Indians in action in pre-quarterfinals; match-ups, pairings, colours, tournament tree

FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025, Indians in action: The FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 is witnessing some strong performances from the Indian contingent. Four different players have made it to Round 4 (Pre-Quarterfinals) of the biennial event, happening in Batumi, Georgia.
Divya Deshmukh became the first Indian to qualify for Round 4 after beating Serbian IM Teodora Injac 1.5-0.5 after the two-legged Classical match. She was followed current World Rapid Champion, Koneru Humpy, who defeated Poland’s Klaudia Kulon with the same 1.5-0.5 margin through Classical matches.
The rest three Indian participants — Harika Dronavalli, R. Vaishali and Vantika Agrawal — played out a 1.0-1.0 draw in Classical time-control and moved to tiebreaks.
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Vantika was playing against a strong GM Kateryna Lagno, a multiple-time Blitz and Rapid World Champion. The young Indian started with a Classical win but the experienced Russian grandmaster enforced tiebreaks after beating Vantika in the following leg. Both of them played three draws before Lagno prevailed over Vantika with white pieces in the 10-minute time-control Rapid game.
Lagno will take on Harika Dronavalli in Round 4 after the India No. 2 beat Stavroula Tsolakidou of Greece comfortably in tiebreaks. Vaishali beat the young sensation from the USA, IM Carissa Yip to make it into the pre-quarters.
Divya will have an uphill task as she takes on China’s Zhu Jiner, the current World No. 4 in Round 4. Humpy vs Alexandra Kosteniuk will be an equal match-up. Vaishali will lock horns with Kazakhstan’s Meruert Kamalidenova.
Round 4 match-ups

Divya Deshmukh vs Zhu Jiner (CHN)
Koneru Humpy vs Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI)
Harika Dronavalli vs Kateryna Lagno (FID)
R Vaishali vs Meruert Kamalidenova (KAZ)

Vaishali and Divya will play their first match with white pieces, while Humpy and Harika will have the black pieces for the first match.Story continues below this ad
FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 Tournament Tree

PQF 1

GM Lei Tingjie

QF 1

SF 1

Final

WIM Umida Omonova

PQF 2

GM Nana Dzagnidze

GM Mariya Muzychuk

PQF 3

 GM Humpy Koneru

QF 2

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

PQF 4

 IM Yuxin Song

IM Lela Javakhishvili

PQF 5

 GM Vaishali Rameshbabu

QF 3

SF 2

IM Meruert Kamalidenova

PQF 6

 IM Yuliia Osmak

GM Tan Zhongyi

PQF 7

 GM Harika Dronavalli

QF 4

GM Kateryna Lagno

PQF 8

 IM Divya Deshmukh

GM Zhu Jiner

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