India Makes History with First All-Indian Women’s World Cup Final

At the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Koneru Humpy, 38, and Divya Deshmukh, 19, will contest the final—India’s first-ever all-Indian Women’s World Cup title match. Both have qualified for the 2026 Women’s Candidates Tournament. One will leave with the crown.

Humpy’s semifinal against world No. 3 Lei Tingjie stretched across eight games: two classical draws, two 15+10 rapid draws, a 10+10 rapid mini-match split 1–1, and two decisive blitz wins. In Game 2 of the classical round, she pressed from the white side of an Exchange Slav into a winning rook endgame, but Lei defended accurately to hold the draw. When Humpy fell behind in the rapid segment 2.5–1.5, she said she entered the next game “playing without hope”, choosing to focus only on the position, not the result. It worked. She won that game to level the score, and then dominated the blitz phase to close the match 5–3.

On the other side of the bracket, Divya Deshmukh defeated former Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi in a classical decider after two earlier draws. The win made her the first Indian woman to reach a World Cup final and she also secured her first Grandmaster norm. She had beaten D Harika 2–0 in the quarterfinal rapid tiebreaks—converting a queen-for-rook imbalance in Game 1, and promoting a passed pawn under time pressure in Game 2.

The contrast in styles is clear. Divya plays with tempo and structural clarity, often seeking early central control. She opened with the Alapin Sicilian against Tan and the Giuoco Piano against Harika. Humpy favours durability and simplification under pressure. Her choice of the Exchange Slav was typical of her long-standing positional style: solid, technical, relentless.

The final, scheduled for July 26, is more than a landmark for Indian chess. It brings together two players at opposite poles of experience—one a world rapid champion and a trailblazer since the early 2000s; the other a teenager who has dismantled a world champion and a national stalwart in back-to-back matches. The board will decide the winner. But India has already arrived.

2025 FIDEBatumiDivya DeshmukhKoneru HumpyWomen’s World Cup