The Indian women chess masters will continue to keep the country’s flag flying at the on-going FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 at Batumi, Georgia.
IMAGE: India’s Koneru Humpy during Round 4 of the game at the FIDE Women’s World Cup. Photograph: Kind courtesy FIDE/X
The 2025 International Chess Day that falls on 20th July is going to be a special one for the Indian chess fraternity.
The Indian women chess masters will continue to keep the country’s flag flying at the on-going FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 at Batumi, Georgia.
Four Indian players have entered the quarterfinals.
As one quarter final match is between two Indians, an Indian entering the semi-finals is assured.
Other than the winner between Grandmaster D Harika and International Master Divya Deshmukh, the interesting question that will be answered on International Chess Day will be whether two more Indians enter the last four.
All Indian eyes will be on the matches between GM Koneru Humpy (Elo rating 2,513) vs lower rated IM Song Yuxin of China (2,410) and GM R Vaishali (2,481) vs the much higher rated and World No. 8 in the Women’s category Chinese GM Tan Zhongyi (2,546).
Will World No. 15 Vaishali create an upset and will World No. 5 Humpy have a smooth sailing into the semi finals are the questions that will be answered on Sunday if their games do go into the tie-breaks.
While four Indian women are in the quarter finals, neighbouring China has three players and Georgian GM Dzagnidze Nana is the sole non-Asian quarter finalist.
IMAGE: Divya Deshmukh defeated the much higher-ranked Zhu Jiner to setup a quarter-final clash against compatriot Harika Dronavalli. Photograph: Kind courtesy FIDE/X
Suspense Continues On World Cup Venue
Meanwhile, the International Chess Federation or FIDE is yet to announce the venue for the FIDE World Cup (Open Category).
Earlier unconfirmed reports had said the event will be held in Delhi and now Goa is also being considered as the venue-this too unconfirmed.
FIDE, which has listed the venue for all its global events, has not yet announced the venue for the World Cup in which over 200 players will participate.
The event is slated to be held between October 31 and November 27, 2025.
Senior Delhi Chess Association and Goa Chess Association officials had told this correspondent that they are unaware of any move to hold the World Cup in Delhi or Goa.
AICF and FIDE are also silent on the matter.
In 2002, the World Cup was held in Hyderabad and won by GM Viswanathan Anand.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
