She doesn’t always get the accolades of her great predecessors, such as Xie Jun and Hou Yifan, but the tenacious Chinese GM Ju Wenjun is carving out her own impressive chess legacy at the top of the women’s game.
Riding the momentum of a four-game mid-match winning streak, the 34-year-old Ju secured a draw in the ninth game of her latest world title defense against longtime rival GM Tan Zhongyi last week to clinch the scheduled 12-game match by a score of 6½-2½.
It’s Ju’s fifth successful title match since she first took the FIDE women’s world title in 2008, and her seven-year reign is the longest in the women’s game since the great Georgian GM Maia Chiburdanidze held the crown for 13 years beginning in 1978. And it appears that defending the title is getting easier for Ju: Her successful defenses against Russian GM Aleksandra Goryachkina in 2020 and Chinese GM Lei Tingjie three years later both came down to the final game before Ju triumphed.
The Chinese star will hold the women’s crown for at least another year, with her next title defense not scheduled until late 2026 or early 2027.
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The passing of the great Icelandic GM and global chess executive Fridrik Olafsson earlier this month cast a bit of a pall over the 2025 edition of the Reykjavik Open, one of the longest-running and strongest open events on the European chess calendar. Originally intended as a celebration of Olafsson’s 90th birthday, the tournament morphed into a celebration of his remarkable career and achievements on and off the board.
Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo took the 2025 honors in the tournament with a 7½-1½ score, a half-point ahead of eight pursuing grandmasters. The players offered their own tribute to Olafsson with some entertaining attacking chess during the event.
Young New Jersey GM Brandon Jacobson was one of that big group of players just behind the winner. The 21-year-old New Jersey native lost only one game — to Maghsoodloo — and demonstrated his tactical chops with a nice win over Spanish FM Miguel Ruiz Buendia from the Black side of a now-fashionable Guioco Piano line.
With 15. Ne5 Qd6 16. Nxc6 bxc6, Black accepts a backward, doubled pawn on a half-open file, getting the half-open b-file for his rook and fortifying the key pawn on d5. Both sides almost comically line up against their opponent’s weak point — with the queens and all four rooks cocked and loaded against the backward pawns — before White stumbles at the critical juncture.
Thus: 26. Rbc1 Rfe6 27. Qc2?! (the major-piece lineup on the c-file looks impressive, but more effective was the active 27. Qf5! Rxe3 28. Rxe3 Bxd4 29, Nxd4 Qxd4 30. Rxc6 Qxe3+ 31. Kh1, and Black’s vulnerable queenside pawns offer White full compensation for the pawn deficit) Qe7 28. Ng3? (and now 28. Kh1! was a bit of mandatory prudence to get the White king off a dangerous diagonal) Qg5 29. Nf1 Bxd4!, and Black’s long-buried bishop suddenly is exhumed to wreak havoc on the White center.
Jacobson is unerring in the follow-up: 30. Rxc6 (exd4 Re2 31. Rg3 Rxc2 32. Rxg5 Rxc1 and wins) Rxe3! (and not 30…Bxe3+?, squandering the advantage after 31. Nxe3 Rxe3 [Qxe3+ 32. Qf2 Rxc6 33. Rxc6 Qe5 34. Qc5, equalizing] 32. Qd2 h6 33. Rxc7) 31. Nxe3 Bxe3+ 32. Kh2 (Kh1 Bxc1 33. Qxc1 Qg3, with the deadly threat of 34…Re1+) Bf4+ 33. Kg1 Bxc1 34 Qxc1 Qg3 35. Kf1 Rf8+ 36. Kg1 Rf2, and White resigned as it’s hopeless after 37. Qf1 Rxf1+ 38. Kxf1 Qd3+ 39. Kg1 Qe3+ 40. Kh2 d4.
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Olafsson, a feared attacker in his prime, would also no doubt have appreciated how Azeri GM Eltaj Safarli runs Black’s king to ground in his win over strong Indian GM Baskaran Adhiban at Reykjavik. In a Taimanov Sicilian, White’s timely 17. Nxb5 Bd7 18. f5! Ne5 (exf5 19. Bxd6) 19. fxe6 fxe6 creates some major light-square holes around the Black king, holes that White will exploit just a few moves later.
