IM Song Yuxin has joined fellow 19-year-olds IM Meruert Kamalidenova and IM Umida Omonova in round four of the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup after knocking out GM Anna Muzychuk in round-three tiebreaks. In the six tiebreak matches only one player, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, wrapped up victory in the 15-minute games, while Song and GMs Kateryna Lagno, Nana Dzagnidze, Harika Dronavalli, and Vaishali Rameshbabu all won nerve-wracking matches in the 10-minute games.
Round four begins on Wednesday, July 16, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Women’s World Cup Round 3 Results
In the six tiebreak matches only Song pulled off an upset, but all the outcomes come easily have been reversed.
| Fed | Player | Rtg | – | Fed | Player | Rtg | G1 | G2 | TB |
| GM Antoaneta Stefanova | 2399 | – | GM LEI TINGJIE | 2552 | 0-1 | 0-1 | |||
| WFM Elnaz Kaliakhmet | 2218 | – | WIM UMIDA OMONOVA | 2211 | ½-½ | 0-1 | |||
| GM NANA DZAGNIDZE | 2505 | – | GM Valentina Gunina | 2416 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 3-1 | ||
| GM Bella Khotenashvili | 2418 | – | GM MARIYA MUZYCHUK | 2492 | 0-1 | 0-1 | |||
| GM KONERU HUMPY | 2543 | – | IM Klaudia Kulon | 2407 | ½-½ | 1-0 | |||
| IM Meri Arabidze | 2440 | – | GM ALEXANDRA KOSTENIUK | 2474 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 0.5-1.5 | ||
| IM SONG YUXIN | 2410 | – | GM Anna Muzychuk | 2535 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 2.5-1.5 | ||
| IM Polina Shuvalova | 2480 | – | IM LELA JAVAKHISHVILI | 2432 | ½-½ | 0-1 | |||
| GM ZHU JINER | 2547 | – | IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya | 2403 | 1-0 | 1-0 | |||
| IM Teodora Injac | 2457 | – | IM DIVYA DESHMUKH | 2463 | 0-1 | ½-½ | |||
| IM Vantika Agrawal | 2388 | – | GM KATERYNA LAGNO | 2515 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1.5-2.5 | ||
| GM HARIKA DRONAVALLI | 2483 | – | IM Stavroula Tsolakidou | 2428 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 3-1 | ||
| IM Irina Bulmaga | 2393 | – | GM TAN ZHONGYI | 2546 | ½-½ | 0-1 | |||
| IM YULIIA OSMAK | 2468 | – | IM Lu Miaoyi | 2452 | 1-0 | ½-½ | |||
| IM MERUERT KAMALIDENOVA | 2330 | – | WGM Anna Shukhman | 2413 | ½-½ | 1-0 | |||
| IM Carissa Yip | 2431 | – | GM VAISHALI RAMESHBABU | 2481 | ½-½ | ½-½ | 1-3 |
Kosteniuk Gets Job Done Fast
It was only 13th seed and former Women’s World Champion Kosteniuk who managed to wrap up her tiebreak match in two games, but she noted nothing comes easy at the World Cup. “Every match is like a lifetime,” she said, adding “at one point I was ready to say goodbye to the tournament” about her first-round clash with IM Padmini Rout. She had similar emotions toward the end of the second classical game against Arabidze, but also reflected that getting knocked out isn’t the end of the world:
It’s not the worst thing, to go home… Here it’s like the choice you have is always great. Either you go home, which is great, or you stay in the tournament, which is also quite nice, if you still survive and you’re still fighting.
Either you go home, which is great, or you stay in the tournament, which is also quite nice!
—Alexandra Kosteniuk
After a quiet draw in the first 15-minute game, Kosteniuk claimed she had, “no clue what was going on in the second game,” but she did add that her time advantage allowed her to be more precise and that it was “a very nice finish.”
That clash is our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.
Kosteniuk was asked afterward if luck exists in chess and replied: “Yes, but it’s the strongest who has the luck. It’s very important in sport, in chess, but you need to deserve it!”
Song Shocks Muzychuk
Anna Muzychuk is the highest seed to fall so far at this World Cup, and it came despite the Ukrainian star winning the day’s most crushing game. China’s Song blundered in the opening and was never given a second chance.
Song recovered from that loss, but she confessed it took some of that luck Kosteniuk talked about!
I adjusted my mind and I just focused on the chessboard, and I won the second game very luckily because it’s an equal endgame, but she made some mistake.
