&w=3840&q=100)
FIDE Women's World Cup: Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh stay unbeaten after semifinal openers
Indian chess stars Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh made a solid start in the semifinals of the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025, holding their Chinese opponents to draws in the first games on Tuesday, July 22.
Humpy, playing with black pieces, comfortably held China's Tingjie Lei to a draw, while Divya frustrated former world champion Zhongyi Tan with her solid defence. Both Indians will now have the advantage of playing with white pieces in the return leg of this fixture.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
The second semifinal games will be held on Wednesday, July 23. If the scores remain tied after the two classical games, the semifinalists will head to faster tie-break games, which will be held a day later.
The winner of this event is slated to get $50,000 (over Rs 43 lakh), while the runners-up and third place player will earn $35,000 (Rs 30 lakh) and $25,000 (Rs 21 lakh), respectively. The top-three players will also qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament.
Funny moment before Humpy vs Tingjie game
Humpy was seen meditating before her high-stakes semifinal clash against Tingjie. As Lei approached the board, she hesitated and quietly went about her routine because Humpy sat with her eyes closed, completely immersed in her thoughts.
The scene quickly went viral on social media after FIDE shared it with the caption, 'When your opponent is meditating and you don't want to disturb the vibe…'
🧘♀️ When your opponent is meditating and you don't want to disturb the vibe…
FIDE Women's World Cup. Semifinal
🇨🇳 Lei Tingjie – Humpy Koneru 🇮🇳#FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/TNOpn7YCz0 — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 22, 2025
Humpy made history on Sunday by becoming the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of a FIDE World Cup. The 38-year-old defeated China's Yuxin Song 1.5-0.5 in the quarterfinals.
'It feels happy to qualify without playing tie-breaks,' the Indian Grandmaster said after the match. 'I felt I could have played much better today, I was in a much better position, but slipped out in the time trouble.'
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Meanwhile, International Master Divya Deshmukh had earlier stunned everyone by storming into the semifinals on her debut appearance. She knocked out compatriot and senior Grandmaster Harika Dronavalli in the quarters.
'Very shaky,' she told FIDE. 'I think I am happy with the way I played. I don't think the last game went well but, not really (worried)…My preparation had a lot of role in that game and I would like to thank my coach for that.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
11 minutes ago
- NDTV
Big Debut For India In 4th Test Confirmed? Report Makes 'Gautam Gambhir' Claim
Anshul Kamboj has emerged as a surprise pace option for the Indian cricket team ahead of the fourth Test match against England and the training session at Old Trafford provided a huge hint regarding his possible debut. Kamboj was included in the squad after India suffered a massive injury crisis following the third Test. Arshdeep Singh was ruled out of the fourth Test match while Akash Deep also struggled during practice. According to a report, Kamboj bowled for more than 45 minutes in the nets with the new ball and was even spotted with multiple discussions with head coach Gautam Gambhir. As per Times of India, Kamboj also constantly had conversations with senior pacers - Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah - during the training session. During his spell, Kamboj showed consistency with the new ball against top-order batters - Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Shubman GIll. Former spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has endorsed uncapped Anshul Kamboj, who mirrors the traits of Zaheer Khan and Jasprit Bumrah, to earn a spot in the final XI ahead of Prashid Krishna for the fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England in Manchester. Injury struck the India camp and left them bereft of the opportunity to field their balanced XI at Old Trafford. Akash Deep has potentially been ruled out of the contest as he is nursing a groin niggle while Arshdeep Singh will sit out of the fourth Test after sustaining an injury on his hand. Realising the gravity of the situation, Kamboj was sent to Manchester to add depth to India's depleted pace attack. Debates and discussions have sparked about India's third seam bowling option, with Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah bound to spearhead the pace attack. For Ashwin, Kamboj's "cracking" form in the domestic circuit makes him a better fit to fill the vacant spot, despite Prasidh's presence as India looks to turn around the 1-2 deficit in the series. The 24-year-old's knack for bowling long spells, his wrist position, and impeccable seam movement make him ideal for the English surface. "If you are going to bring Anshul Kamboj into the XI, I am telling you this is a serious bowling attack. People will say that Anshul will play his first Test. He hasn't played in England, but he was there in the A tour. He has been in cracking form in first-class cricket," Ashwin said on YouTube.
