2018. Although she once again defeated the 13th seed Stefanova, she then lost to the 5th seed Kosteniuk in the quarterfinals in rapid tiebreaks. 2019–present: Two Candidates tournaments After the 2018 World Championship, the Women's World Championship switched to a match format where the reigning champion would defend their title against the winner of an eight-player double round-robin Candidates tournament, the first of which would take place in 2019. Muzychuk was one of the players who qualified for the Candidates tournament by rating. Although she had a strong finish, she could not overcome a slow start where she lost two of the first three games to Dzagnidze and Tan, and her final score of 8/14 only sufficed for second place. At the end of 2019, Muzychuk won a third medal at the World Blitz Championship in 2019, earning the silver medal a ½ point behind only Lagno. Muzychuk began 2020 at the Gibraltar Chess Festival. Although she did not win the women's prize, she was awarded the overall tournament brilliancy prize for her last-round game against Ori Kobo, an Israeli Grandmaster. At the 2019–21 FIDE Women's Grand Prix, the format was changed to have the top three players qualify for the next Candidates tournament in 2022 instead of just one player qualifying for a world championship match. Nonetheless, Muzychuk did not win any of the events and was unable to secure one of these spots. She was still able to qualify for the Candidates tournament by reaching the semifinals of the inaugural Women's World Cup in 2021, a tournament that replaced the World Championship knockout events. As the 4th seed, she defeated 20th seed Elisabeth Pähtz and 5th seed Dzagnidze among others before losing to 1st seed Aleksandra Goryachkina in the penultimate round. Although she also lost the third place match to 7th seed Tan, she still earned one of three Candidates spots awarded through the World Cup by virtue of Goryachkina having already qualified as the previous World Championship runner-up. Muzychuk ended the year at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. She finished in the top 15 at both events but was not in contention to medal by the later rounds. Team competitions Slovenia Muzychuk represented Slovenia on the top board at five consecutive Women's Chess Olympiads from 2004 to 2012. Neither her, nor the team medalled in any of those tournaments. Slovenia's best result came at the 2006