Here are the final stages:
It was Muzychuk who failed to recover from that blow, allowing a winning tactic by move 15 of the first 10-minute game. That was missed, but a few moves later Anna grabbed a poisoned pawn and was ruthlessly punished by Song, who then dominated the final game as well. The fifth seed offered a draw a pawn down and was out of the event.
Favorites Win After Incredibly Close Fights
Elsewhere all the favorites won their matches, but it would be an understatement to suggest things could have gone differently everywhere you looked. The wildest match was between Dzagnidze and Gunina, with no draws and Dzagnidze taking the lead three times.
Just when it seemed the first rapid game was going to provide the first draw, Gunina blundered with 40.Bc8? and 40…Kg5! trapped the rook.
Then in the next game Gunina played a desperate opening, got a lost position, but then turned it around and got to play a spectacular queen sacrifice to clinch victory.
Dzagnidze got up and punched back again, despite playing the notoriously drawish Exchange Slav. Then in the final game it looked like Gunina would once again win on demand to take the match to 5+3 games, but the win slipped from her grasp and, in the final position, she let her clock run out while looking for a chance that was no longer there.
While that was the wildest match, the quietest, at least in tiebreaks, was Lagno vs. IM Vantika Agrawal, which began with three unremarkable draws.
The fourth game made up for it, however. Vantika was in fact winning, but needed to find a brilliant exchange sacrifice. When she didn’t it was Lagno who won in style, delivering checkmate with the final move.
The seventh seed had completed her recovery from a loss in the first classical game.
10th seed Harika scraped through against IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, with the Indian GM putting her torment down to a miss in the first classical game:
It was all self-done, I think. I was so much winning in the first classical game, just like mate-in-3. Then I had to really forget it and play chess again. It’s been a tough one. Once I didn’t win the first game it became really tough, but I’m glad I managed!
Their first two tiebreak games were drawn, despite Tsolakidou arriving five minutes and 20 seconds late for the second game because of a medical issue.
In the third game Harika won smoothly, but Tsolakidou came incredibly close to winning the next and prolonging the match after Harika went for a misjudged tactic. In the end, however, it all came down to one move. 29.Ne7+! was winning, but Tsolakidou went for 29.Nd4? and resigned instantly after 29…Qxe3+!.
That leaves one match, and arguably the most anticipated of the round: 24-year-old Indian Vaishali vs. 21-year-old U.S. IM Carissa Yip. After both players had chances in the second classical game, the 15-minute tiebreak games were where Yip let the match slip away. Vaishali admitted, “Both of the games I was completely lost.”
That especially applied to the first, where Yip had two extra pawns. 62…bxc3?! (62…b3!) was already complicating the task, however, while 63…b5?? was simply a blunder.
Vaishali saw no ghosts, grabbed the pawn, and easily made a draw, before going on to survive a position a piece down in the next tiebreak game.
Those missed chances came back to haunt Yip, who soon got into trouble in the first 10-minute game, with 17…g5? inviting a fine blow.
None of the four players who lost the first 10-minute game managed to hit back in the second. Yip gave absolutely everything—including sacrificing a piece simply to avoid a draw—but Vaishali was in complete control and eased through into round four.
With only 16 players left we have heavyweight clashes in most of the eight match-ups, though it’s notable that either 28th seed Song or 21st seed IM Lela Javakhishvili will make it through to the Quarterfinals. It’ll also be fascinating to see if Kamalidenova and Omonova can continue their giant killing—to do that 81st seed Omonova will have to beat the top seed of the whole event! The action starts Wednesday, after a rest day on Tuesday.
Women’s World Cup Round 4 Pairings
| Fed | Seed | Player | Rtg | – | Fed | Seed | Player | Rtg |
| 1 | GM Lei Tingjie | 2552 | – | 81 | WIM Umida Omonova | 2211 | ||
| 8 | GM Nana Dzagnidze | 2505 | – | 9 | GM Mariya Muzychuk | 2492 | ||
| 4 | GM Humpy Koneru | 2543 | – | 13 | GM Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2474 | ||
| 28 | IM Song Yuxin | 2410 | – | 21 | IM Lela Javakhishvili | 2432 | ||
| 11 | GM Vaishali Rameshbabu | 2481 | – | 59 | IM Meruert Kamalidenova | 2330 | ||
| 14 | IM Yuliia Osmak | 2468 | – | 3 | GM Tan Zhongyi | 2546 | ||
| 10 | GM Harika Dronavalli | 2483 | – | 7 | GM Kateryna Lagno | 2515 | ||
| 15 | IM Divya Deshmukh | 2463 | – | 2 | GM Zhu Jiner | 2547 |
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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