In the first round of the women's super tournament Cairns Cup 2026, held in St. Louis, USA, Kazakh grandmaster Bibisara Assaubayeva, playing with black pieces, drew her game against Ukrainian chess player Anna Muzychuk. The rivals, who are the top-rated favorites of the competition (the 22-year-old Kazakh has 2538, the 36-year-old Ukrainian has 2529), agreed to a draw on move 43, reports infohub.kz.
The tournament, with a prize fund of $250,000, features seven grandmasters and three international masters. This is one of the largest prize funds in women's chess competitions.
In the first round, victories were claimed by 16th World Champion Tan Zhongyi (2520) from China, Women's World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh (2490) from India, and American Alice Lee (2430).
In the second round, Assaubayeva will face another Indian representative, Vaishali Rameshbabu (2489), who is a participant in the upcoming match for the chess crown. At the start, Rameshbabu, playing white, lost to Deshmukh.
The prestigious super tournament takes place in St. Louis, Missouri, which is considered the Mecca of American chess. Notably, the local university team recently won silver at the FIDE World University Team Chess Championship 2026 in Almaty.
Now Assaubayeva is making a return visit to St. Louis. Last year, she finished seventh here. Previously, Kazakh chess player Zhansaya Abdumalik played in the Cairns Cup twice.
The Cairns Cup is named after Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield, co-founder of the St. Louis Chess Club, who is a member of the World Chess Hall of Fame. The 80-year-old chess philanthropist is also known for establishing the Cairns Queens Chess award in 2024. This initiative, the first of its kind, offers $100,000 to any American woman who achieves the title of International Grandmaster within five years. The program, running until July 2029, significantly promotes women's chess in the United States.
The first Cairns Cup took place in 2019. Since then, its format has remained unchanged. Ten players, who receive personal invitations from the organizers, play a round-robin. The time control is classical: 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes to the end of the game, plus 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
The winner will receive $60,000, the runner-up $50,000, and the third-place finisher $40,000. The remaining participants will also receive cash bonuses: the last-place finisher will get $7,000.
In parallel, a major men's tournament, the Sinquefield Cup, also named after Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield, is taking place in St. Louis. Among others, it features the challenger for the chess crown, Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan. In the first round, Assaubayeva's boyfriend drew against American Levon Aronian.