FIDE Women's Chess World Cup 2025: Koneru Humpy-Divya Deshmukh sets all Indian clash in final

FIDE Women's Chess World Cup 2025: Koneru Humpy-Divya Deshmukh sets all Indian clash in final

Indian chess players - Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh - have maintained their excellent run at the FIDE Women's Chess World Cup 2025. The two after reaching the semifinals beat their respective opponents to set up an all India meeting in the summit clash, which will take place on Saturday.

Humpy defeated China’s Lei Tingjie on Thursday. It was this outcome that setup the intriguing battle of minds between the two Indians.

Meanwhile, Deshmukh had reached final after beating China’s Tan Zhongyi in a topsy-turvy semifinal a day earlier.

Humpy held her nerves to score a come-from-behind victory over Tingjie Lei in the tiebreaker. Having drawn the first two games in the normal time control, Humpy had to settle up with another 1-1 draw in the tiebreaker that comprised two games with 15 minutes for both players with an increment.

After two draws, Humpy had to really work hard in the next set of tiebreak games that had 10 minutes for both players with another increment. The Chinese got in the lead early in the set of these two games and Humpy erred in the middle game to lose a pawn and get in to a difficult endgame.

What followed was pretty logical as Tingjie got in command and even thought the position was closer to a draw Humpy did not find the best defensive resources to equalize.

Humpy lost another pawn on the queen side and despite the presence of opposite coloured Bishops in the endgame, white’s influence on both flanks tilted things decisively in her favour.

It was a win on demand wherein Humpy dominated the next game. The Queen pawn opening was good enough wherein Humpy was in command right from the word go. Humpy won with her superior technique and also her absolute determination to turn the tide in her favour from any given position.

In the third set of tie-break games Humpy drew white in the first game and crushed her opponent in all departments of the game.

Winning this game meant that just a draw was needed for her to get in to the final and in the return game Humpy was at her technical best as she won again out of an Italian opening.

-with PTI inputs