6th Cairns Cup: Alice Lee makes a great start

By admin August 12, 2026 0 comments

IM Alice Lee made a perfect start at 6th Cairns Cup 2026. She defeated another FIDE Women’s World Cup winner, GM Divya Deshmukh.

Carissa crushes Kosteniuk

IM Carissa Yip (USA) bounced back with a crushing win against the 12th Women’s World Champion, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI). This is Kosteniuk’s second consecutive loss of the event. GM R Vaishali drew against the three-time reigning World Blitz Women’s champion, GM Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ). GM Humpy Koneru suffered a loss against GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN). IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE) drew with GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR).

IM Alice Lee (USA) defeated two FIDE Women’s World Cup winners in-a-row | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

Divya – Alice: 0-1

GM Divya Deshmukh (2490) and IM Alice Lee (USA, 2430) have played only one Classical rated game against each other before. That ended in a draw. Their second encounter was also heading towards a draw until Divya blundered in a difficult rook endgame.

Position after 39…Kb7

40.Re6 Rd5+ 41.Kf6 would have kept the game going. It is certinly not easy to spot. White played 40.Ra1?? Rd5+ 41.Kf6 a5 42.Kg7 Rd7+ 43.Kh6 Kb6-+ and Black went on to win the game by showing the correct technique.

GM Divya Deshmukh went wrong in a difficult rook endgame against IM Alice Lee (USA) | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) outplayed GM Humpy Koneru | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE) – GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) – GM R Vaishali: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

IM Carissa Yip (USA) handed GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI) her second consecutive loss of the event | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Replay live stream

Replay Round 2 live commentary by IMs Nazi Paikidze (USA) and Almira Skripchenko (FRA) | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Replay Round 2 games

Schedule and Format

There will be one round per day from 10th to 19th August. Rest day is on 15th August. Round 1 starts at 12 p.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control will be 40 moves in 90 minutes + 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.