With no decisive results after game one of the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup Semifinals, tensions rise as we enter the second and potentially last game of each match. IM Divya Deshmukh held a quick draw with Black against GM Tan Zhongyi, while GM Koneru Humpy held a longer and more difficult game against GM Lei Tingjie. Lei had objective chances for an edge in the middlegame, but it was her Indian opponent who had the better side of the draw at the end.
Game two of the Semifinals is on Wednesday, July 23, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Women’s World Cup Semifinal Results
Tan ½-½ Divya
We saw a relatively quick draw in this match. A draw with Black is typically seen as a good result in a match, but Divya wasn’t too enthusiastic about it in the interview, saying, “It’s okay, I guess.”
The critical moment of the game was after 12…Qa5+ 13.b4. Divya didn’t find it too challenging, as she explained, “b4 was definitely very odd for me. I did not consider it because I thought, okay, worst case I’ll have a fine position. i don’t think I had a very bad position at any point,” even if it was “a bit unpleasant.”
In hindsight, White could perhaps have kept more tension and life in the position with 13.Qd2 or 13.Kf1, but after the move played in the game, we saw liquidation into an equal endgame that was eventually drawn without any fright for either player.
Lei ½-½ Humpy
This second game is certainly the more exciting one, and the Chinese GM missed a real chance with the white pieces. We saw the uncommon Mortimer Variation of the Berlin Defense, and Humpy offered a pawn sacrifice with Black straight out of the opening. Understanding the full compensation for her opponent, Lei avoided taking the pawn—a decision in hindsight we can say was a good one.
Lei Tingjie could have taken the pawn on e5, allowing Marshall-like compensation, but we have 12.Nbd2 instead!https://t.co/LQXD8ul3UZ pic.twitter.com/MAaDVX3vcn
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 22, 2025
The only serious mistake of the game was 17…Nde5?, a provocative move that beckoned White to kick the knight around with 18.f4. It turns out that 18.f4, “falling for it,” was the best move after all—and would nearly have given a decisive advantage.
White’s last chance for any advantage was 21.Nxd6, and after the game move 21.Nf3 the game petered out. If anything, it was Humpy who was slightly pressing on the clock and, very slightly, on position, though White was never in any objective danger.
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes our Game of the Day below. (It will be added soon.)
In the interview, Humpy said, “It’s quite a tough game. It was not easy, like in the opening I was trying to sacrifice a pawn for the piece play, but she didn’t capture it both the times.” She added, “At some points I felt I was okay, then I felt it was a bit dubious. I really don’t know what was going on, but I think once I got this …a6, …c5, …Bf5, I had everything under control,” which the computer corroborates.
Humpy doesn’t normally play the Berlin Defense, and she explained the surprise opening choice: “I think it’s very normal for any player, like when you’re playing such a tournament, to have some new ideas. So Berlin is quite a standard opening, it’s nothing new also.”
We’re off to game two, which could be the last of the Semifinals, though a draw in either game will mean we see tiebreaks on Thursday.
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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