GMs Kateryna Lagno and Valentina Gunina struck back against IM Vantika Agrawal and GM Nana Dzagnidze to take their 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup round three matches to tiebreaks. Four more matches will be decided Monday, while 10 players are through to round four, including GMs Lei Tingjie, Mariya Muzychuk, and Zhu Jiner, who all won 2-0. The day’s upsets saw 21st seed IM Lela Javakhishvili knock out IM Polina Shuvalova (12th) while IM Meruert Kamalidenova (59th) beat WGM Anna Shukhman (27th). Â
The round three tiebreaks are on Monday, July 14, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Women’s World Cup Round 3 Results
10 players are through to round four, while the final six spots will be decided in tiebreaks.
| 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 | Âœ-Âœ | 0-1 | |||
| GM Nana Dzagnidze | 2505 | – | GM Valentina Gunina | 2416 | 1-0 | 0-1 | – | ||
| GM Bella Khotenashvili | 2418 | – | GM Mariya Muzychuk | 2492 | 0-1 | 0-1 | |||
| GM Koneru Humpy | 2543 | – | IM Klaudia Kulon | 2407 | Âœ-Âœ | 1-0 | |||
| IM Meri Arabidze | 2440 | – | GM Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2474 | Âœ-Âœ | Âœ-Âœ | – | ||
| IM Song Yuxin | 2410 | – | GM Anna Muzychuk | 2535 | Âœ-Âœ | Âœ-Âœ | – | ||
| IM Polina Shuvalova | 2480 | – | IM Lela Javakhishvili | 2432 | Âœ-Âœ | 0-1 | |||
| GM Zhu Jiner | 2547 | – | IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya | 2403 | 1-0 | 1-0 | |||
| IM Teodora Injac | 2457 | – | IM Divya Deshmukh | 2463 | 0-1 | Âœ-Âœ | |||
| IM Vantika Agrawal | 2388 | – | GM Kateryna Lagno | 2515 | 1-0 | 0-1 | – | ||
| GM Harika Dronavalli | 2483 | – | IM Stavroula Tsolakidou | 2428 | Âœ-Âœ | Âœ-Âœ | – | ||
| IM Irina Bulmaga | 2393 | – | GM Tan Zhongyi | 2546 | Âœ-Âœ | 0-1 | |||
| IM Yuliia Osmak | 2468 | – | IM Lu Miaoyi | 2452 | 1-0 | Âœ-Âœ | |||
| IM Meruert Kamalidenova | 2330 | – | WGM Anna Shukhman | 2413 | Âœ-Âœ | 1-0 | |||
| IM Carissa Yip | 2431 | – | GM Vaishali Rameshbabu | 2481 | Âœ-Âœ | Âœ-Âœ | – |
Gunina, Lagno Hit Back, Six Matches Go To Tiebreaks
Only two of the seven players to lose in game one were able to hit back in game two, but they were the most established stars. Gunina explained she’d mixed up her preparation in the first game against Dzagnidze, but in the second she enjoyed playing against one of her own openings, the Caro-Kann. In fact, the biggest issue she had in the 23-move game was off the board:
I was attacked by a mosquito during the game… Maybe Iâm too sweet!
âValentina Gunina
That quick knockout is our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.
Seventh seed Lagno, meanwhile, played the aggressive Samisch Variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense in her own must-win game and got everything she could dream of.
23.f5!? was objectively far from the best move in a winning position, but with Vantika down to just 45 seconds on her clock she was unable to navigate the complications and soon found herself a piece down.
Those matches now go to tiebreaks, where the players will be joined by four sets of players who made draws in both games. Three of those clashes were quiet on the second dayâGM Aleksandra Kosteniuk vs. IM Meri Arabidze, IM Stavroula Tsolakidou vs. GM Harika Dronavalli, and GM Anna Muzychuk vs. IM Yuxin Songâbut GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. IM Carissa Yip was anything but.Â
The two young stars had made a 12-move draw in game one, with Yip explaining she was trying out a new opening for her, the English, and felt her opponent had chosen a line that neutralized it easily, so: “I figured draw, rest day, and then second game today would be fine!”Â
Midway through game two it seemed that was a decision that might be punished, since, despite material being level, the computer was giving White an over +3 advantage, equivalent to a full piece.
