GM Ju Wenjun has won a wild final game of the 2023 FIDE Women’s World Championship to claim her fourth title with a 6.5-5.5 victory over GM Lei Tingjie. The 17th women’s world champion, who has held the title since 2018, also picks up the €300,000 ($334,000) winner’s prize, while Lei takes €200,000. 

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Lei has been a breath of fresh air in her first world championship challenge, and, especially after taking the lead in a fantastic first half of the event, looked to have every chance of becoming just the 18th women’s world champion. Ju struck back in the second half, however, and showed all her class in the final game to retain her title, and become just the sixth player to win the title four times or more.  

Women’s World Champions

Read more: All The Women’s World Chess Champions

Ju has now won the title three times in a match, and once in a 64-player knockout.

Most pre-game predictions this time were of a quiet final classical game, with the players regrouping for playoffs on Sunday. Perhaps we should have known better, however, since all of Ju’s title matches went to a final classical game which featured enthralling drama.

When Ju needed only a draw in the final game to win the title for the first time in 2018, she built up a completely winning position with the white pieces against GM Tan Zhongyi, before settling for the draw that gave her the crown.

Then in the four-game final of the second world championship in 2018, this time a 64-player knockout, Ju found herself needing to beat GM Kateryna Lagno on demand with the black pieces to force a playoff—and she did!

While those three games went perfectly for Ju, in the final game of the 2020 match against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, she only needed a draw with the black pieces, but instead fell to defeat, and had to defend her title in a playoff.

From that we could conclude:

1. Few players in world chess are more experienced than Ju at facing such all-or-nothing final games.
2. We shouldn’t expect a quiet draw!

What followed was a thriller, where the evaluation swung from side to side, until the pendulum stopped.

Game 12: Ju Wenjun 1-0 Lei Tingjie

Just as in the penultimate game, where Ju returned to her first choice in the match with Black of 1…e5, here she returned to the 1.d4 that she’d played in the first three games. After 1…d5 she sprung the first minor surprise with 2.Nf3, however, instead of her previous 2.c4. It was a quiet opening, but not for long, as the players soon went down the rabbit hole of some incredibly complicated and dangerous opening theory.

By move 13, Ju had two connected passed pawns on the queenside, while Lei had a passed c-pawn of her own, and forces massed in the center of the board. There was a big moment, since Lei could go for 13…g5!?

If the pawn is taken, Black can capture on h2, as well as getting a half-open g-file on which to attack. The computer still recommends the capture, however, and Ju might still have been within her opening preparation. Lei blinked, choosing 13…0-0 after an 18-minute think, but that didn’t mean a quiet game. The rocky period of play that followed saw the hopes of both players rise and fall. 

First Lei seemed to have gone astray and White’s pawns were set to dominate, but on move 18, instead of moving her attacked rook, Ju decided to give up the rook for two minor pieces with 18.Bxf6!?

After 18…Nxa1 19.Bxa1 Qxa5 Ju’s once proud queenside pawns were a memory, but, just when the commentators were assuming she was putting her faith in a kingside attack, she went for 20.Qc3!?, threatening checkmate on g7 and offering an exchange of queens.

Instead of going for a kingside attack, Ju Wenjun decides to force off queens, which seems to leave her defending a tricky endgame! #FWWC2023 pic.twitter.com/DuWZLawAw8

— chess24.com (@chess24com) July 22, 2023

In hindsight, Lei reacted too fast, perhaps breathing a sigh of relief at getting queens off the board, since she immediately took on c3 instead of defending against checkmate with 20…Bf8 or 20…f6. Ju might have been forced to swap off queens in less favorable conditions.

The game remained balanced, however, until Lei took a decision that may have cost her the world championship title: 22…e5? 

Undermining White’s pieces, and the defender of the b5-pawn, is of course desirable, but when the dust had settled it turned out it was the black d5-pawn that had been fatally weakened.

Ju correctly replied 23.Nf5! and after 23…Bf8 there was almost the last crucial moment.

Ju spent 10 minutes her, in a position where all but one move would have allowed Lei to take over again. In the end, however, Ju correctly played 24.Bxe5!, giving up her b-pawn to 24…Rxb5, but leaving Black’s d5-pawn crippled. Ju then played the flourish 25.g4!, demonstrated that she was in her element. 

It was downhill for Lei from this point, and after 29.Nc3! it was clear that Ju had got everything she could hope for, with total positional domination.

Ju Wenjun has a dream position, with blockading knights on c3 and d4, and the d5-pawn a long-term weakness! #FWWC2023 pic.twitter.com/Qd11Vvuv7o

— chess24.com (@chess24com) July 22, 2023

Ju skillfully maneuvred her pieces to eliminate Black’s d-pawn, and then it was all about pushing her own d-pawn up the board to victory.

It had reached d7, and been given a guard of honor, when Lei finally conceded defeat.

The final moments as Ju Wenjun beat Lei Tingjie in a brilliant final game to retain her Women’s World Championship title! #FWWC2023 pic.twitter.com/2sH8f0FlMA

— chess24.com (@chess24com) July 22, 2023

So a thrilling match ended in disappointment for the challenger, but a deserved continuation to the reign of the now four-time champion, who won two games in the second half of the match.

We’ll next see Ju in action in just over a week’s time, when she’s the top seed for the FIDE Women’s World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.  

The 2023 FIDE Women’s World Championship (FWWC) is the most important women’s over-the-board event of the year. The defending women’s world champion, GM Ju Wenjun, faces the challenger, GM Lei Tingjie, to see who will be crowned world champion. The championship started on July 5 and boasts a €500,000 prize fund.

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