3 min readMar 26, 2026 05:26 PM IST
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has picked Chinese grandmaster Zhu Jiner as the favourite to win the Women’s Candidates while mentioning Divya Deshmukh and Vaishali Rameshbabu as dark horses for the tournament.
Anand made the pick while making a “tier list” for Chess.com India. The prediction came with a disclaimer: at the start of the conversation, Anand had said that he had found it difficult to pinpoint someone in the Women’s Candidates event who he thought was a clear favorite. He also said that he found it hard to select someone who he thought didn’t have a chance.
The Tier List had all the eight players categorised into four groups: “Winner”, “Top 3”, “Dark Horse” and “Difficult”. The tier list was made by Anand before Humpy had pulled out of the Candidates tournament citing security concerns. Anand had put Humpy in the ‘Difficult’ category.
Anand’s Tier List for Women’s Candidates:
Winner: Zhu Jiner
Top 3: Tan Zhongyi, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Aleksandra Goryachkina
Dark Horse: Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Kateryna Lagno
Jiner comes into the Candidates tournament after a wretched showing in the challengers section of the Prague Masters event, where she ended 10th out of 10 players. The event also had India’s Deshmukh contending, and she ended up in third place, with double the number of points Jiner had at the end (although, in their personal match, the Chinese GM had defeated Deshmukh).
Anand spoke about Vaishali’s chances, who, at Cyprus, will be playing in her second Candidates tournament in a row.
“She’s got some very strong qualities. She showed that already last time (where she had) big swings, very bad result. Ended up with a very good final performance. She hasn’t played much. She didn’t play Tata Steel at Wijk aan Zee. She didn’t play Prague Masters either. I’m assuming she’s been working very hard. I don’t know. I have to put somebody in dark horse,” Anand said before adding: “I already feel I’m walking in a minefield here… I wanted to put all of them in Top 3 or dark Horse.”
