India’s R Vaishali admitted that she made a costly error during her game against Chinese Grandmaster Zhu Jiner in the Women’s Candidates 2026 on Sunday. A candid Vaishali, spoke after the game and confessed that she made a blunder under time pressure.
“It was an interesting game. I think I misplayed in time trouble,” Vaishali said.
“It’s not every day you see the structure. 5.cxd3 is a completely new structure and I was trying to understand where to put the pieces,” she explained.
Vaishali, who was leading by a full point, suffered a setback in the 12th round, playing with white she lost to Jiner, who has now drawn level at the top of the points table.
Jiner, pointed out the need to take more risks must win games and said, “I think I had to play for a win today,” Jiner said.
“Because if I had made a draw, it would have been very hard to win the tournament. I had to play to win. I took more risks in this game.”
Vaishali will need to regroup after the final rest day of the tournament, which will determine the challenger to reigning world champion Wenjun Ju of China.
Apart from Zhongyi, Vaishali also faces a tricky challenge from Russia’s Kateryna Lagno, who may be out of title contention but remains a formidable opponent.
Pairings round 13:
Women: Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 6.5) vs Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 6.5); Kateryna Lagno (Rus, 5.5) vs Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 5); Tan Zhongyi (Chn, 5) vs R Vaishali (Ind, 7); Zhu Jiner (Chn 7) vs Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 5.5).
