Women's World Cup QF TB: Divya Deshmukh eliminates Harika Dronavalli to advance to the Semifinals
IM Divya Deshmukh defeated GM Harika Dronavalli twice in tie-breaks to win her Quarterfinals match and advance to the Semifinals of FIDE Women's World Cup 2025. After, GM Koneru Humpy, Divya becomes the Indian woman to qualify in a FIDE Women's World Cup tournament. Divya seized her opportunity when Harika erred in the endgame of the first 15'+10" tie-break. In the second game, Harika missed a couple of winning chances in the end. It cost her dearly and the match. Thus, the legend, Harika's journey at this event comes to an end. Divya will face the 16th Women's World Champion, GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) in the Semifinals. Round 6/Semifinal Game 1 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Anna Shtourman
Divya becomes the second Indian woman to advance to a Women's World Cup Semifinals
IM Divya Deshmukh has done it. She defeated the legend, GM Harika Dronavalli in both 15'+10" Rapid games to advance to the Semifinals. Although in the second tie-break, she blundered twice in the endgame, allowing her opponent to get back, but this is only her second Women's World Cup. So it's okay to let the pressure affect her for a game. It will only make her stronger for Semifinals and perhaps Final too.
Divya - Harika: 3-1
Unlike Classical, IM Divya Deshmukh (2395) has defeated GM Harika Dronavalli (2433) once. The only other Rapid game between two was won by Harika. On both occassion, Divya had the black pieces. However, this time she was guaranteed to have both colors.
Divya - Harika, Tie-break 1
Harika erred 22...Qc6? Divya had no trouble seizing her chance 23.dxc5 fxe5 24.fxe5 Rxe5 25.Bd4 Ree7 26.Qb3 Qa6+? 27.Kg2 and White went on to win the game.
Harika - Divya, Tie-break 2
The above endgame should be a comfortable draw for Black. The only thing Black should not do is 60...Ke7? as it runs into 61.Bf4+- now White is winning. Harika missed and opted for 61.Be2 Kf7 62.Bc4 Ke7?? once again opportunity was presented to White and this time also she missed playing Bf4 to deliver the equalizer. Eventually, she tried too hard to score a win which resulted in her loss and elimination from the tournament.
Watch Round 5 Tie-break live stream
Prizes
The total prize fund is US$ 691250 which will be distributed among 107 players. The top three prizes are $50000, 35000 and 25000.