Adhiban’s king is flushed out into the opening with a forcing sacrifice: 23. Qe4 Qc4 (White is also clearly better on 23…g5 24. Rad1 d5 25. Bxe5! Bxe5 [Qxe5 26. Qh7 mate] 26. Qg6+ Qg7 27. Qxe6+) Qc4 24. Qh7+ Kf7 (see diagram; Black has dreams of dashing his king to safety on the other flank, but White’s next move disabuses him of that notion) 25. Rxf6+!.
The Black king will get no rest for the remainder of the contest after 25…Kxf6 26. Bxe5+! (Rf1+? Ke7 27. Qxg7+ Rf7 28. Rxf7+ Nxf7 lets the quarry escape) dxe5 (Kxe5 looks insanely dangerous — and is; e.g. 27. Qxg7+ Kd5 28. Qxb7+ Kd4 29. Rd1+ Ke3 30. Qh7! Rh8 31. Qg6 Rag8 32. Rd3+ Ke2 33. Qh5+ Qg4 34. Bd1+! Kxd3 35. Bxg4) 27. Rf1+ Ke7 28. Qxg7+ Kd6 29. Rd1+ Kc5 30. Qxe5+ Kb6.
Just when it seems Black’s king may find refuge, Safarli uses some more sacrifices to block the exit: 31. a5+! Kxa5 32. b4+! Qxb4 (Kb6 33. Rd6+ Ka7 34. b6+ Kb8 35. Rc6 is a cute mate) 33. Qc7+ Kxb5 34. Bd3+, and Black resigns as mate is in the offing after 34…Ka4 (Qc4 35. Rb1+ Ka4 36. Qxc4+ Ka3 37. Qb3 mate) 35. Ra1+ Qa3 36. Qc4+ Ka5 37. Qb5 mate.
(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)
Ruiz Buendia-Jacobson, Reykjavik Open, Reykjavik, Iceland, April 2025
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. e5 d5 7. Bb5 Ne4 8. cxd4 Bb6 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Be3 Bd7 11. Bxc6 Bxc6 12. O-O f5 13. exf6 Nxf6 14. a4 a5 15. Ne5 Qd6 16. Nxc6 bxc6 17. Rc1 Rab8 18. h3 Ba7 19. Rc2 Qb4 20. Qd3 Ne8 21. b3 Nd6 22. Rb1 Nf5 23. Ne2 Nxe3 24. fxe3 Rf6 25. Rc3 Re8 26. Rbc1 Rfe6 27. Qc2 Qe7 28. Ng3 Qg5 29. Nf1 Bxd4 30. Rxc6 Rxe3 31. Nxe3 Bxe3+ 32. Kh2 Bf4+ 33. Kg1 Bxc1 34. Qxc1 Qg3 35. Kf1 Rf8+ 36. Kg1 Rf2 White resigns.
Safarli-Adhiban, Reykjavik Open, Reykjavik, Iceland, April 2025
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Ncb5 Qb8 7. Bd3 Nf6 8. O-O Be7 9. Qe2 O-O 10. Bg5 d6 11. c4 h6 12. Bh4 Ne5 13. f4 Ng6 14. Bg3 a6 15. e5 axb5 16. exf6 Bxf6 17. Nxb5 Bd7 18. f5 Ne5 19. fxe6 fxe6 20. Bc2 Bc6 21. a4 Bxb5 22. cxb5 Qc7 23. Qe4 Qc4 24. Qh7+ Kf7 25. Rxf6+ Kxf6 26. Bxe5+ dxe5 27. Rf1+ Ke7 28. Qxg7+ Kd6 29. Rd1+ Kc5 30. Qxe5+ Kb6 31. a5+ Kxa5 32. b4+ Qxb4 33. Qc7+ Kxb5 34. Bd3+ Black resigns.
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