In a historic moment for Indian chess, all four Indian women competing at the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 in Batumi, Georgia, have advanced to the quarterfinals. This marks the first time in the tournament's history that a single country has held 50% of the representation in the final eight. The standout performance came from 19-year-old International Master (IM) Divya Deshmukh, who stunned the second-seeded Chinese Grandmaster (GM) Zhu Jiner. She is joined by experienced GMs Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, and R. Vaishali.
Deshmukh's victory over Zhu was particularly impressive, as Zhu had previously won their three classical games. Deshmukh secured her maiden quarterfinal berth by defeating Zhu 1.5-0.5 in the tiebreaks. She won the first game with the black pieces and then held a draw in the second game while playing with white. Deshmukh confessed that she had a "mental block" that prevented her from preparing for the game, but she overcame it by thinking of playing against the pieces instead of the opponent.
The first game of the rapid tiebreak saw Zhu Jiner open with the unorthodox Konstantopoulos King's Knight Opening. Deshmukh remained composed and patient, waiting for Zhu to overextend before launching a counterattack. She then steered the game into a superior rook endgame, and despite the engine evaluation of a theoretical draw with perfect play, she converted her advantage due to the difficulty of defending the position under time pressure. In the second 15+10 rapid game, Zhu sacrificed her queen for a rook and a bishop to avoid a drawish position, but Deshmukh was able to hold the draw she needed to win the round and clinch a spot in the Quarterfinals.
Koneru Humpy also secured her place in the quarterfinals by defeating Alexandra Kosteniuk with a score of 1.5-0.5 in the tiebreaks. Humpy will face China's Yuxin Song in the quarterfinals. Harika Dronavalli had a tough match against Katerina Lagno, losing the first game of the 15+10 Rapid tiebreaks before winning the second. She eventually won in the 10-minute games. Vaishali Rameshbabu had the longest battle, finally overcoming Meruert Kamalidenova in the five-minute blitz games.
The advancement of all four Indian women to the quarterfinals guarantees that India will have at least one representative in the semifinals, as Harika Dronavalli is set to face Divya Deshmukh. This is the first time multiple Indians have advanced to the quarterfinals in the tournament's history. Previously, Harika Dronavalli was the sole Indian in the Quarterfinals in 2023.
The remaining quarterfinal matches are Lei Tingjie vs. Nana Dzagnidze, Humpy Koneru vs. Song Yuxin, and Tan Zhongyi vs. Vaishali Rameshbabu. The first games of the quarterfinals are scheduled to begin on July 19. The winner of the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 will receive $50,000 and a spot in the Candidates Tournament.