Scroll.in
11 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
‘Sairaaya' is a surprise blockbuster only for those who weren't watching closely
Alert: Spoilers ahead about Saiyaara 's plot. Soon after Saiyaara's release on July 18, a Mumbai screenwriter joked on Instagram that he had thrown away his horror comedy script and would be pitching a romantic film instead. Mohit Suri's musical, starring Aneet Padda and first-time actor Ahaan Pandey, is a box office scorcher, earning reportedly over Rs 83 crore in its opening weekend – a feat for a movie with untested leads. Saiyaara has broken the myths that nepo-debutants are doomed to fail theatrically – Ahaan Panday is Chunky Panday's nephew – and that it's the age of action-based films and Stree -like horror comedies. Saiyaara has confirmed that young audiences still want love stories – but black, without cream and sugar. Produced by Aditya Chopra's Yash Raj Films, which is known for its sunny romances, Saiyaara stars Panday as struggling bad-boy rocker Krish. His talent and temper hide his troubled relationship with his alcoholic father. Padda plays poet-writer Vaani, who is nursing a severe heartbreak. The plot brings them together to work on a song. They fall in love over some crackling tunes. Midway, Vaani is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Krish struggles to accept their fate, but remains a dutiful lover. For industry watchers, Saiyaara 's success is a headscratcher. Does it do anything new? Yes, it does – but also not really. Writer-director Mohit Suri is a master in packaging disparate elements like Hollywood and Korean neo-noirs, feverish Hallyu-flavoured romance and fresh indie music from the subcontinent. Suri also has his uncle and mentor Mahesh Bhatt's natural flair for staging dramatic scenes between adult lovers. Suri's unique talents, previously seen in Zeher, Awaarapan, Murder 2, Aashiqui 2, Ek Villain and Malang, got burnished with Aditya Chopra's financial backing in Saiyaara. The result: a long-awaited comeback for the romantic film, albeit in Goth makeup. Play The road to Saiyaara is packed with filmmakers – Suri among them – and younger Bollywood stars checking out of traditional romantic dramas through the 2010s. The fulcrum of the romantic genre is the belief in the institution of marriage. This requires a positive attitude towards heterosexual dating mores – perhaps last seen in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014). But that film too was a tribute to Chopra's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the seminal romantic movie for an entire generation. In HSKD 's retread of older tropes without a new vision in sight lay hints of the genre's decline. The present and past decades are awash with gloomy love stories with downbeat themes, whether in Hollywood or Bollywood – mental health (Chemical Hearts, Laila Majnu), infidelity (Marriage Story, Gehraiyaan), terminal illness (The Fault in Our Stars, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil) and abuse (It Ends with Us, Satyaprem Ki Katha). The 'chocolate boy' too got bitter. Between the success of Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Arjun Reddy (2017) and its Bollywood remake Kabir Singh (2019) came the pop culture shift towards tales of dangerous love on BookTok, Bookstagram and Tumblr. Like the men with violent tendencies in young adult literature and fan fiction, Vanga's heroes too don't hesitate to threaten women into having sex. All this coincided with the global dating app boom of the 2010s. Romantic films began to feature protagonists struggling to choose the right partner out of endless options offered on the e-dating aisle. The desperation and ennui of this culture made its way to Hollywood films like Newness (2017) and Indian series such as Mismatched and Modern Love. The transformation of the genre is also consistent with the world-wide shift towards hetero-pessimism, coming in the wake of the MeToo movement. Play Even Imtiaz Ali, Bollywood's other consistent chronicler of contemporary romance, began to make his love stories messier. His Tamasha feels less a romance and more a coming-of-age film about a manic-depressive man. In Hollywood, studios began neglecting mid-budget fare that include rom-coms in favour of tentpole films, such as superhero films, spy thrillers and reliable family-friendly IP. Mid-budget movies have been under threat in India too, with the pan-Indian success of Baahubali (2015-2017) followed by endless imitators. The southern film industries managed to keep love stories alive, with their directors combining coming-of-age stories with the long-winded messiness of finding and holding on to love. Hemanth M Rao's two-part Sapta