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2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup: Jumpy Start For Favorites

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The first day of the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup wasn’t the star-studded affair that it should have been, as the top 21 seeds received a bye to proceed directly to the second round. So, it was a low-key start for the event with 107 participants from 46 countries playing at the Grand Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Batumi, Georgia.

However, the day was a tough one for many of the higher-rated players. IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham of Vietnam, IM Khanim Balajayeva of Azerbaijan, and IM Deysi Cori of Peru ended up losing to their lower-rated opponents, while GM Valentina Gunina of Russia, GM Irina Krush of the U.S., IM Sophie Milliet of France, IM Gulnar Mammadova of Azerbaijan, IM Vantika Agrawal of India, and IM Oliwia Kiolbasa of Poland were among the favorites who were all held to draws. 

IM Carissa Yip of the U.S., IM Klaudia Kulon of Poland, and GM Antoneta Stefanova of Bulgaria found the going tough but fought back well toward the final stages of their games to register wins.

It was comparatively smooth sailing for a few other favorites, especially GM Anna Ushenina of Ukraine and IM Alice Lee of the U.S.

The second game of the first round starts on Monday, July 7, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.


Though trailing her opponent by 432 points (!) in Elo rating, 16-year-old CM Isabelle Ning of New Zealand held Gunina under a strong grip and even seemed to have mildly better chances in a major-piece endgame:

Ning, all of 16 years old, had Gunina in a bind. Photo: Anna Shtourman/FIDE.

WGM Alserkal Rouda Essa of the UAE had a considerable advantage against Krush in the late middlegame:

The Queen’s Gambit Declined is dubbed as the “opening of the world champions”—before the silicon era, the opening was definitely featured in all the world championship matches. It is always a delight when the nuances of the opening are displayed, and such a demonstration came from GM Bella Khotenashvili, especially by exchanging her minor pieces, leaving Black with a detestably bad bishop, and then constructing that delightful major-piece construct: the so-called “Alekhine’s Gun!” Though the game originated from a Queen’s Indian Defense, it had major shadows of the QGD:

Bella Khotenashvili created a little delight on the chessboard. Photo: Anna Shtourman/FIDE.

The shortest and sweetest heavyweight victory was scored by Ushenina, our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.

In a rare occurrence for a classical time control game, WGM Yerisbal Miranda Llanes of Cuba suffered a curious oversight to lose to IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova of Uzbekistan in an equal position:

In this near-equal position, Miranda Llanes played 55…Be2?? and resigned after the obvious 56.Kxe2.

Of the 43 matches, 32 ended with decisive results on the first day, with 11 draws. Monday, July 7, will see the final outcome of the two-game matches—deciding the winners or taking the players to the tiebreaks.

How to watch?

You can follow the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup games on our Events Page. You can watch live commentary on the FIDE YouTube channel.

The 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup takes place at the Grand Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Batumi, Georgia. It is a 107-player tournament with a single-elimination knockout format and a classical time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move from the first move. Each round consists of two games of classical time control followed by a tiebreak in faster time controls in case the scores are tied. 

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