Nurgul finished with a draw in Toronto, the 17-year-old surprisingly won the Challengers

Nurgyul Salimova ended her participation in the Contenders chess tournament with a draw with the black pieces against Alexandra Goryachkina (Russia).

This gave the Bulgarian 5.5 points after 14 rounds of competition, with her tied for seventh place with Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk. The Bulgarian was the youngest chess player among the eight top players in Toronto – only 20 years old.

For her, the experience of participating against 7 rivals in the top 10 of the FIDE rating ranking at the moment is invaluable, although she was not able to intervene in the battle for the first position.

And she goes to the Chinese Tan Zhongi, who finished the tournament with a draw against Muzichuk and is far ahead of the competition with 9 points. Humpi Koneru and Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) and Lei Thanjie (China) share second place.

Salimova ends the 19-day marathon race in Toronto with a record of 1 win over Koneru, 9 draws and 4 losses.

And Tan Juni goes to the match for the world title against another Chinese woman – Zhu Wenjun, and the meeting will be at the beginning of 2025.

On the men’s side, a sensational victory went to 17-year-old Indian Domarahu Gyukesh, who finished the Challengers race with a draw against Hikaru Nakamura of the USA.

If defeated, the Indian would lose the ultimate victory. Meanwhile, the other two contenders for the top spot, Yan Nepomniachy of Russia and Fabiano Caruana of the United States, also drew, leaving them at the foot of the top.

All four had chances to win the tournament before the final round.

But the victory goes to Gükeş, who finishes with 9 points, and the other three settled for 8.5 each.

The Indian also became the youngest chess player ever to win the Challengers competition. He faces a world title match against China’s Ding Liren, who has held the crown since Magnus Carlsen’s voluntary abdication 2 years ago.