Zhu Jiner, Goryachkina finish top two, qualify for Women’s Candidates 2026

FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024-25 Final Leaderboard: China’s Zhu Jiner finished joint top before Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk was declared the winner of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Austria leg due to better tiebreaks on Thursday. However, that didn’t stop the Chinese from topping the leaderboard after all six legs and qualifying for the Women’s Candidates 2026.
Zhu has had identical finishes in all three events at Nicosia (Cyprus), Pune (India) and Grosslobming (Austria), where she failed to win the event after finishing on joint top. In Nicosia and Austria, it was the Ukrainian Muzychuk who ended up winning the event and in Pune, it was local challenger Koneru Humpy who denied Zhu from winning the India leg.
But with a total of 352.5 points via three joint top finishes, which fetched her 117.5 per event, she became the first player to qualify for Candidates. Joining her is Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina, who won the Shymkent (Kazakhstan) leg and collected a total of 308.34 points to finish second.
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Muzychuk was the unluckiest among the 25 players in the field. After winning two events — the Nicosia and the Grosslobming — she finished third and missed out on a Candidates spot just 1.67 points behind Goryachkina.
Among Indians, Humpy had the best finish. The Pune leg winner was fourth in the leaderboard with 279.17 points, while Divya Deshmukh (180) was seventh, Harika Dronavalli 11th (171.67) and R. Vaishali was 12th (155).
Humpy started her Women’s Grand Prix campaign with a fifth-place finish at Shymkent leg before bagging a silver medal at Monaco leg. She needed an outright first-place finish in Pune to compete for the top two spots, but Zhu didn’t let that happen.
After the Women’s World Cup 2025, the Grand Prix series was the second-most high-profile tournament in this cycle, with two Candidates spots at stake.Story continues below this ad
FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Final Leaderboard

Player
Tbilisi
Shymkent
Monaco
Nicosia
India
Austria
Total

Zhu Jiner
—
—
—
117.5
117.5
117.5
352.5

Aleksandra Goryachkina
—
130
106.67
71.67
—
—
308.34

Anna Muzychuk
71.67
—
—
117.5
—
117.5
306.67

Koneru Humpy
—
55
106.67
—
117.5
—
279.17

Tan Zhongyi
—
105
65
—
—
85
255

Bibisara Assaubayeva
105
77.5
15
—
—
—
197.5

Divya Deshmukh
—
55
—
40
85
—
180

Nana Dzagnidze
71.67
—
—
50
—
55
176.67

Mariya Muzychuk
50
—
—
71.67
—
55
176.67

Stavroula Tsolakidou
71.67
77.5
—
25
—
—
174.17

Harika Dronavalli
—
—
35
71.67
65
—
171.67

Vaishali Rameshbabu
35
—
—
—
50
70
155

Alina Kashlinskaya
130
—
—
—
20
—
150

Batkhuyag Munguntuul
—
15
106.67
—
20
—
141.67

Alexandra Kosteniuk
35
—
50
—
—
35
120

Kateryna Lagno
—
40
65
—
—
—
105

Nurgyul Salimova
—
30
—
—
40
10
80

Polina Shuvalova
—
—
—
—
65
—
65

Lela Javakhishvili
20
—
—
—
—
35
55

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh
10
—
35
—
—
—
45

Olga Badelka
—
—
—
25
—
20
45

Elisabeth Pähtz
—
15
15
10
—
—
40

Salome Melia
—
—
—
—
20
—
20

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