12 matches go to tiebreaks in round two of the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup. In a fighting second game of classical chess, we saw six win on demand. Notably, 2023 World Cup winner GM Aleksandra Goryachkina staved off elimination for at least another day by defeating Kazakh IM Meruert Kamalidenova, the younger player who upset her in game one. The upset of the day was 15-year-old WFM Elnaz Kaliakhmet (2218), another young Kazakh player, defeating and eliminating Georgian GM Nino Batsiashvili (2462).
Round two tiebreaks are on Thursday, July 10, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Goryachkina, Among Others, Wins On Demand
We saw no fewer than six players win on demand to reach tiebreaks on Friday. They were:
For the longest time, Goryachkina’s game against Kamalidenova was one of the least interesting—a dry endgame—but also one of the most important. Would we see the 2023 Women’s World Cup winner get eliminated in her very first match? Her Kazakh opponent staved off danger and reached what, in theory, should be a comfortable position even with two knights against two bishops.
Defending Women’s World Cup Champion Aleksandra Goryachkina is on the brink of an early exit, as she has no advantage in a must-win game vs. Meruert Kamalidenova! https://t.co/sFsVwTTQg7 pic.twitter.com/hOxyno9h8b
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 10, 2025
We saw many players pull water from stone, but Goryachkina’s was probably the best example of truly pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Deep in the rook endgame, Kamalidenova made her first and last serious mistake of the game, on move 52, and chess proved again to be an unforgiving game. Goryachkina converted the extra pawn with flawless technique.
After blundering the previous day, Ushenina recovered by winning a complex endgame with rooks and opposite-colored bishops, pushing her h-pawn to victory. Her h-pawn, marching up the board, won the game.
Tokhirjonova, on the other hand, came back from a losing position and used her king as an attacking piece in the middlegame to win on demand. 31…Qd5?? 32.Kf2!! must have been awesome move to make, putting that king to work! It was a much-needed victory against the formidable Chinese prodigy Lu, who at 15 years old is at her peak rating of 2452.
Song won two pawns in a sharp Sicilian middlegame and then converted in the knight endgame as well.
As we saw in Kamalidenova’s game, one mistake was the difference between match victory and an unwelcome path to tiebreak for Mkrtchian—and survival for Maltsevskaya. The race was clear: a-pawn against c-pawn, and the queen had to make way for the white passer. Unfortunately, 29.Qb6? was the wrong queen move, while 29.Qb7! would have kept the race even.
The good news for everybody involved is that nobody’s eliminated despite losing a game. On Friday, however, it will be the end of the line for five of these players.
Yip Sacs Piece vs. Krush, Earns Rest Day With 2-0 Sweep
Several players move to round three with the added bonus of a rest day, without tiebreaks, tomorrow. The players who won with 2-0 sweeps were:
After winning in game one, Yip needed a draw with the white pieces against Krush to advance, so her choice of the Alapin Sicilian was an understandable, if not predictable, one. Black had maybe some slight pressure in the late middlegame, but it was Yip who correctly evaluated a knight sacrifice that nevertheless led to equality. With long-term pressure against the king, she even managed to win our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Another American and Yip’s good friend, Lee, was eliminated after losing a second game against Shukhman, who found an early, winning combination with Black in the Catalan Opening.
Dzagnidze, after fending off an unsound attack from her opponent who had to win, put away Charochkina with a beautiful (though temporary) queen sacrifice:
In a much more complicated tactical sequence, Shuvalova won again against Mammadova when a draw would have sufficed. 26.Rxa5 was the beginning of a long line where White even temporarily sacrificed a piece, but won it back at the end of the line with interest.
Shuvalova, in her interview, said that she has by the second game settled into the tournament: “First game was a bit nervous for me. She had some chances in the game… [but] today was more calm game for me. I think when she played Bb5 move Ra5 I’m already good, but before it it maybe was an equal position, but my match situation was okay with a draw.”
