Koneru Humpy sets up historic all-Indian Women's World Cup final vs Divya Deshmukh
'The tiebreak between Humpy Koneru and Lei Tingjie ended in a duel of nerves given the huge stakes involved. Humpy managed to compose herself and come back into the match after the first setback and then won the last two games to go through. Incredible resilience and, after her World Rapid win as well as her shared first place in the Pune Grand Prix, a remarkable World Cup to get another Candidates spot.'"Indian fans can rejoice," Anand said, highlighting the enormity of the occasion. For the first time, two Indians will compete in the final of the Women's World Cup. The final will get underway on Saturday following a rest day.GRITTY HUMPY FIGHTS IT OUTHumpy and Lei had drawn their two classical games earlier in the week, sending the match into rapid tiebreaks. The first set of rapid games, played with a time control of 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment, also ended in a 1-1 stalemate. That led to a second set of games, with 10 minutes per player and the same increment.In the first of those games, Lei capitalised on an error in the middlegame to gain a pawn and convert her advantage into a win in the endgame. Despite the presence of opposite-coloured bishops, Humpy was unable to hold for a draw and found herself needing a win to stay in the match.She responded with a composed and efficient performance in the return game. Playing with the white pieces, Humpy adopted a Queen's Pawn opening and maintained steady control throughout. Her positional superiority and technical endgame play allowed her to level the score and force another set of blitz tiebreaks.The third set, played at five minutes plus a three-second increment, saw Humpy in command. She won the first game convincingly with the white pieces, putting Lei under pressure from the opening and steadily building an advantage. In the reverse game, needing only a draw to progress, Humpy opted for the Italian Opening and gradually tightened her grip on the position. She went on to win the game, sealing her place in the final with a 2-0 result in the blitz stage.advertisementWith this win, Humpy moves into her first Women's World Cup final. While she has held the World Rapid title and been part of multiple major team and individual triumphs, the World Cup has been one of the few titles missing from her CV.Divya Deshmukh, 18, will be her opponent in the final after beating Russia's Polina Shuvalova in her own semi-final. (WITH PTI Inputs)- Ends
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Hindustan Times
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England vs Spain: UEFA Women's Euro 2025 prize money - How much prize money will winners take home
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The Hindu
20 minutes ago
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Divya holds Humpy, tiebreaker next
International Master Divya Deshmukh gave nothing away and held higher-ranked Grandmaster and compatriot Koneru Humpy to an easy draw to force the final of the Women's Chess World Cup into the tie-breaker, Batumi on Sunday (July 27, 2025). The tie-breaker, which will be a series of shorter-duration games, will be played on Monday to determine the winner. Divya, who did not make utmost use of her promising opening in the first game on Saturday, was far more composed against a Queen pawn opening by transposition employed by her opponent in game 2. Humpy got the optical advantage with her pair of bishops out of the opening but Divya knew that if she placed her knights perfectly, white will not be able to create many problems. As it happened in the game after two minor pieces, the pair of rooks also changed hands and the queen-and-minor-piece endgame only offered little hope. Humpy tried to make some headway with a pawn sacrifice in the endgame but in the process her bishop pair was gone, and though a pawn plus, Divya had to cover some weaknesses. After the dust settled, Humpy recovered the pawn and Divya repeated the position through checks to sign peace in 34 moves. The tiebreaker will see two games of 15 minutes each with a 10-second increment after every move. If the scores are still level, the players will play another set of 10-minute games with a 10-second increment. If the tie doesn't get resolved, it will be two more games of five minutes with three-second increment after every move. Should the deadlock continue, one more set of three-minute games with a two-second increment per move will be played to decide the winner. During the post-game interaction with the broadcaster, Divya seemed upset with the mistakes she made in game 1 on Saturday, where she said she invariably kept making the wrong choices. "I was quite disappointed with the first game obviously because I saw everything and I just always ended up making the wrong choice, and it was quite a pity. The first game didn't go my way and even though it was a draw it kind of felt like a loss. So, I was just trying to recover and today was considerably easier," said Divya. "I think I got myself into a mess for no reason. I was trying to see if there was a win, but I just missed this Queen b8. And I was confused if I should go g6 or g5 and I think g5 was better because this Queen b8 doesn't work against it." Asked how a player like her forget about the previous game and focus on the next game, she said in a game like chess it was "absolutely necessary" to come out with a fresh mindset. "Otherwise, you're not going to perform well in the next game. I just tell myself that I have the rest of my life to be sad about it. So just don't be sad today and then we can be sad about it afterwards." The 19-year-old from Nagpur, who could become a Grandmaster if she wins the title on Monday, said she will try to give it her best shot in the tie-breaker. "Yeah, of course. I think I'm going to give my best. She's (Humpy), of course, a really strong player, but I'm hoping things go my way." Arjuna Awardee Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay said Divya played the opening quickly and seemed better prepared but a weak 24th move saw the youngster get into some trouble. "It was a comparatively quieter play (compared to game 1). Humpy, playing white, began with English opening but the game was soon transposed to the Semi Tarrasch Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined," said Thipsay. Divya played the opening quickly and seemed to be better prepared. On move 9, Humpy had a choice of getting a better pawn structure or getting a bishop for a knight. Humpy chose to go for a bishop, which didn't turn out to be very productive," Thipsay opined. "In fact, Divya correctly gave away her second bishop for her other knight and further simplified the game by exchanging all the rooks by move 20. Humpy created chances by sacrificing a pawn on move 23 and created some serious threats when Divya made a weak 24th move. "However, a slight inaccuracy by Humpy on move 28 allowed Divya to improve the position of her queen and force a draw by perpetual check on move 34," added Thipsay. Results: Koneru Humpy (Ind) drew with Divya Deshmukh (Ind).
