Vantika Stuns Lagno: Women’s Chess World Cup 2025, Round 3.1

IM Vantika Agrawal followed up knocking out GM Anna Ushenina by beating seventh seed GM Kateryna Lagno as round three of the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup began. There were six more wins, for GMs Lei Tingjie, Nana Dzagnidze, Mariya Muzychuk, Zhu Jiner and for IMs Divya Deshmukh and Yuliia Osmak, while many of the draws were thrillers. Fourth seed GM Koneru Humpy was lost in 15 moves against IM Klaudia Kulon but escaped in 102, while GM Alexandra Kosteniuk missed a beautiful win over IM Meri Arabidze. 

The second classical game of round three is on Sunday, July 13, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.

Women’s World Cup Round 3 Results

All but six of the expected players made it to the Last 32 of the Women’s World Cup in Batumi, and as round three began, seventh seed Lagno was the only favorite to suffer defeat. There were six more wins and nine draws.

Vantika’s Giant Killing Continues As 7 Players Start With Wins

23-year-old Indian star Vantika had needed six tiebreak games to get past Ushenina the day before, but exhaustion wasn’t a problem. She explained:

I was just happy that yesterday I did not crack under pressure and managed to qualify to the third round. I think that’s what just boosted my confidence, and even though I felt very tired I just kept going. 

Vantika did more than keep going, since she scored a totally convincing win over 127-point-higher-rated Lagno. She played a rare sideline of the Grunfeld Defense and then outcalculated her opponent in the middlegame.   

That’s our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.

Vantika’s Indian teammate Divya also won, against reigning European Women’s Champion IM Teodora Injac. The final position after 39…f4 sums up Black’s domination—the rook can no longer defend the bishop on d3.

There are five players from both India and China in the remaining 32, with the top Chinese stars also in good form in the first game of round three. Lei’s constant pressure against GM Antoaneta Stefanova paid off, while arguably the women’s player of the year, Zhu, got to unleash some nice tactics when Polish IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya played 34…Rf7? with just six seconds on her clock.  

The one Chinese player to lose was 15-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi, who dropped two pawns against higher-rated Ukrainian IM Osmak and was never given a chance in what followed.

Local Georgian star Dzagnidze is seeded eighth. She won a heavyweight tactical battle against GM Valentina Gunina, a player who more often than not emerges on top in such clashes. 17.Rxd6! was a powerful move, but it was winning only after Gunina went astray in the complications that followed.

The one win which wasn’t one-sided, for Mariya Muzychuk against GM Bella Khotenashvili, did in fact seem one-sided on the surface… and to the winner, who was surprised to learn in the post-game interview that tactics were working in her opponent’s favor at one point.

Mariya Muzychuk is playing in Batumi almost exactly 10 years after she won the women’s world championship title in a knockout tournament. Asked how her play has changed since then, she commented: “I feel that I improved my play, but O.K., let’s look at my rating—it’s hard to say!”

Humpy Leads The Great Escape Artists 

The remaining games were drawn, but with very rare exceptions—such as a 12-move draw between IM Carissa Yip and GM Vaishali Rameshbabu—they were hard-fought and full of chances. We saw some remarkable escapes, including for the number-four seed Humpy, whose 15.0-0? was a losing move.

For most of the game Poland’s Kulon went on to demonstrate why it was losing almost perfectly, but Humpy found a way back into the game. Kulon later got chances to trap her opponent’s knight in a rook vs. knight endgame, but ultimately Humpy made a 102-move draw.

That escape by an Indian star was balanced out by GM Harika Dronavalli coming incredibly close to beating IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, who felt she was doing fine earlier in the game before getting into trouble: “I had to hold in this very unpleasant endgame, which I suppose was probably lost. She was doing pretty well, but then she was low on time and I guess it got hard.”

There were multiple ways for White to win, so let’s just give one moment, after 51…Kf7. Harika quickly played the strong 52.fxe6+, but this was a case of “When you see a good move, look for a better one!” 52.Bf8! would likely have forced instant resignation.

One of the fascinating storylines this round is that either the 80th seed, 14-year-old WFM Elnaz Kaliakhmet, or the 81st seed, 19-year-old WIM Umida Omonova, will reach the Last 16. It was Kaliakhmet who was pushing all the way in the first game and looked to be converting an extra pawn perfectly. She fell very low on time, however, and Omonova pounced to force a draw.

We’ve left the most remarkable game to last, however. Former Women’s World Champion Kosteniuk took over in Arabidze’s time trouble and was on course to win with the black pieces, but the endgame turned out to be full of surprises. Arabidze missed a chance to force a draw, then Kosteniuk missed the stunning resource 60…Rh8!!.

If White takes the rook, …Kf7 traps the king, and then the knight will maneuver around the board to reach g6 and give checkmate!

Arabidze showed that move to her opponent immediately after the game, which ended in a draw when 60…Kf5? was played instead. Let’s take a look at the later stages, first with the amazing earlier chance for Arabidze.

Kosteniuk and Arabidze are tied going into Sunday’s second game, but seven players, including Lagno, are in a must-win situation. Don’t miss all the action! 

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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