She also said she feels at the top of her game now: “Some years ago I had the same rating, almost 2500, but I think that my level of play now is a bit better than it was before.” She explained that when she was young, she was a swashbuckler who didn’t care for draws, while now, “with the time you are learning to play more wisdomly, I think, to play more chess stuff than just throwing pieces.”
As for her rest day, she looks forward to seeing more than the McDonald’s restaurant!
” I saw [only] McDonald’s here and nothing more,” says Shuvalova, who looks forward to seeing more of Batumi on her rest day tomorrow, after winning her match! pic.twitter.com/BXNenHA6cY
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 10, 2025
Osmak declined a draw, which would have clinched the match, and squeezed out a win from an equal endgame against the rising Chinese player Wang. In her interview she hinted at the influence of GM Magnus Carlsen: “I like very much the style of play of Magnus Carlsen, and I studied a lot of endgames of him and sometimes when I play endgame I pose myself, like what will Magnus play in my place?”
…. what will Magnus play in my place?
—Yuliia Osmak
Another Kazakh Teenager Stuns Grandmaster
IM Lela Javakhishvili, GM Koneru Humpy, and IM Divya Deshmukh won in game one and held onto draws in the second game to advance. Meanwhile, we saw a list of players with the opposite result, winning in game two after drawing yesterday and thus dodging tiebreaks:
Kaliakhmet already proved herself to be a threat in game one when she achieved a winning position, but Batsiashvili managed to hold a draw in a two-pawns-down endgame with opposite-color bishops. The result in game two may have been to some extent self-sabotage by the Georgian grandmaster, who pushed too hard in an equal endgame.
By the time she started to err, she was already overextended and the position was hard to play, even if the computer points out it is still a draw. 46.f5? was an understandable mistake, but she had one more chance to save the game if she found the miraculous 47.g6! a move later (she had 15 minutes). After that, though, the younger player never gave a chance.
While the 2023 winner has stayed afloat for another day, the runner-up was eliminated in game two. Khotenashvili managed to squeeze out an endgame with the two bishops against the “very solid player” Salimova. She summed it up: “I think today it was equal for a long time but at the end she made some mistakes and two bishops I got advantage and I won.”
She also spoke about stamina in this nearly month-long event: “It’s very difficult, I would say, you need a lot of energy at the end of the tournament, so I’m focusing to play each game. I’m not predicting anything ahead.” Like Dzagnidze two rounds ago, she also spoke about the importance of the tournament in her country: “It’s very important for us to organize such a high-level tournament. I think for the young generation it’s a very good experience, so for me, okay, playing in the home country is, I think, more pressure, but I’m happy that I’m here.”
… playing in the home country is, I think, more pressure, but I’m happy that I’m here.
—Bella Khotenashvili
We saw a nice attacking game from Bulmaga (playing her third World Cup), and in her interview she provided analysis of it after, with the notes included below. She and her opponent are good friends, as she shared, and said, “It’s both it’s a difficult thing and maybe some advantageous thing that we know each other, but I told her that the best thing is that one of the friends will go through, you know. So this time it was me.”
I told her that the best thing is that one of the friends will go through.
—Irina Bulmaga
Harika, against her countrywoman, showed that a strong attack is possible even after the exchange of queens, with her analysis from the interview included in the notes below. Even if the engine marks the queen trade as a mistake, Harika pointed out that for a human the defense is extremely difficult, as we see:
Dark Horse Omonova Among Several Underdogs Goes Into 2nd Set Of Tiebreaks
The following players made two draws in the classical games and are off to tiebreaks tomorrow:
Underdogs Omonova, Cervantes, Priyanka, and Avramidou beat higher-rated opponents in tiebreaks after round one, so we will see if they can repeat the feat in an even stronger match.
We finish with a pretty missed tactic that occurred in Stefanova vs. Danielian (25.Bxf5 Nxf5 26.Ne6!), one that could have ended the game on the spot and saved Danielian an entire day of chess. Both players were in severe time trouble when the following mistakes occurred.
With that, we’re off to the second set of tiebreaks, with 12 players slated to be eliminated and another 12 to advance.
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.
Previous coverage:
