3 min readUpdated: Apr 2, 2026 06:47 PM IST
After four rounds, Kazakhstan GM Bibisara Assaubayeva leads the women’s Candidates with 2.5 points, jointly with Anna Muzychuk. But it is her win in Round 3 playing black, and a risky line at that, that has left an early impression on the tournament where she features for the first time.
The win against Zhu Jiner, a tournament favourite, came from an unusual Rook to g8 ploy, where Sarah didn’t quite develop all the pieces, but hung on to secure the bold win, backing herself despite being tracked by doubts.
“It feels good because I like this position line, but in some moments I don’t like my position. I regretted it a little bit because I saw some other games where they had normal positional games. But in general it’s a good decision to play this kind of risky position,” she told Lichess after Round 3.
It was a throwback to 2023 against Aryan Tari at Norway Chess, and when Lichess reminded her of the precedent, Bibisara said, “I think I saw that game but not sure. It was an interesting idea. Just to play something new because it’s very risky. I didn’t develop my pieces but I had some ideas to attack with the black king, and it’s interesting that my pawn on b3 are the reasons why I won the game but no one wants to take risks during match.”
While Jiner held a strong position coming out of the opening, Bibisara adopted a sharp line in retaliation, advancing kingside pawns in a Sicilian structure with the idea of playing Rg8 and pushing the g pawn, according to Chessbase.com. Jiner seemed in control but was tactically ambushed into a corner, and got mired in complications, eventually losing playing white.
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“Things went little out of control but when I played d5 (anti-positional) and she made mistakes, I felt good about my position,” Sarah said. The Kazakh stressed that she needed to play something wild right that moment or white was coasting. “For white it was going to be easy to continue. They can play c4, c3, take on b3. For me it’s very hard to play some moves. So I thought I need to do something and I did.”
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Bibisara would concede though it wasn’t as tough manoeuvring black as it was made to be, in what is ending up as a common trend at this Candidates. Kateryna Lagno also won a rollercoaster against Chinese Tan Zhongyi, with the Ukrainian-born Russian playing black. Chessbase called her ‘knight sacrifice underpinned by a remarkable queen sacrifice’
striking after time controls led to blunders. On the 22nd move, Lagno counterplayed with Ne3+ after a Tan blunder, bringing in a win after many crests and troughs for black.
Bibisara when asked how black was copying after her stunning win told Lichess, “I don’t think it changes anything but it’s always pleasant to win with black. We play with all opponents, online and offline. So it’s just a normal game nowadays.”
