FIDE Women's World Cup 2025: Indians in action in pre-quarterfinals; match-ups, pairings, colours, tournament tree

Divya Deshmukh became the first Indian to qualify for Round 4 after beating Serbian IM Teodora Injac 1.5-0.5 after the two-legged Classical match.

By: Sports Desk

Updated: July 15, 2025 05:14 PM IST

2 min read

India's Divya Deshmukh in action against Serbia's Teodora Injac during FIDE World Cup Round 3. (Anna Shtourman/FIDE)

FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025, Indians in action: The FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 is witnessing some strong performances from the Indian contingent. Four different players have made it to Round 4 (Pre-Quarterfinals) of the biennial event, happening in Batumi, Georgia.

Divya Deshmukh became the first Indian to qualify for Round 4 after beating Serbian IM Teodora Injac 1.5-0.5 after the two-legged Classical match. She was followed by current World Rapid Champion, Koneru Humpy, who defeated Poland’s Klaudia Kulon with the same 1.5-0.5 margin through Classical matches.

The rest three Indian participants — Harika Dronavalli, R. Vaishali and Vantika Agrawal — played out a 1.0-1.0 draw in Classical time-control and moved to tiebreaks.

Vantika was playing against a strong GM Kateryna Lagno, a multiple-time Blitz and Rapid World Champion. The young Indian started with a Classical win but the experienced Russian grandmaster enforced tiebreaks after beating Vantika in the following leg. Both of them played three draws before Lagno prevailed over Vantika with white pieces in the 10-minute time-control Rapid game.

Lagno will take on Harika Dronavalli in Round 4 after the India No. 2 beat Stavroula Tsolakidou of Greece comfortably in tiebreaks. Vaishali beat the young sensation from the USA, IM Carissa Yip to make it into the pre-quarters.

Divya will have an uphill task as she takes on China’s Zhu Jiner, the current World No. 4 in Round 4. Humpy vs Alexandra Kosteniuk will be an equal match-up. Vaishali will lock horns with Kazakhstan’s Meruert Kamalidenova.

Round 4 match-ups

Divya Deshmukh vs Zhu Jiner (CHN)
Koneru Humpy vs Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI)
Harika Dronavalli vs Kateryna Lagno (FID)
R Vaishali vs Meruert Kamalidenova (KAZ)

Vaishali and Divya will play their first match with white pieces, while Humpy and Harika will have the black pieces for the first match.

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FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 Tournament Tree

PQF 1	GM Lei Tingjie	QF 1	SF 1	Final
	WIM Umida Omonova
PQF 2	GM Nana Dzagnidze
	GM Mariya Muzychuk
PQF 3	GM Humpy Koneru	QF 2
	GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
PQF 4	IM Yuxin Song
	IM Lela Javakhishvili
PQF 5	GM Vaishali Rameshbabu	QF 3	SF 2
	IM Meruert Kamalidenova
PQF 6	IM Yuliia Osmak
	GM Tan Zhongyi
PQF 7	GM Harika Dronavalli	QF 4
	GM Kateryna Lagno
PQF 8	IM Divya Deshmukh
	GM Zhu Jiner