Twelve players made it through the tiebreaks of round two in the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup. They were GM Mariya Muzychuk, IM Meruert Kamalidenova, GM Kateryna Lagno, GM Anna Muzychuk, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, WIM Umida Omonova, IM Lu Miaoyi, IM Vantika Agrawal, IM Yuxin Song, IM Klaudia Kulon, IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, and GM Antoaneta Stefanova.
Kamalidenova again scored the upset of the day, this time eliminating the defending champion, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina. Omonova and Vantika were other notable upsets, as they took down IM Alina Kashlinskaya and GM Anna Ushenina respectively.
The first classical game of round three is on Saturday, July 11, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
We saw the following players eliminated from the event: IM Inna Gaponenko, Goryachkina, FM Anastasia Avramidou, WGM Thalia Cervantes, IM Padmini Rout, Kashlinskaya, IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, Ushenina, IM Mai Narva, WIM Priyanka K, IM Lilit Mkrtchian, and GM Elina Danielian.
Players who advance to round three already earn $6,750.
Kamaledinova, Omonova, Vantika Score Big Upsets
Kamalidenova captured headlines on Wednesday when she defeated Goryachkina in their first classical game and for the first time in her career. But, after defending without mistakes, the Uzbek talent cracked on move 52 in their second game and allowed tiebreaks. Goryachkina, coming off a win, had momentum on her side.
On the other hand, Kamalidenova wasn’t discouraged and looked at the bright side, saying, “I was also happy yesterday because I played a good game but I blundered in the end, so I was hoping that I would play still good in tiebreaks.” She won the very first game after getting in 35.e6! and infiltrating with her rook on the seventh rank. Goryachkina sacrificed a pawn out of desperation and lost, but 38…b4 would have in fact held.
In the second game, Goryachkina was forced to take a draw by perpetual check or lose (the computer points out that it’s mate in 12 moves if she doesn’t). Thus, the 2025 Women’s World Cup is over for the defending champion and sixth seed, in the very first match.
2211-rated Omonova, who defeated IM Sophie Milliet in round one, this time defeated Poland’s number-one woman—and with 2/2 wins in tiebreaks. In game one Kashlinskaya hung a pawn and collapsed with the black pieces and thus had her back against the wall.
In a must-win final game, the Polish IM mounted an intimidating attack, but the piece sacrifice did not pan out. Indeed, attacking without sacrificing was the better policy in this case; 23.Nxd7 Qxd7 24.d4! was less flashy but more effective than what was played. Even though White had chances in the game anyway, Omonova managed to hide her king and then win that game as well, when a draw was enough.
Kamalidenova faces WGM Anna Shukhman next, a player who has won all four of her games so far.
Vantika’s match against Ushenina went all the way to blitz tiebreaks, meaning six games in total. They drew both 15+10 games, then traded black wins in the next two, and finally Vantika regained the lead and won in the 5+3 segment.
Ushenina had the upper hand in game one and was briefly losing in game two, but both were draws. Then Vantika won game three in very one-sided fashion, with a spectacular combination at the end—sacrificing a bishop and then a full rook for checkmate. That’s our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.
The match didn’t end with that, however, as Ushenina won on demand—with the black pieces. Vantika had to once again upset the former world champion, and she did in the next game. It was somewhat anticlimactic, however, as her opponent hung a piece in one move—but, incredibly, playing out the game by ennui, she missed a chance to force checkmate in six moves on move 40!
That one move could have made all the difference. Vantika went on to hold the last game to a bare kings draw, winning the match, and she will play Lagno next.
Her mother, who joined the interview, shared that their morning routine every day includes one hour of yoga. She also said, “Before she goes, I take all her stress, I tell her, you give me all the stress and you go with all my energy.”
2 Classical Draws Work Out For Kosteniuk, Muzychuks, Kulon, & Lagno
For favorites Kosteniuk, the Muzychuk sisters, Kulon, and Lagno, making two draws in the classical portion and cleaning up in tiebreaks worked out just fine—but the scoreboard will look neater than the reality.
Kosteniuk narrowly won her match, which also went to blitz tiebreaks. And she had to win on demand just to get there in the second 10+10 game, just barely winning what was an equal rook endgame. Then, she won the first blitz game, with 26.Nxf7! as the decisive blow.
After a solid draw, Anna Muzychuk beat her countrywoman Gaponenko with Black. But her sister didn’t have it so easy against Cervantes. Mariya lost the very first game but then bounced back with an on-demand win. She then won the last two games, with the penultimate one being a 17-move miniature after an opening mistake.
Mariya faces GM Bela Khotenashvili in round three.
Kulon won a one-sided match, with the first game being the more interesting one. Priyanka sacrificed a piece but didn’t get enough, as her opponent’s king ran all the way from e8 to a6 for safety. She’ll face GM Koneru Humpy next.
Lagno, on the other hand, won game one but then suffered an on-demand defeat in the next game. 33.Nxg7! was a fantastic and much-needed resource for the Greek FM.
After that, however, Lagno won the next two games. Asked whether she intended to go for tiebreaks from the beginning, considering she’s a former world rapid and (three-time) blitz champion, Lagno said no, she was trying to win in classical. Tiebreaks are, she said, “a lottery.”
Lu, Stefanova, Song, Maltsevskaya Advance
That leaves us with four remaining matches. The first two were extremely close, and in those two matches either player could have been the one to advance.
With the exception of one game, all six between Lu and Tokhirjonova were decisive.
After losing the first game, the Uzbek international master won on demand to get back into the match, finding a beautiful queen sacrifice.
She saved a losing endgame in the first 10+10 game, but then went down in flames in the last one. While it’s true the Chinese prodigy outplayed her opponent and was the one pressing for nearly the entire game, really, it was the last mistake that decided the game. Had Tokhirjonova found 50…Ne7!, she could have not only saved the game but won the match.
Lu advances and will face IM Yuliia Osmak next.
Danielian could have also been the one to advance in her match, and she had a brilliant exchange sacrifice available to her. She did sacrifice the exchange, but she took the wrong bishop!
That was the third game of four, and all the others ended in draws despite tough fights. Stefanova said, “There were a lot of chances starting from the classical time control… It was crazy, in most of our games each one could have won, so I’m very happy that finally I managed.” Stefanova advances to play GM Lei Tingjie, the number-one seed, next.
The Bulgarian grandmaster became world champion in 2004 by winning a knockout format. She said, “You need to be lucky, that’s for sure. But of course it takes a lot of strength, concentration, and resilience,” adding, “Normally those who are the strongest and the better prepared, of course they have higher chances.”
After winning game one, Song found a cunining way to use the match situation to her advantage in the final game. She proudly explained, “Rxd6 is a fantastic sacrifice because I only need to get a draw!”
After a draw in game one, Maltsevskaya won a pawn and converted it to take out are almost equally rated opponent, Mkrtchian. It only gets harder, as she plays GM Zhu Jiner next.
Round three will feature several interesting matchups, one of which will be the encounter with two underdogs that both made it this far: WFM Elnaz Kaliakhmet, who eliminated GM Nino Batsiashvili, against Omonova. Both are rated just over 2200, but are wolves in sheep’s clothing! IM Carissa Yip vs. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu should be interesting, as well as several GM versus GM matchups: Lei vs. Stefanova, GM Nana Dzagnidze vs. GM Valentina Gunina, and Mariya Muzychuk vs. Bela Khotenasvhili.
How to watch?
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 at the classical time control followed by a tiebreak in faster time controls in case the scores are tied.
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