“At some point the position was very unpleasant for me,” said Yip, but she added, “Somehow I think maybe she opened up the position too quickly and my pieces had more space to move.” 25.e5?! was the culprit, and in what followed Vaishali dropped a pawn and got into real trouble.
Yip commented, “Itâs hard psychologically because she was better and then all of a sudden sheâs worse and sheâs low on time, but she defended really well, so full props for her!”
She defended really well, so full props for her!
âYip on VaishaliÂ
Lei, Mariya, Zhu Perfect As Game 1 Winners Complete Job
Five players who won in game one completed the task to reach round four, with Lei, Mariya Muzychuk, and Zhu winning both games. Lei did it in the most brutal fashion, with 29.Qe5! mate-in-two against former Women’s World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova.
That left top-seed Lei on the only perfect score in Batumiâand also within four points of Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun on the live rating list. Â
IM Yuliia Osmak could also have scored 2-0, but settled for a draw against 15-year-old Lu Miaoyi in a completely winning position to clinch a spot in round four.
IM Divya Deshmukh also eased through with a draw, against IM Teodora Injac, but only after trying to quieten the voices in her head!Â
Today actually was tougher than yesterday, because I absolutely just wanted a draw and to qualify, but my mind couldnât search for ways how to make a draw. All it kept thinking was “ambitious,” and Iâm “no, we donât want that today!”
Divya did in fact swap off queens in a position where she was close to winning, and was never in danger. Â
Humpy, Tan Pounce In Game 2; Underdogs Advance
In the five remaining matches, a draw in the first game was followed by a win in the second, with two of the clashes seeing a player punished for missing a clear win the day before.
IM Klaudia Kulon nearly took down fourth-seed GM Koneru Humpy, but in their second encounter Humpy correctly rejected a draw on move 22 and went on to dominate with her bishop pair. 32…Bxh3+!, picking up a free pawn, was a clear sign the game was over.
That was based on a little tactic.
The other player who could regret the previous day was the youngest player in the event, 14-year-old Elnaz Kaliakhmet from Kazakhstan. The 80th seed had spoiled a totally winning position on Saturday, but in game two she was smoothly outplayed by the 81st seed, 19-year-old Umida Omonova from Uzbekistan. Omonova, who had previously upset IMs Sophie Milliet and Alina Kashlinskaya, is the lowest seeded player ever to reach the Last 16 of similar women’s knockout events.
19-year-old Kamalidenova seems to have an admirable ability to shrug off setbacks. In the previous round she went on to beat GM Aleksandra Goryachkina despite the defending champion hitting back to force tiebreaks, while in round three she got over letting a win slip against World Junior Girls Champion Shukhman in the first game to win in style with the black pieces. 27.Ne1? was the last mistake.
Perhaps the single game with the biggest swings saw IM Irina Bulmaga come within touching distance of knocking out former Women’s World Champion and number-three seed GM Tan Zhongyi.
Just when it seemed time to congratulate Tan on finding a nice way to get out of trouble and make a draw, she unleashed 52.g4!, and suddenly Black needed to find a study-like draw. Bulmaga couldn’t, and joins the exodus from the tournament.
The last game of the day to finish saw Javakhishvili knock out the higher-seeded Shuvalova in an ending that began only slightly better for White, though as the Georgian player explained, “Probably itâs possible to defend by engines, Black has just one weakness, but in a practical game itâs not easy.”
In the final stages, Javakhishvili gave up her knight to promote her pawns.
There’s a rest day for all the players on Tuesday, but first on Monday 12 will be fighting it out for the final six places in round four.Â
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.Â
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