FIDE Women's World Cup Finals: Divya Wins

Overview

Divya Deshmukh, continuing her impressive performance in the event, won the final match against Koneru Humpy in the tiebreaks, emerging as the winner of the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025, taking home $50,000 and achieving the GM title. The former Women’s World Champion, Tan Zhongyi beat Lei Tingjie in the second classical game of the 3rd place final, winning the match and securing her spot for the next Women’s Candidates.

Annotations by WGM Petra Papp & WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea

WGM Petra Papp has annotated all four classical games from the finals and the match for 3rd place, while WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea has annotated the decisive final tiebreak game of the 2025 Women's World Cup:

The Final

In an all-Indian Final for the Women's World Cup 2025, Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy faced each other for the 3rd time in a rated classical game. The games history was not on Divya’s side, having a score of 0.5/2 in the previous classical games (and 2 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses in all time controls combined), however the situation would be different in this final.

In the first game of the finals, Divya chose an unusual, sharp and exciting approach to the otherwise solid Queen’s Gambit Accepted, including an offered - but declined - sacrifice of her e4 pawn in return for a dynamic play.

Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

White had the opportunity to seize the advantage by playing Qe2, targeting the c4 pawn, exploiting the backrank weakness with a mating threat, while building on her initiative. This opportunity in an already complicated position was however overlooked, and Koneru was able to equalize, with the game later ending in a draw.

In the rematch, Koneru chose 1.Nf3 (instead of her usual d4) and got the game into an uncommon line, however Divya was able to navigate it remarkably accurately.

As a final attempt in the classical games, Koneru sacrificed a pawn in return for significant piece activity, however Divya was able to defend accurately, with the game soon ending in a draw, and the match to be decided a day later in the tiebreaks.

In the first game of the tiebreaks, a relatively unusual imbalance unveiled on the board:

A queen for a rook, a bishop and a pawn usually leads to roughly equal positions, however one needs to tread with caution, especially given the low time on the clock. In any case, neither player managed to get an advantage in the next 45(!) moves, with the game ending in a draw, leaving everything open for the second game of the tiebreaks.

With the Catalan played, Divya not only managed to equalize early on, but also got a considerable time advantage. This likely proved an important factor, with Divya emerging winner in a complicated endgame with mistakes from both sides, under time pressure.

Divya Deshmukh was crowned winner of the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025, subsequently achieving the GM title, having already secured a spot in the candidates by qualifying to the finals.

Divya is the winner of the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

The 3rd Place Final

The former Women’s World Champion, and 2025 challenger, Tan Zhongyi faced her compatriot Lei Tingjie, in a match for the 3rd place - and a spot to the Women’s Candidates.

In the first game of the match, with the Carlsbad variation of Queen’s Gambit Declined played, Lei managed to achieve a rather solid position, while avoiding most options to make the position sharper or more complicated. While she eventually managed to exchange the typically “bad” in this structure light squared bishop and achieved an advantageous position a draw was agreed, possibly due to black not seeing a clear way forward or not wanting to take further risks

Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

The second game of the match would take a wild turn, with Tan missing a brilliant opportunity to win the game, but still being able to outplay her opponent in the resulting imbalance

Qf1 would allow a strong - but definitely not easy to fully calculate in an actual game - tactical blow in a combination allowed by the previous 34.Rfe4, threatening to win significant material or mate (you can navigate the full lines in the annotations). This opportunity was overlooked, with Tan eventually getting an exchange for 2 pawns. The resulting position was equal, however Lei would need to be very careful and accurate in the critical moments to actually get the draw. Black was not able to find the right drawing plan, and Tan was able to outplay her opponent, squeezing the win and winning the 3rd place, together with the spot in next Women’s Candidates Tournament.

Puzzle Pack

Enjoy our collection of puzzles from the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025!