Norway Chess Women: Assaubayeva secures title with a round to spare

A remarkable performance leaves Assaubayeva as world number 5 among women

Bibisara Assaubayeva secured overall victory at Norway Chess Women with a round to spare after drawing her ninth-round classical game against defending champion Anna Muzychuk. The 22-year-old grandmaster from Kazakhstan is making her first appearance in the event and has collected 16½ points with one round still to play.

Assaubayeva’s lead is now unassailable. Zhu Jiner stands in second place on 13 points, meaning that even a classical win in Friday’s final round would not be enough to catch the leader. Muzychuk is a further point behind Zhu in sole third place.

In round nine, Assaubayeva had the white pieces against Muzychuk and showed good preparation to get a 22-move draw. The Ukrainian grandmaster has now drawn all nine of her classical games in Oslo. In the Armageddon decider, Muzychuk again held a draw with black, which gave her the extra half-point.

The winners of the 2026 and 2025 editions of Norway Chess Women – Bibisara Assaubayeva and Anna Muzychuk | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

Zhu climbed to second place by defeating Divya Deshmukh with the black pieces in their classical game. It was the only decisive classical encounter of the day, and gave the Chinese grandmaster the full 3 points. The result also ensured that Zhu remained Assaubayeva’s closest pursuer going into the final round.

The remaining encounter saw Ju Wenjun holding a draw with black against Humpy Koneru in the classical game and winning the Armageddon decider.

Round 9 results

Standings after round 9

For Assaubayeva, the title is the most important classical achievement of her career so far. She already built a strong record in faster time controls, as she has astoundingly won the Women’s World Blitz Championship three times, in 2021, 2022 and 2025!

After securing first place, Assaubayeva reflected on the contrast with her recent Women’s Candidates Tournament campaign in Cyprus. There, she entered the final round tied for first place, but Vaishali Rameshbabu overtook her thanks to a last-round victory. Assaubayeva noted that the Candidates had been a particularly stressful event, while a more relaxed approach in Oslo helped her to produce a stronger result.

Assaubayeva was accompanied in Oslo by World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov. The Uzbek grandmaster highlighted her practical play, especially in time trouble, and noted that both of them regularly work on that aspect of the game with coach Roman Vidonyak.

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With one round remaining, Assaubayeva is unbeaten on a plus-three score in classical chess. Her performance in the classical games has earned her 15.2 rating points and lifted her to fifth place among women on the live ratings list, behind only the Chinese quartet of Hou Yifan, Lei Tingjie, Ju Wenjun and Zhu Jiner.

A winning duo! Bibisara Assaubayeva was there to celebrate Javokhir Sindarov’s victory at the Candidates in Cyprus a couple of months ago | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

The tournament winner looking cheerful while being interviewed by Anna Rudolf | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

Deshmukh 0-3 Zhu

In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.

Zhu Jiner | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

All games – Classical

All games – Armageddon

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