Zhu Jiner is winning. That’s the headline. She’s won four games out of six in the 2025 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Pune and is now, technically speaking, “world number five.” That is impressive. It should feel impressive.

Instead, it reads like an inventory report from a mid-performing supply chain software company.

Here’s the vibe: player A defeated player B. Player C held a draw against player D. Player E is 0.5 points behind the leader. Everyone is very professional. No one appears to have feelings. No one appears to have slept badly, cried in the bathroom, or texted their coach something unwise. This is chess, the narrative tells us — not life.

Which raises the question: why does the Women’s Grand Prix, an elite tournament in one of the world’s most electric chess countries, feel like it was copy-edited by a polite ghost?

Let’s talk about the facts, briefly, like a FIDE report would: Zhu beat Vaishali Rameshbabu with the black pieces, calmly outmaneuvering her in an endgame that looked dead even. Humpy Koneru, the other Indian heavyweight, also won and is now half a point behind Zhu. There are five rounds left. The top women in the world are throwing subtle bombs across the board.

And yet somehow, this all arrives to the public wrapped in the emotional intensity of a bus timetable.

It’s not the players’ fault. It’s not the games. It’s the coverage — and by coverage we mean the total lack of narrative energy. The broadcast is competent. The social media posts are present. But no one seems willing to do the one thing elite women’s chess urgently needs: make it feel like something is actually at stake.

Imagine if Zhu’s dominance were treated like a takeover. Or if Vaishali’s loss at home got the pathos it deserves — young prodigy trying to hold the line in front of a home crowd, cracked open by a cold, surgical performance from the rising queen of Chinese chess. Imagine if the stories behind the moves were told with even a fraction of the drama they deserve.

Instead, what we get is a game-by-game digest, color-coded and hollowed out.

This isn’t about gossip. It’s about narrative oxygen. About treating elite women’s events not as ceremonial obligations or FIDE obligations or pleasant backdrops to the men’s cycle — but as the main event. Right now, the Women’s Grand Prix has all the necessary ingredients for a real, marketable, emotional tournament. Talent. Stakes. Rivalries. National weight. Drama.

It just needs someone to tell the story like it matters.

Until then, we’ll keep getting reports about Zhu’s rating jumping six points, Humpy trailing closely, and Vaishali drawing someone else. We’ll know what happened, but not why it felt like anything.

And the chess world will keep wondering why women’s events “don’t generate enough interest.” Funny how that works.

Editor’s Note: World Chess will be launching a dedicated media project later this year. In the meantime, we’ll be publishing select stories, commentary, and dispatches right here. Stay tuned.