn, that provides Lei a slim lead of a single level heading into the halfway level of the 12-game match.

The Gamers

Ju Wenjun is the reigning Girls’s World Champion. She claimed the title in 2018 by defeating her compatriot Tan Zhongyi. She had little time to relaxation on her laurels, as she needed to defend her title in a 64–participant knockout match nonetheless in 2018. Remarkably, Ju reduce by way of the sector to stay the World Champion. In 2020 she efficiently defended her title once more in opposition to Russian grandmaster Aleksandra Goryachkina.

For the challenger Lei Tingjie, that is her first World Championship match, however she’s not with out accolades. She gained the 2021 Girls’s Grand Swiss forward of lots of the prime gamers, in addition to the Chinese language Girls’s Masters Event in 2017. And naturally she gained the Candidates Event to achieve the correct to problem Ju for the World Championship.

In some methods, the gamers are related. Each hail from China, after all, and their scores are separated by solely ten factors (2564 for Ju vs. 2554 for Lei). If there may be one issue separating the 2, it’s maybe World Championship expertise; at 26, six years her opponent’s junior, Lei hasn’t but competed on absolutely the highest stage, whereas Ju has already defended her title efficiently a number of occasions.

Whereas they’re very shut when it comes to ranking, they’re strikingly completely different when it comes to their board presence. Lei wears her coronary heart on her sleeve, smiling or grimacing relying on how she feels about her place, and even wanting up on the ceiling a la Beth Harmon. In distinction, Ju maintains a reserved, businesslike demeanor no matter what’s occurring on the board.

The Match

The 12-game match is being held in China, the primary six video games in Shanghai and the latter six in Chongqing. The 2 cities are the birthplaces of Ju and Lei respectively. The primary participant to six.5 factors is the winner. Within the occasion that the rating is tied after the 12 classical video games, the title will probably be determined by speedy after which blitz video games. The prize fund for the match is €500,000, with €300,000 going to the winner and €200,000 to the runner-up.

The 2 combatants look like on good phrases, as they struggled to take care of straight faces for an intense picture op earlier than dissolving in laughter. That is maybe an indication of the camaraderie of the Chinese language gamers, which Hou Yifan has cited as a motive for China’s dominance in ladies’s chess. If Lei wins she would be the fourth consecutive Chinese language lady to sit down the throne (Hou held the title earlier than Tan Zhongyi).

Nonetheless, there can solely be one World Champion, and each ladies have invested plenty of blood, sweat, and tears to get to this stage. As soon as the clock begins, there aren’t any mates on the chessboard!

As is commonly the case in a World Championship, the match started with a sense out interval. The primary two video games resulted in two pretty quiet attracts as each gamers obtained their bearings.

In recreation 3, Ju had the primary large probability of the match, when with the Black items she capitalized on a gap inaccuracy by Lei to win a pawn. Nonetheless, Lei saved her cool, and Ju struggled to discover a approach to press her benefit. She determined to return the pawn and the sport fizzled out to a draw.

In recreation 4, Lei selected a combative opening with the Black items, however it was once more Ju who was urgent for the win. She discovered a method after one other to increase the sport and sustain the strain, however Lei was as much as the duty defensively and held on for a tough fought draw.

Lastly, Lei drew first blood in recreation 5 with a masterful positional efficiency. She switched from the Ruy Lopez, which she had utilized in her first two White video games, to the Italian Recreation. The 2 openings are structurally related, however the Italian is considerably much less forcing; gamers typically select it after they wish to defer the battle from the opening to the middlegame.

Lei gained the higher hand when Ju went for an ill-advised pawn advance that created weaknesses in her personal camp. She hoped to make up for it with energetic piece play, however the long-term weaknesses would come again to hang-out her. Lei constructed up her benefit with a collection of deft maneuvers. Ju landed in a depressing endgame the place she had no energetic plan, however simply needed to wait and defend as Lei probed her place. As is commonly the case in such a scenario, the defender ultimately cracked. Lei selected simply the correct second to pounce with a pawn break. She transposed right into a successful endgame and claimed the total level. General, it was a virtuoso efficiency the place Lei by no means put a foot unsuitable.

There may be one college of thought that claims once you lose a recreation it is best to first make a draw within the subsequent recreation to regain your equilibrium earlier than urgent to regain the purpose. Maybe pondering alongside these strains, Ju went for a really secure selection in recreation 6, going for a place with a symmetrical pawn construction the place her solely potential benefit was the bishop pair. This didn’t seem to hassle Lei, who shortly and confidently activated her items, quickly forcing the commerce of one of many bishops and cruising to a draw.

Following recreation six, the second half of the match will transfer to Lei’s birthplace of Chongqing. The change of scene is unlikely to make a huge impact although as each gamers are properly conversant in each cities. The larger difficulty for Ju is determining a approach to overcome her one level deficit. Up to now, she has not been in a position to make a lot of a dent in Lei’s opening preparation. Each gamers have been very in line with their selection of first transfer with White: Ju has opened each recreation with 1. d4, whereas Lei has began all her video games with 1. e4. We’ll see if both participant has any opening surprises in retailer for the second half.

If taking part in in her first World Championship Match occasioned any nerves, Lei has not proven any signal of it. She’s hardly made a mistake within the first six video games. She might start to really feel some jitters, although, as the opportunity of turning into World Champion will get nearer to turning into a actuality.

For her half, the defending champion Ju should attain into her bag of tips to discover a approach to even the match. She might must get extra dangerous and enterprising together with her opening selections, as a result of to date she has not been in a position to pose many issues in opposition to a poised and well-prepared challenger.

For in addition to she’s performed, Lei remains to be solely up one level. Because the match enters its second half, a single recreation – even a single transfer – may change every little thing.