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After the fixtures of round of 16 were unveiled at the FIDE World Women’s Chess Cup, Indian contingent was the bearer of good news as they held 25% weightage in them. Being the pre-quarterfinal stage, games are of a higher stage and the compressed nature of tiebreaks (15+10 and 10+10) means that there is very little room for error or recovery. The next round is crucial for the qualified Indian candidates as it could bring them closer to the semi-finals of this USD 6,91,250 prize money event.
Indian Grandmasters Harika Dronavalli and R.Vaishali have advanced to the pre-quarterfinals stage of FIDE World Women’s Chess Cup by defeating Tsolakidoue Stavroula of Greece and Carissa Yip respectively. Both of them have now joined Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh in the round of 16 of the ongoing tournament at Batumi, Georgia. Harika is so far the only member of the Indian contingent who has entered the quarter-final stage of a Women’s World Cup in 2023. In her third round clash, Harika overwhelmed Stavroula’s defence in the second set of tie-break games, which provided 10 minutes for both the players. Indian Grandmaster R. Vaishali’s classical games ended in a draw, the 15+10 rapid tiebreak also ended in a draw. Then she stunned her opponent, American IM Carissa Yip by winning both the 10+10 rapid games.
Vantika Agrawal bows out of FIDE World Cup in third round defeat
The only bad news for the Indian contingent was the elimination of IM Vantika Agrawal in the third round against GM Kateryna Lagno. In a tight match, Lagno defeated Vantika in the second game of 10+10 tiebreaks.The remaining 16 players are familiar rivals, but the competition will become more intense for the three spots available for the next Women’s Candidates tournament, which will decide the challenger for reigning champion Wenjun Ju of China.
Grandmaster R.Vaisali will face IM Meruert Kamalidenova of Kazakhstan, who has beaten the defending champion Aleksandra Goryachkina, whereas GM Harika Dronavalli will be up against Kateryna Lagno in the round of 16.
Divya Deshmukh will square up against Chinese GM Zhu Jiner and GM Koneru Humpy will take on Alexandra Kostenuik of Switzerland. While Vaishali and Divya will play their first match of the fourth round with white pieces, Humpy and Harika will wield black pieces in their openers.
