Russia Wins FIDE World Women's Team Championship, China Eliminates USA in Quarterfinals

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Photo courtesy FIDE/Raul Martinez

The FIDE team (Russia) won the 2025 FIDE World Women’s Team Championship, winning both matches over an underdog Azerbaijan team — which finished fourth in Group A during the Pool Stage — in the finals.

China won both matches over Kazakhstan to claim bronze. Team USA pushed China to a tiebreak in the quarterfinals before being eliminated 3½–½ in the blitz playoff.

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Irina Krush watches Carissa Yip's game during the quarterfinals. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Pavel Dvorkovich)

The format for the knockout stage consisted of two four-player matches at the “fast classic” time control of G/45 with a 30-second increment from move. This event was the third tournament in a pilot program to experiment with counting fast classic games for classical FIDE ratings.

In the first quarterfinal match on Friday, USA delivered an emphatic 3–1 victory with wins by IMs Anna Sargsyan and Tatev Abrahamyan on Boards 2 and 3, respectively.

Abrahamyan’s win was a miniature after an unfortunate error from her 15-year-old opponent, while Sargsyan’s came from outplaying her opponent in an imbalanced middlegame:

The return match, held later that same day, saw China strike first on Boards 3 and 4. 

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Carissa Yip's upset of Hou Yifan in the second quarterfinal match was an individual highlight despite China's match win. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Pavel Dvorkovich)

But, on Board 1, IM Carissa Yip managed to upset former Women’s World Champion GM Hou Yifan:

A 2–2 draw in the second match would clinch a victory for USA, and Sargsyan looked to be grinding her way to victory, but things are never so simple:

After the unfortunate loss, the players moved to blitz tiebreaks, where China took over.

Hou got her revenge against Yip, leaving other boards forced to take risks to try and level the match:

In the semifinals, Russia defeated China in both matches, while Azerbaijan — which upset Pool B winner Georgia in the quarterfinals — got revenge from the Pool Stage against Kazakhstan in the blitz playoff. Both Russia and China won in straight sets for first and third place, respectively.

Azerbaijan’s IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva claimed individual gold for Board 1, finishing with a higher performance rating than Hou. All individual medals are available here.