19-year-old Indian IM Divya Deshmukh has one foot in the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup Quarterfinals after scoring an impressive win over Chinese number-two seed GM Zhu Jiner as round four began in Batumi. The remaining three Chinese players—GM Lei Tingjie, GM Tan Zhongyi, and IM Song Yuxin—all scored convincing wins with the white pieces, while the other games were drawn with few clear-cut chances.
Game two of round four is on Thursday, July 17, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Women’s World Cup Round 4 Results
It was a good day for White as half of the games were won by the player who moved first.
| Fed | Player | Rtg | – | Fed | Player | Rtg | G1 | G2 | TB |
| GM Lei Tingjie | 2552 | – | WIM Umida Omonova | 2211 | 1-0 | . | . | ||
| GM Mariya Muzychuk | 2492 | – | GM Nana Dzagnidze | 2505 | ½-½ | . | . | ||
| GM Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2474 | – | GM Humpy Koneru | 2543 | ½-½ | . | . | ||
| IM Song Yuxin | 2410 | – | IM Lela Javakhishvili | 2432 | 1-0 | . | . | ||
| GM Vaishali Rameshbabu | 2481 | – | IM Meruert Kamalidenova | 2330 | ½-½ | . | . | ||
| GM Tan Zhongyi | 2546 | – | IM Yuliia Osmak | 2468 | 1-0 | . | . | ||
| GM Kateryna Lagno | 2515 | – | GM Harika Dronavalli | 2483 | ½-½ | . | . | ||
| IM Divya Deshmukh | 2463 | – | GM Zhu Jiner | 2547 | 1-0 | . | . |
Divya Deshmukh Plays Against Pieces To Beat Zhu Jiner
Divya confessed she was surprised that her score against Zhu was “just” 5-1 in the Chinese star’s favor, with a 3-0 classical score including Zhu winning two games in this year’s FIDE Grand Prix series. Divya said “some sort of mental block” prevented her preparing for their game in Batumi, but it didn’t get in the way of playing the game: “I just tried to think that I’m playing against the pieces… and once the game began it didn’t matter who I was playing against.”
I just tried to think that I’m playing against the pieces!
—Divya Deshmukh
It also helped that the opening went well for Divya, and she went on to win a fine game that’s our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
“I think I’m performing better than I expected myself to,” said Divya, but she added of the World Cup, with a sigh, “It’s so long, it’s so long!”
Chinese Stars Lei, Tan, Song Stake Claim For Quarterfinal Spots
A tough day for Zhu was balanced by all the other Chinese players getting off to a flying start in round four. Top seed Lei was already the only player to have won all her games in Batumi, and she kept that run going against the biggest surprise of the tournament so far, 19-year-old 81st seed IM Umida Omonova from Uzbekistan.
Lei didn’t think she was doing anything special, however, commenting, “I think every game looks quite normal but I just wait for my opponent to make a mistake.” She elaborated on her approach against Omonova, explaining:
She tried the Nimzo and I tried to play solid because generally I think she’s quite tactical and my goal is just to play some solid position and I think the position should be equal, but then she made some positional mistakes.
The approach sounds modest, but for the first time in the event Omonova was made to look like a deer in the headlights as Lei scored a crushing win. Black’s offer of an exchange sac looked like desperation, and Lei showed there was no need to grab it immediately as she cruised to victory.
Lei is one draw away from reaching the last eight of the World Cup, though her ultimate goal is to finish in the top-three and qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. It’s not all or nothing, though! We got the following dialogue:
Lei: Candidates is not like the goal for me because I think there are a lot of things interesting in my life.
WIM Charlize Van Zyl: Such as?
Lei: Now I have a puppy!
Lei explained that she wakes up each day, asks her husband if she can see the puppy, and “you see the puppy and you don’t feel any pressure anymore!”
Tan, meanwhile, is a veteran of these knockout events, having won the world championship title in one in 2017. Her win over Ukrainian IM Yuliia Osmak saw her only dip below her starting time on move 18. Soon she had a huge edge, but it wasn’t quite as smooth as it looked on the surface. An inaccuracy let Osmak back into the game, and it was only 31…Nd7? that gave Tan a forced path to victory.
The last win was for 19-year-old Song, who knocked out fifth seed GM Anna Muzychuk in round-three tiebreaks. She’d earned a rest on the rest day, but said instead “I just prepared all day!”
It turned out that would work perfectly, as she was ready for a rare Ruy Lopez line chosen by IM Lela Javakhishvili, soon got a commanding advantage, and went on to convert perfectly.
That leaves the 28th seed a draw away from reaching the Quarterfinals.
Heavyweight Clashes Start With Draws
The remaining four match-ups began peacefully, with the Berlin draw between experienced GMs Alexandra Kosteniuk and GM Koneru Humpy the quietest clash.
The other draws followed a pattern of White briefly getting chances, but seeing them vanish just as fast. That was the case for GM Mariya Muzychuk against GM Nana Dzagnidze, while GM Harika Dronavalli‘s 31…h4!? worked to make a draw perhaps mainly because GM Kateryna Lagno was down to her last five minutes.
The action in GM Vaishali Rameshbabu‘s game against 19-year-old 59th seed IM Meruert Kamalidenova from Kazakhstan took place earlier in the game. Vaishali looked to have a very promising position for a queenside attack, but a couple of inaccurate moves and Kamalidenova seized the chance to hit back and equalize, with the game ending in a draw by repetition.
On Thursday the Damocles’ sword of elimination will once again hang over the players, with the four who lost their first games needing to hit back on demand to force tiebreaks.
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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