2020 Cairns Cup

Highest-Rated Women’s Tournament on American Soil Concludes with Hard-Fought Victory & $45,000 First Place Prize

As the dust settled in a momentous final round, Humpy Koneru emerged as this year’s Cairns Cup Champion. She captured clear first with 6/9 points and will take home a sweet $45,000 in prize money. With all of the excitement seen throughout this tournament, it wasn’t a surprise that the final day offered even more drama with multiple storylines.

In an electrifying penultimate round, the hunt for first place shifted dramatically. Carissa Yip stole the show as she took down tournament co-leader Wenjun Ju in an absolute masterclass. Meanwhile, Humpy Koneru catapulted herself into clear first as she took down Valentina Gunina in a one-sided demolition.

A couple hearts were broken this Valentine's Day as two marathon endgames ended unexpectedly. Wenjun Ju brilliantly outplayed Nana Dzagnidze, but gave away her entire advantage with a single blunder in time pressure.

With the players fresh off a rest day, Round 6 produced two thrilling decisive games. Carissa Yip took down defending champion Valentina Gunina in a fiery tactical battle and Humpy Koneru managed to grind down Alexandra Kosteniuk in a long technical endgame.

In the bloodiest round of the Cairns Cup thus far, a remarkable five out of five games ended decisively. Every game produced intriguing fireworks as players were able to give it their all before the rest day.

With the rest day soon approaching, some players were keen on conserving energy while others were adamant about fighting until the bitter end. Round 5 produced two decisive games as Wenjun Ju defeated Valentina Gunina, and Alexandra Kosteniuk took down Carissa Yip.

Going into Round 3, the fight for first was tightly contested with four players tied atop the leaderboard. After a number of topsy-turvy battles and dramatic time pressure situations, Nana Dzagnidze emerged as the clear leader with 2.5/3.

Today’s round was filled with excitement as chess fans got to witness heartbreaking blunders, jaw dropping tactics, intense time pressure situations, and one marathon endgame. It seemed like the games produced continual drama as there were multiple unexpected turn-arounds.