Divya Joins Top Seeds in Women's World Cup Semi-Finals

The semi-finals are set for the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Georgia. With three spots in the FIDE Women’s World Championship Candidates Tournament up for grabs (and none of the semi-finalists already qualified), the question is whether it will be China or India to send not one but two players to the Candidates.

The semi-finals begin Tuesday at 6:20 a.m. CDT, with top-seeded GM Lei Tingjie paired against fourth-seeded GM Humpy Koneru and third-seeded GM Tan Zhongyi facing the only surprise semi-finalist, IM Divya Deshmukh.

The four remaining players have each earned paychecks of at least $20,000, going up to $35,000 for the runner-up and $50,000 for the winner. In addition to the Candidates spots, Divya could earn a GM norm by reaching the finals (a la IM Nurgyul Salimova in 2023), and, unlike Salimova, she could directly earn the GM title by winning the tournament. The matches for first and third place begin Saturday, July 26, after Friday’s rest day.

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Results of rounds 4 and 5, setting up the semi-finals, from FIDE's event page

We last checked in on the tournament after round three, the field of 107 had already winnowed to 16, with seven of the top eight still standing. Now, we’ll catch up on rounds four and five, tracing the semi-finalists path to the precipice of Candidates spots. All annotations by WGM Sabina Foisor unless otherwise noted.

In their fourth-round matches, Lei and Tan each won 1½–½ over WIM Umida Omonova and IM Yulia Osmak, respectively. Despite being the lowest-seeded player remaining (80^th), Omonova put up a fight against Tan, missing an equalizer in their second classical game:

Only two other fourth-round matches were decided without tie-breakers: GM Nana Dzagnidze’s 1½–½ victory over GM Mariya Muzychuk in the eight-nine match-up and IM Song Yuxin’s 1½–½ victory over Georgian IM Lela Javakhishvili. Dzagnidze’s victory advanced her to a match against Lei in the quarter-finals, and Song went on to face GM Humpy Koneru after Humpy’s 2½–1½ victory over former Women’s World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

In the bottom half of the bracket, Tan enjoyed a rest day while GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and Kazakhstani WGM Meruert Kamalidenova fought it out in the longest tie-breaker of the day for the honor of being Tan’s quarter-final opponent. Vaishali emerged victorious 4½–3½ after trading decisive blows in the first four tie-break games.

It was an unfortunate exit for Kamalidenova who, after eliminating the defending champion and sixth-seeded GM Aleksandra Goryachkina in the second round, looked every bit like she belonged in such elite company.

The final quarter-final pairing was entirely determined in tie-breakers. First, 10th-seeded GM Harika Dronavalli besting seventh-seeded GM Kateryna Lagno 3½–2½. 

Then, in the upset of the round, 15th-seeded Divya scoring the major upset over second-seeded GM Zhu Jiner 2½–1½ after Zhu failed to hold the following endgame in the first tie-break game:

In the quarterfinals, Lei advanced with a 2–0 victory over Dzagnidze to face Humpy after her 1½–½ win over Song. Humpy took control early in the first game, and the result was rarely in doubt from there:

Despite the lopsided final score, Lei’s victories were anything but humdrum. In their first game, Dzagnidze mistakenly declined a sac from Lei that would have forced a draw, going on to suffer a worse position until the time control, when…

Lei was never in trouble in the second classical game, although Dzagnidze did miss some drawing chances in the endgame that might make an appearance in a future video on our YouTube channel, making it an upset-free "one-versus-four" semi-final between Humpy and Lei in the top half of the bracket.

The bottom half of the bracket features the only remaining underdog. After a pair of draws in the classical portion, Divya took control in the tie-breakers to eliminate Harika in a generational upset for the intra-Indian battle:

The 15th-seeded IM advances to face third-seeded Tan, who eliminated Vaishali in their quarter-final encounter. Vaishali entered coming off consecutive multi-overtime tie-breakers, and it looked like she would have another chance to work her magic after drawing the first classical game. But Tan had different plans for Sunday’s game, eliminating Vaishali before she could reach the rapid portion.

Play continues Tuesday at 6:20 a.m. CDT, with colors still to be determined. Stay tuned beginning next week for even more highlights from the early rounds of the Women’s World Cup, including puzzles selected by WGM Sabina Foisor and video recaps of key moments, also by Foisor. All past coverage is available here.