The first game of the Fide Women's World Cup 2025 final ended in a draw between Konenaro Hampi and Divya Deshmukh in Georgia's Batumi. This is the first time when two Indian players are facing each other in the final of the tournament.
Divya tried to create a winning position in 25 moves, but Hampi took advantage of Divya's small mistakes and drew the game.
The second game will be played on Sunday in which Humpy will play with white pieces. If this match also ends in a draw, the winner will be decided by short games in the tiebreaker.
Despite this draw, World Rapid Champion Humpy is considered superior because she played with a black piece in the first game. In this two -game classical chess format, Humpy will benefit from white piece in the next and final game.
Humpy beats Tingji in the semifinal Hampi defeated China's Tingji Lein in the semifinal and entered the final. The first two games in the tiebreaker were 15-15 minutes, including the extra time. After this, the next two games were 10-10 minutes. Lei won the first game, but Humpy overcome the difficult situation in the second game and brought the match to the equalizer. In the third set of the tiebreaker, Humpy performed brilliantly with a white piece in the first game and defeated Lein.
She just needed to draw to reach the final, but she also won another game to enter the title match. Earlier, both classical games were drawn, followed by a tiebreaker on Thursday. Humpy was white in the second game, but she could not confuse Lei's strong defense.
During the tie-breaker, Chinese player Tingji Lei and Indian chess player Honera Hampi.
Divya defeated former World Champion
Divya defeated former world champion Tan Zongai in the semifinals by 1.5-0.5. 19 -year -old Divya won the first game with a white piece in 101 moves. He constantly pushed in the middle game and forced Zongy to make mistakes.
Even after the Queen Exchange, Divya's position was strong, though Zongi tried to return at one time and got the lead. But due to lack of time, Zhongi drove the wrong move, taking advantage of which Divya managed to win with the lead of two paws.
Playing with black pieces in the first game, Divya adopted a balanced strategy and drew the game. Zongi started with the 'Queens Gambit Dickline' opening, in which Divya maintained a balance by exchanging pieces. In the end, both had a rook, a minor piece (bishop/knight) and three pawns in the same piece, causing the match to draw.
Four Indian women players reached the quarter -finals For the first time in this tournament, four Indian women players Konera Hampi, Harika Dronavalli, R.K. Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh entered the quarter -finals, a historic achievement for Indian chess.
Image Credit: Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).