A sharp opening battle
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The first game of the Women’s World Cup final in Batumi ended in a draw. Divya Deshmukh, playing with the white pieces, surprised Humpy Koneru in the opening and reached a position with strong attacking chances. Humpy saw her opponent miss a major chance, and from that point on defended carefully to hold the balance, escaping with half a point after 41 moves. The second game of the final will be played tomorrow, with Humpy having the white pieces.
Divya opened with 1.d4, and Humpy responded with the Queen’s Gambit Declined, marking a return to a line she has not used much in recent tournaments. On move seven, instead of the common 7.f3, Divya played 7.Be2, a move seen occasionally but not often at top level. The position followed a game between Evgeny Bareev and Vasyl Ivanchuk from Linares 1992.
Humpy declined the pawn on e4 with 7…Bb7, but when Divya castled and offered the pawn again, she accepted – i.e. 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.bxc3 Nxe4
The position became sharp as Divya prevented Black from castling with 10.Ba3. There followed 10…Nd6 (10…Nd7 is better) 11.Bf3 Qc8
Divya here went for the interesting 12.Nxc4, giving up the knight while opening up the e-file for a direct attack against the black king. As noted by Humpy after the game, 12.Rab1 was a not-as-spectacular though stronger alternative.
The sharp battle continued with 12…bxc4 13.Re1+
This was the most critical point of the game. Humpy chose 13…Kf8, when engines show that 13…Kd8 is the way to go. Humpy explained after the game that she felt …Kd8 was wrong, but she was not quite sure why.
Divya then had a major chance to build a winning attack with 14.Qe2, but instead played 14.Bxb7. This allowed Humpy to return the piece and reach an equal position with 14…Qxb7 15.Qe2 Nc6 16.d5 h5
Crucially, after 14.Qe2, all lines favour White – e.g. 14…Nc6 (defending the e7-square) 15.d5 Qd7 16.dxc6 Bxc6 17.Bxc6 Bxc6 18.Bxd6+ cxd6 19.Qe7+, with a clearly better heavy-piece, simplified position for White.
19…Kf8 20.Rd1 and White is for choice. Moreover, this is only one of the many lines that could have arisen after 14.Qe2. Nevertheless, none of this appeared on the board.
Both players continued into a balanced, heavy-piece endgame. Humpy could have claimed a draw by repetition on move 29, but played on. After 30.Kh2, the game entered time trouble. Neither player made decisive progress, and the game soon ended in a draw.
Divya appeared disappointed after the game. She stayed at the board for a while before joining Humpy to greet fans. In her post-game interview, Humpy told press officer Michael Rahal that she had been close to losing.
Humpy Koneru pulled off a narrow escape | Photo: Anna Shtourman
In the third-place match, Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie also drew. Tan opened with 1.c4, and the game entered the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Both players followed well-known lines. On move 10, Tan played 11.a4, a variation seen in recent games by players as strong as Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.
The idea was to play a5 and fix the queenside structure. This is how the position looked after Lei pushed her pawn to a6, cementing the pawn setup.
The players manoeuvred for several moves. Around moves 29 and 30, Tan made slight inaccuracies, and the position shifted slightly in Black’s favour. Engines gave Black a small advantage, but the position remained blocked. Lei offered a draw on move 43 with about 15 minutes left on her clock, and Tan accepted.
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Lei and Tan left the hall together, showing no sign of tension.
The second classical games of both matches will be played tomorrow. Humpy and Lei will have the white pieces. If the games are drawn, the matches will be decided in rapid tiebreaks. The winner of the third-place match will claim the last available place in the 2026 Women’s Candidates Tournament.
Tan Zhongyi | Photo: Anna Shtourman