Indian Express
20 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh play out a second classical draw. Now what to expect in the tiebreakers of World Cup final?
If the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 wasn't already a physically exhausting and mentally draining tournament, it became all the more so on Sunday after Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy took their all-Indian final clash into an extra day in Batumi, Georgia. The second classical game of their final ended in a draw, pushing the decider to a tiebreak on Monday. While the first leg was a tale of missed opportunities for Divya, the second leg saw a different approach from Humpy, who opted for a non-risky opening with White. She began with knight to f3 from the right flank, choosing a well-known English opening, sticking to her strength, which is positional chess, in the hope of grinding Divya down later in the game. The players quickly exchanged all minor pieces, except for Humpy's dark-squared bishop, which she retained in exchange for Divya's knight, with queens still on the board for counterplay. GM Pravin Thipsay analysed Humpy's opening choice: 'It was expected that Humpy would try to press for an advantage, and that's what happened. She began with the English opening but eventually transposed into the regular Queen's Gambit Declined, the Semitarash variation,' Thipsay told The Indian Express. Explaining Humpy's middle-game strategy, Thipsay added: 'I expected her to play for a better pawn structure, as she excels at exploiting weaknesses. But on move 9, she had a choice between a bishop-over-knight advantage or a superior pawn structure and she opted for the former. In my opinion, a pawn structure advantage would have suited her better.' By the 22nd move, the players entered an endgame with equal pawns, though Humpy sought an edge with her active bishop, placing it on long diagonals. She even sacrificed a central pawn to keep the position sharp and pressure Divya into an error. 'Divya exchanged one of Humpy's knights for a bishop on move 9, and on the 12th move, she gave up her second bishop for a knight, leading to a complex but roughly equal position in a symmetrical pawn structure,' said Thipsay. 'Double bishops are generally better than double knights, but this was a semi-open position with central pawns. I've played this structure many times, and the advantage isn't significant. Divya correctly exchanged rooks, and by the 20th move, a draw seemed inevitable.' 'But Humpy took bold decisions,' he added. 'She sacrificed a pawn on move 23, putting Divya in a tricky spot. Divya missed the best 24th move, which would have forced a draw. After that, Humpy had chances, especially on move 28, where she could have regained the pawn with some advantage.' However, Humpy allowed Divya's position to improve before regaining her pawn, by which point she also forced Divya to end the game by perpetual checks. In the all-Chinese battle for third place, Tan Zhongyi prevailed over top seed Lei Tingjie, clinching her spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament. Though both players are drained after nearly a month of relentless chess, one can still expect a high-octane tiebreak clash, with neither player likely to back down until the very end. Humpy holds an edge in shorter time controls as a two-time and reigning World Rapid Champion. However, the odds aren't entirely skewed as Divya has never lost to her in Rapid chess. In their two recorded rapid encounters, Divya has one win and one draw. Things will change though, if the tiebreak heads to the Blitz round, the gulf between the two players widens. Humpy, the 2022 World Blitz Championship runner-up, has dominated Divya in this format, winning four of their five blitz games. Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand analysed their strengths ahead of the tiebreak. He said, 'On paper, Humpy has better results, but Divya has more momentum. Humpy's wins have been shakier, but since the 2024 Olympiad (where Humpy didn't play) she's won the Women's World Rapid Championship, the Pune Grand Prix, and performed strongly at Norway Chess. Divya, though, must be relieved this tournament is finally here. Everyone's been waiting for her breakthrough, and both seem pleased with how things are unfolding,' Anand said on ChessBase India YouTube stream. This will be Humpy's second Candidates appearance in a row after her second-place finish in 2023. 'It's a great result (two Indians in the World Cup final), but what I like is this twin thing that on the one hand, we have Harika and Humpy as two veterans of the game but on the other hand, the last Candidates was Vaishali and now we're guaranteed a spot for Humpy and Divya so I like this combination of one youngster and one of the veterans,' Anand remarked. Praising India's first female Grandmaster, he added, 'What Humpy is doing is incredible. I feel bad calling her a veteran, but this is amazing stuff. She has come from a break, so her ability to relaunch herself, so to speak and even she's specialising in the faster format, she's doing quite well there. If you look at her openings, it's all current. In that sense, she shows that not only she's able to play but she's also fully in touch with all the current developments in chess.'
