Lu Miaoyi continues her impressive winning streak in the fourth round of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy women's tournament. The 15-year-old Chinese player also won her fourth game, this time with an uncompromising attack against Deimantė Daulytė-Cornette.
This means that Lu Miaoyi is already the winner of the 2025 International Women's Tournament! She is two points ahead of Elisabeth Pähtz with two rounds remaining. But even if Pähtz manages to draw level, Lu Miaoyi will still be the winner, as she finished ahead of Pähtz in the blitz tiebreak.
Although Daulyté-Cornette had an extra pawn at one point, Lu consistently played towards her opponent's king. He was under constant pressure – and ultimately couldn't withstand it. The preliminary decision of the tournament! The attacking player shows why, at the age of 15, she is already considered one of the world's best and why experts are tipping her as a future World Cup contender.
The first game on stage at the Alte Schmiede cultural centre, however, was the German duel. After six tournament games last year, two blitz games in the tiebreaker at the Football Museum and the tournament game in the first half of the season on Sunday (won by Pähtz after 129 moves), Elisabeth Pähtz faced Dinara Wagner once again. Pähtz had a slight advantage with an extra pawn, but with bishops of opposite colours, Wagner seemed to have no problem holding the draw. Pähtz later praised her opponent's defence 22...Nd5.
Interim standings:
Lu Miaoyi 4/4
Elisabeth Pähtz 2/4
Dinara Wagner 1.5/4
Deimanté Daulyté-Cornette 0.5/4
In the A Open of the International Dortmund Chess Days, however, no decision is in sight yet. But the top German players Matthias Blübaum and Luis Engel have taken the lead with victories.
‘It was a lucky day today, but a little luck is part of winning big tournaments in the end,’ said Matthias Blübaum after the game when asked. His opponent, IM Ashot Parvanyan, played an uncompromising attack on the king with black in the King's Indian Defence. But he ran out of time, and with only 30 seconds per move left, Parvanyan lost track of the game. Blübaum quickly punished this and won on the top board.
On the second board, GM Rinat Jumabayev lost control of the game early on. He creatively tried to get into the game with two minor pieces against a queen, but Luis Engel kept his overview and now leads the field alongside Matthias Blübaum. The fifth player from the leading group, IM Nitish Belurkar, could not get beyond a draw against GM Tong Xiao. Nevertheless, it was a strong performance and the Indian is well on his way to a grandmaster norm.