The World Cup is one of the most important events on the women’s calendar. It’s not just about the €50,000 prize fund (though that helps). It’s about one thing: the road to the Women’s Candidates Tournament. The two finalists already punched their ticket. The bronze match? That’s for the last open seat at the Candidates table.

Where are we?

Batumi, Georgia. Host of the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup. Two matches remain: the final and the third-place decider. One will crown a champion; the other will decide who gets the final spot in the next Women’s Candidates Tournament.

What’s at stake?

The two finalists — Humpy Koneru and Divya Deshmukh — are already qualified for the Candidates. But this match is about more than prize money. It’s a generational matchup between one of India’s most established names and one of its most dangerous rising stars. The winner takes home €50,000 and a significant psychological edge going into the next championship cycle.

The third-place match between Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi has higher immediate stakes: only one of them will qualify for the Candidates. For players of this level, missing that means sitting out an entire year of relevance.

What happened in Game 1?

Divya Deshmukh outprepared, outplayed, and nearly defeated Humpy Koneru. It was the kind of game that, on a different day, might’ve marked the beginning of a handover. Instead, it ended in a draw.

Deshmukh opened with 1.d4 — a departure from her usual 1.e4 — and entered a Queen’s Gambit Declined line that Humpy had used only sparingly since returning to it in 2023. The prep was deep: on move 7, Divya played the rare 7.Be2, a move seen only once at the top level in the past three decades. Humpy avoided the early pawn capture, likely sensing danger, but accepted it a few moves later — walking straight into complications.

By move 14, Divya had a near-winning position. The engines recommended 14.Qe2 with a crushing +2.5 advantage. Instead, she chose 14.Bxb7, allowing Koneru to return material and equalize with the defensive shot 16...h5 — a key resource she found over the board.

“I felt that after 16...h5 I was out of danger,” Humpy said in the post-game interview. She also admitted that Divya was clearly better after 12.Rb1, but that things became very unclear from that point on. Deshmukh, visibly frustrated, stayed long at the board after the game, processing what could have been her biggest win yet.

In the other match

Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie — longtime teammates and friends — played to a draw in a well-prepared line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Tan chose a sideline (10.a4) instead of the standard minority attack and gained a slight edge. But minor inaccuracies on moves 29 and 30 allowed Lei to level the position. With the Candidates spot on the line, Lei offered a draw just before her clock ticked below 15 minutes.

The match will be decided tomorrow — either in classical or in tiebreaks.

What this signals

For Indian chess, this final is symbolic. Humpy Koneru has been the leading face of women’s chess in India for over two decades. Now she’s defending her position against someone nearly three decades younger, playing faster, deeper prep, and unafraid of the moment.

The Women’s World Cup, once considered a secondary event, now sits at the center of the qualification structure. The level has gone up. The prep has gone deeper. The narratives are sharper.

And in case anyone still wasn’t paying attention: the next generation is already here.

Next games: Game 2 is scheduled for tomorrow. Humpy has White.
Watch live on FIDE’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@FIDE_chess).