In the second round of the women's Cairns Cup-2026 super tournament in St. Louis, Kazakh grandmaster Bibisara Assaubayeva drew with Indian player Vaishali Rameshbabu. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
In the parallel men's Sinquefield Cup-2026 tournament, Assaubayeva's boyfriend Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan lost to Vaishali's brother Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.
At the recent Candidates tournament, the Indian grandmaster edged out Assaubayeva by just 0.5 points and is now preparing for a match for the chess crown against Chinese player Ju Wenjun.
In Cyprus, the two players drew twice. In St. Louis, Rameshbabu had a poor start, losing to her compatriot Divya Deshmukh. Therefore, the game with Assaubayeva was extremely important for Vaishali.
Playing with white pieces, Bibisara failed to achieve a decisive advantage. On move 38, a draw was recorded due to threefold repetition of position.
American Alice Lee and Chinese Tan Zhongyi lead the tournament with two wins each. In the third round, Assaubayeva will play with black against Lee.
The prestigious Cairns Cup super tournament with a prize fund of $250,000 is taking place in St. Louis, Missouri, the Mecca of American chess.
The tournament is named after Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield, co-founder of the St. Louis Chess Club and a member of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Ten female players who received personal invitations from the organizers play in a single round-robin. The time control is classical – 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes until the end of the game, plus 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
In parallel, the major men's tournament – Sinquefield Cup-2026 – is also taking place in St. Louis, also named after Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield. The competition with a prize fund of $475,000 features chess crown contender Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan. In the second round, Assaubayeva's boyfriend played with black against Vaishali's brother Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and resigned to the Indian on move 95.