The twenty-one top seeds enter the competition tomorrow
In 2021, I covered the first Women’s World Cup in Sochi. COVID was nearly over, and online rapid and blitz events had exploded during the lockdowns.
Back then I wrote, “Rapid and blitz game tiebreaks are the real test for today’s modern chess player. Calculation skills become slightly less important and are at a certain level substituted by much more intuition, as the time on the clock starts running low”.
Four years and two World Cups later, things haven’t changed at all. This afternoon I noticed immediately that the twenty-two players called in for the tiebreaks were very nervous and there was no small talk before the games: a lot is at stake for them.
Eleven matches were not decided in the two round-one classical games and had to be fought out in a series of two rapid games – 15 minutes base time + 10 seconds increment, followed by two more rapid games – 10/10 this time – and finally two 5/3 blitz games.
As in 2021, but also in 2023 in Baku, this afternoon the better players excelled, largely due to their superior intuition and faster pattern recognition.
Most of the favourites only needed the first two rapid games to defeat their lower-rated opponents – eight of the eleven matches – and move on to the next round, where they will be joined by the twenty-one top seeds, including several world-class players.
For IM Klaudia Kulon (pictured above), one of Poland’s best players, Batumi is her third World Cup. Advancing to the second round is an important achievement for her: she is trying to improve on her third-round best place.
She didn’t expect her first-round opponent, WIM Miranda Rodriguez Tania from Mexico, to prove such a difficult challenge, although she did receive a warning from her trainer to be careful.
Her 2-0 tiebreak score will definitely give her a confidence boost for the next round. She was kind enough to come to the media room and analyse her fine performance in the second tiebreak game.
Iran’s WGM Mobina Alinasab was also able to fast-track her qualification by taking down Kazakhstan’s WIM Amina Kairbekova 2-0. A fun fact: it’s her 4th World Cup (including the World Championship 64-player knockout) but only her first tiebreak!
Local youngster WFM Anastasia Kirtadze – born in 2009! – already showcased her skills in the recent European Championship: clearly it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for her seasoned opponent IM Ann Matnadze Bujiashvili, playing for Spain but born and raised in Georgia.
TACTIC OF THE DAY!
Just when Matnadze was very near the draw, the following blunder practically cost her qualification. Ann played her 49…Qxd3? 50.Qxd3 Nc5+ 51.Kc4 Nxd3, but now Anastasia
went 52.a6! and after 52…Ne5+ 53.Kb5! stops the defense …Nc6 and White promotes a queen.
A 2-0 score secured qualification and an opportunity to be interviewed by Charlize! “I’m happy because Ann is a really strong player. I hope I win the next games too!” she declared, very content.
WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet representing Canada, WGM Thalia Cervantes Landeiro playing for the USA, IM Inna Gaponenko from Ukraine, FM Anastasia Avramidou from Greece all defeated their opponent’s in hard-fought matches and will come back tomorrow as well.
The most exciting match, and definitely the major upset of the round, was France’s IM Sophie Milliet elimination by WIM Umida Omonova, the rising Uzbekistani chess talent. The final result was 3.5-2.5.
Exceptional in rapid and blitz time formats, at only 19, Umida is already a dominant force across formats. A contributor to Uzbekistan’s team medals in the Women’s Chess Olympiad and Asian Games, she demonstrates mental resilience and tactical sharpness under time pressure.
I had the opportunity to briefly talk to her after the game. Very emotional, she said: “Today, I played very well and won in the tiebreak. Although my opponent was very strong, we prepared well. I want to thank everyone — especially my coaches and my parents”.
But the upsets didn’t end there. Two matches went the full distance, down to the 5/3 blitz games.
In the first one, Indian WIM Priyanka K, although currently only rated 2090, has been in the upper 2200’s most of her career and that experience helped her achieve a 5-3 memorable elimination of up-and-coming Hungarian talent WGM Zsoka Gaal.
And the last match of the day to finish also proved to be memorable. Iran’s WIM Anahita Zahedifar defeated Azerbaijan’s top woman player WGM Govhar Beydullayeva by an extremely close 4.5-3.5, qualifying to the second round.
Interesting second round match-ups
Most of the matches in the second round will be heavily disputed – strengths are already extremely close. My picks for interesting games would be the all-American clash between the very experienced GM Irina Krush and the up-and-coming youngster IM Carissa Yip.
Another good one to watch out for will be IM Alice Lee facing WGM Anna Shukhman – a 15-year-old facing a 16-year-old!
Two strong Indian players will play each other, definitely not for the first time – GM Harika Dronavalli against WGM Nandhidhaa P V.
Finally, I would keep an eye on the clash between experimented GM’s Antoaneta Stefanova and Elina Danielian and also GM Bella Khotenashvili against IM Nurgyul Salimova.
Written by IM Michael Rahal (Batumi, Georgia)
Photos: Anna Shtourman and Polina Bovina
About the tournament:
Scheduled to take place from July 6th to July 28th, the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup will gather together in Batumi (Georgia) the world’s best female chess players. A total of 107 players from 46 different federations are set to participate in the event, including seventeen of the current top twenty!
Chess legends, seasoned professionals and emerging talents will play for the $50.000 first prize, in addition to three qualifying spots for the Candidates.
