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Challenger GM Lei Tingjie overpowered the defending champion Ju Wenjun in game five of the 2023 FIDE Women's World Championship to take a 3-2 lead with just one game to go before the match switches from Shanghai to her home city of Chongqing.

Game six, when Ju will have the white pieces, starts on Wednesday, July 12, at 3:00 a.m. ET / 09:00 CEST.

How to watch the 2023 FIDE Women's World Chess Championship

The 2023 FIDE Women's World Championship had seen intense battles where the shield was always the equal of the sword, but in game five, we finally got a breakthrough.

Ju entered the venue before game five with her second, 2708-rated Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna.

This time Lei decided to switch from the Ruy Lopez she played in her first two games with White to the Italian, with 3.Bc4, but it was Ju who seemed to spring the first small surprise by heading for a line that then world champion Magnus Carlsen played against his challenger GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final game of their 2021 match.

Soon, however, it was Lei who was taking control after Ju missed a chance for sharp counterplay in the center with 12...d5.

Her alternative 12...Bd7!? was passive, and when she did go for a bold pawn push, 14...c5!?, she had serious doubts about it herself.

"Its too risky, and after that maybe this structure is just very bad for Black," said Ju, who felt she could just have tried to "hold" the position.

It was another intense, strategic struggle, however, with the first clear mistake perhaps only coming when Ju responded to 21.b4! by capturing the pawn.

It was much safer to play 21...Bd6! and, if Lei pushed her pawn to b5, the closed position would have given Black excellent chances of holding on.

In the game, Lei soon did have a dream structure, with control of the d-file and especially the d5-square. Ju could do little but wait and hope that when the time came, she'd be able to parry the potential a4-a5 or f2-f4 pawn breaks.

Lei didn't feel she was clearly winning, commenting: "It was a long game and somehow I thought probably my opponent can defend this endgame, but after the opening I have no risk, so I just wanted to continue the game."

Ju did the job of waiting well, but meeting 40.h4 with 40...h5!? was a very double-edged decision on the time-control move.

This is where Lei seized the opportunity to play the flexibleand powerful41.Bd2!, with the bishop now ready to support either a5 or f4. Lei felt 41...Rb8!? was a mistake by her opponent since it boosted 42.f4!

This now came with the additional kick of 42...exf4 43.Bxf4, hitting the rook on b8. On the other hand, it's the computer's top move, since e.g. 41...Qf7 gets hit from the other side with 42.a5!

After 43...Rb7 44.Qe2! the weakness of the h5-pawn came back to haunt Black, with 44...g6!? being no better than giving up the pawn since it ran into 45.e5!

It felt as though it dawned on Ju only at this point that she was in very deep trouble since she spent 23 minutes on 45...Qa8, leaving herself just five minutes to try and pose some problems for her opponent. Lei suggested 45...Rd7! in the post-game press conference, and that does seem to put up much more resistance, though the position would remain miserableand likely lost against best playfor Black.

Lei quickly stopped any danger down the a8-h1 diagonal with 46.Qf3! and played the remainder of the game perfectly. There were some moves that got higher computer evaluations, but her strategy of exchanging off queens into a winning endgame worked perfectly, leaving Ju out of options.

The bishop on d8 can't be defended, since 56...Ke7 would run into 57.Bg5+, losing the bishop on the next move. Ju, therefore, gave it up with 56...Rxb6 57.Rxd8+ Ke7 58.Rc8 Rxe6+, at least picking up White's key pawns, but being a piece down left the world champion with no realistic hopes of saving the game.

Ju played on for a while, perhaps more so to come to terms with the loss, before finally conceding her opponent the win.

That result saw Lei take over as the number-two on the women's live rating list.

GM Rafael Leitao has annotated the game below.

Afterward, Lei talked about how being unable to play much chess during the pandemic had done her no harm.

"As a professional chess player, if you dont have tournaments to play, or you want to chase some goals, then just stay at home and train! There is nothing Im worried about in my life, so I can just focus on chess totally."

So after the mutual frustration of four draws, the ice has finally cracked. Ju now needs to hit back if she's going to retain her title, which should ensure excitement in the games ahead.

Ju has just one more game in her hometown of Shanghai when she has the white pieces in game six on Wednesday. Can she bounce back straight away, or can Lei use her momentum to go into the mid-match break with a two-point lead?

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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