FIDE Women’s World Cup: Humpy becomes first-ever Indian to reach semifinals, Vaishali knocked out

Koneru Humpy created history by becoming the first-ever Indian to reach the FIDE Women’s World Cup semifinals on Sunday in Batumi, Georgia.

India No. 1 Humpy, playing with black pieces, drew her second classical game against China’s Yuxin Song, a day after winning the first one, to take the contest with a 1.5-0.5 scoreline.

Harika Dronavalli’s run to the quarterfinals at the last edition in 2023 was previously the best performance by an Indian woman.

Song’s preferred choice was the Jobava’s London, an opening that is fancied these days by many strong Grandmasters. Humpy equalised without much ado but then sacrificed two pawns in tandem to give white some hopes.

However, Song’s pawn structure was really broken with three pawns standing on a sole file and Humpy found her counter play in the centre. Recovering the pawns, Humpy was happy to lead the game to a level rook-and-pawns endgame.

Song tried in vain for 53 moves before splitting the point.

Humpy will next face top-seeded Chinese Lei Tingjie who defeated local hope Nana Dzagnidze 2-0 in their quarterfinal.

R. Vaishali, playing with black pieces, lost her second classical game to China’s Tan Zhongyi, resulting in her exit from the tournament as Tan won the contest 1.5-0.5.

The all-Indian last-eight clash between Harika and Divya Deshmukh will be decided via tiebreaks after the duo’s second classical game also ended in a draw. The winner of that contest takes on Tan in the semifinals.

The World Cup offers three spots to the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament, set to happen in the first half of 2026. India is assured of at least one spot since there are three Indians amongst the five remaining players in the competition.

The tiebreaks between Harika and Divya will be played on Monday, July 21, from 4:35PM IST.

(With inputs from PTI)