2025 Women’s World Cup Semifinals Game 2: Divya Eliminates 3rd Seed Tan, Lei Survives Vs. Humpy

IM Divya Deshmukh eliminated GM Tan Zhongyi from the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup, extending her Cinderella story into the Final with a third consecutive match victory over a grandmaster. She also earns her first grandmaster norm and a spot in the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates. The match GM Koneru Humpy vs. GM Lei Tingjie will go to tiebreaks after the Chinese GM saved a losing rook endgame.

The Semifinals tiebreaks are on Thursday, July 24, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.

Women’s World Cup Semifinal Results

Divya 1-0 Tan

Both players had winning positions in this game, but in a nervous time scramble Tan squandered her (winning) advantage and even entered a losing endgame. But even from there, she had several chances to hold a draw. Finally, it was Divya who had the better nerves and won it all over again, with the marathon lasting 101 moves.

Divya was visibly exhausted in the interview, which occurred right at the board the moment she finished. She said, “I think I could have played much better. I was winning at a certain point, and it had gotten complicated and I think I messed up in the middlegame, but I should have had a much smoother win, and she put up such a good fight… I think I got lucky in the end.”

I should have had a much smoother win.

—Divya Deshmukh

The potentially safe Alapin Sicilian was anything but solid, and the game quickly defined itself after the first hour as the more combative of the two. Divya was the first to gain an advantage after 12…Nc7 13.b4 Nd3? 14.Ne4! Nxc1. The engine points out White is already winning with a queen trade, but keeping queens on still gave Divya an extremely pleasant position with an advantage.

From there, Tan fought her way back into the game and even took over. She sacrificed her a-pawn and re-harmonized her pieces. By the time she played 30…d4 she had just under 12 minutes against under three. It looked like the Indian IM was falling apart after 31…d3 32.Nd6 if Tan had found the critical 32…Rg4!. But a miscalculation, with both players in time trouble, left Divya up two pawns—pretty quickly, with no compensation. 

There was a third, long and final chapter to the struggle, as Divya traded minor pieces into a pure rook endgame. Even down two pawns, Tan indeed had real drawing chances at several points but did not realize them. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes our Game of the Day below.

Divya earns her first grandmaster norm for reaching the Final. But, on top of the $50,000 first prize, the winner of the World Cup also automatically earns the grandmaster title (if she’s not already one). 

All Divya could say about her well-earned rest day on Thursday was, “I need some sleep. These days have been so anxious. I just need some sleep and some food.”

Humpy ½-½ Lei 

For a long time, the game that started with an Exchange Slav looked like it was going to end in a solid draw. Things spiced up in the rook endgame, however, which was initially equal but didn’t stay so for long. Although Lei felt the endgame should be holdable, she said that under time pressure and down a pawn “it’s very hard to defend.” She managed to do just that.

The turning point, where Humpy got objective winning chances, started when Lei gave one check too many with 50…Rh3+?. Suddenly, the rook was smoked out of its previously stable position on the h-file, and for a long time Humpy found every correct move for the win. Sadly, when the hard work had already been done, Humpy erred with 64.f5+? throwing away hours of work, when the findable 64.Rd5 would have cut the king on the d-file and won the game.

Lei survived a very close call at the end there. She said, “Today’s game was very tough and I think at some point she can win this game, but you know the tournament is like this… yesterday’s game was also like this.”

The Chinese GM has won every one of her matches so far in the classical portion, and this will be the first tiebreak she plays. But she felt lucky to even get to this point, as she said, “Today I made a draw and I can play tiebreaks—it’s already like a gift for myself. So to be honest, if I lost tomorrow I don’t care about it.”

I made draw and I can play tiebreaks—it’s already like a gift for myself.

—Lei Tingjie

How to watch?

The 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup takes place at the Grand Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Batumi, Georgia. It is a 107-player tournament with a single-elimination knockout format and a classical time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move from the first move. Each round consists of two games at the classical time control, followed by a tiebreak in faster time controls in case the scores are tied. 

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