Saagaradaache Ello and the Malayalam superhits Hridayam and Premalu exemplify this trend. In Bollywood, the romances that left a mark – Manmarziyaan, Gehraiyaan, Haseen Dilruba – either addressed current misgivings about the promise of heterosexual fulfilment or muddled the story with trauma and disease. Notably, they are either streaming releases or theatrical films that have gained traction after becoming available online. The Bollywood rom-com never did disappear entirely. It hid itself inside the North Indian comedy of manners that doubled up as family films. Examples include the prototype Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), Luka Chhupi (2020) and Zara Bachke Zara Hatke (2023). But the traditional rom-com, whose engine was the friction between a man and a woman of strong and contrasting personalities, in an urban setting with no family in sight, had all but vanished. Karan Johar did take up the challenge and attempt Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), bridging the classic rom-com with woke subversions, but it didn't entirely work. Mohit Suri, who can thank South Korea for his career, has punctuated Saiyaara with elements from the Hallyu romance A Moment to Remember (2004). Suri's ever-reliable ear for angsty emo pop has done wonders. Perhaps Mumbai filmmakers will have to grunge up their romantic heroes, trauma-load their heroines and pre-book Mithoon if the romantic drama has to be kept alive after this miraculous comeback. Play
Indian Express
11 minutes ago
- Indian Express
India fourth Test playing XI: Sai Sudarshan likely to return, Karun Nair might be dropped; Anshul Kamboj to make Test debut
India is likely to play Sai Sudarshan and drop Karun Nair for the crucial fourth Test at Manchester. This is the second time in the series that India have changed their No. 3. In the opening game at Leeds, Sudarshan played one-drop while Nair batted down in the order. For the second and third Tests, Sudarshan sat out and Nair played No.3. Now it seems it is back to Sudarshan with Nair unlikely to make the cut. The two other changes in the Manchester Test playing XI have been forced upon the team management because of injuries. In all likelihood, Akash Deep's place will be taken by the Haryana pacer Anshul Kamboj and Nitish Reddy's replacement will be Shardul Thakur. This means India, like at Lord's and Birmingham, will go with six bowling options. Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Shardul being the all-rounder, and the three specialist pacers being Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Kamboj. Meanwhile, at the Old Trafford ground on match eve, Sudarshan showed signs that he was returning to the playing XI. Despite the cover on the pitch, the Tamil Nadu batsman did his visualisation drill. He even circled the 22 yards and closely observed the greenish-brown surface. ALSO READ | After three Tests of individual achievements, visitors face hour of reckoning Sudarshan, in the only Test he has played, made 0 and 30 and was dropped because of the team management's combination calculations. The left-hander lost his place to spin-all-rounder Washington Sundar. Nair, promoted up the order in Sudarshan's absence, has the following scoring sequence on this tour – 0, 20, 31, 26, 40, and 14. Actually, the Indian captain Shubman Gill had hinted that India might persist with Karun for the Manchester game. 'We think Karun is batting well. The first match he didn't really play at his number (batted at 6). It's difficult when a player is making a comeback in a series like this, you know. But I don't think there's been any issue with his batting. Sometimes it's also about getting that click, you know. Once you're able to make your 50, then you're able to get back into your zone and get some big runs. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened for him so far,' he said. Did the captain have a rethink after watching the pitch, which he did much after his press conference? Was this decision taken with the consideration that this was a virtual must-win game and to take those mandatory 20 wickets, India would need an extra bowler? Shubman, at the press conference around the noon time, said the pitch would have bounce and speed. Ravi Shastri, on a podcast, said, 'This pitch will have more bounce than others from what one's heard. If the weather is not that hot…'. But the local input was very different. Veteran English international and TV expert David Bumble Lloyd downrightly dismissed the 'lively pitch' narrative. Lloyd would say: 'Very, very flat. No pace, no grass.' On the same podcast, former England captain Michael Vaughan would give his take. 'The pace has gone since Old Trafford… (changed the axis).'
