World Women's Chess Cup 2025: All four Indians to play tie-breaks

Business Standard

6 days ago

International Master Divya Deshmukh, who is waiting to become a Grandmaster, had a tough day in office as she was outplayed by Zhu Jiner of China in the return game of the pre pre-quarterfinals in the FIDE World Women's Chess Cup here on Thursday.
Divya, the only Indian up a point and looking to make her maiden entry into the quarterfinals of the prestigious tournament, fell just short of achieving it when she blew up her position in the middle game arising out of a not-so-formal Scotch Opening.
Divya, to her credit, tried her best but salvaging the resulting endgame was almost impossible.
However, the Indian is still in the fray thanks to her first-round victory against the Chinese.
In fact, all the four Indians left in the fray are down to the tie-breaker.
Koneru Humpy played another draw against Alexandra Kosteniuk, D. Harika played out a draw with Kateryna Lagno, while Meruert Kamalidenova of Kazakshtan kept R Vaishali in check to force a tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, three Chinese cruised into the quarterfinals. Lei Tingjie had little trouble getting a draw against Umida Omonova of Uzbekistan, Song Yuxin achieved the same result against Lela Javakhishvili of Georgia and Tan Zhongyi beat Yulia Osmak by drawing the second game comfortably.
The biggest surprise of the day came from local player Nana Dzagnidze who defeated Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine and showed her the exit door.
The FIDE Women's World Cup is a knockout event based on two games in each round with a tiebreaker played with shorter duration of games to determine the winner.
The four Indian players will compete in the tiebreaker to secure a place in the quarterfinals.
There is a total prize pool of USD 6,91,250 in all with the winner taking home USD 50,000. More importantly, there are three places up for grabs for the the next women's Candidates tournament that will determine the challenger for the next Women's World Championship.
Results round 4 game 2: R Vaishali (Ind) drew with Meruert Kamalidenova 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Alexanndra Kosteniuk (Sui) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Kateryna Lagno (Fid) drew with D Harika (Ind) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Divya Deshmukh (Ind) lost to Jiner Zhu (Chn) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Tingjie Lei (Chn) beat Umida Omanova (Uzb) 1.5-0.5; Yuxin Song (Chn) beat Lela Javakhishvili (Geo) 1.5-0.5; Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr) drew with Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Zhongyi Tan (Chn) beat Yulia Osmak (Ukr) 1.5-0.5.