"VAN" (Sports Desk - 14.07.2025) :: The second games in the two-game matches of the FIDE Women’s World Cup continued to deliver tension and unpredictability—ranging from solid, careful maneuvering to explosive tactical skirmishes—and today was no exception.
In the earlier rounds, players were often seen smiling and chatting casually, but today painted a different picture. With elimination looming for many, the playing hall was pin-drop silent. As players arrived and settled into their games, some closed their eyes in meditation while others stared intensely at the pieces before them.
Among those fighting for survival, Kateryna Lagno stood out. Despite losing to Vantika Agrawal yesterday, she arrived early and appeared in high spirits. In this unforgiving format, there’s no time to dwell on past mistakes—something Lagno, with her vast experience, clearly understands. That resilient mindset was on full display not just in her game but across several crucial matchups. Let’s take a look at what happened today:-
Early qualifiers
Lei Tingjie, Zhu Jiner, and Mariya Muzychuk confirmed their status as top seeds by winning both games and cruising into the Round of 16.
Umida Omonova, Humpy Koneru, Lela Javakhishvili, Tan Zhongyi, and Meruert Kamalidenova also scored vital second-game victories to secure their spots in the next round.
Meanwhile, Divya Deshmukh and Yuliia Osmak, both of whom had won their first games, held comfortable draws today to advance.
Divya shared her thoughts after the match, admitting: “I wasn’t too happy about the pairing with Injac—she’s a strong player and has been doing well recently—but I felt I got lucky yesterday.”
Comebacks
Only two players who lost yesterday managed to fight back and force tiebreaks. Valentina Gunina, came very well prepared today dismantling Nana Dzagnidze Caro-Kann Defence after the Georgian GM missed a powerful pawn thrust.
In a slightly inferior position Nana played seemingly logical 21…Rg6??, which failed to 22.e6!
“As a Caro-Kann player I don’t like playing against c6 myself which is what Nana played, so my coach and I prepared something special with 3.c4,” Valentina shared after the game.
It did not too long for Gunina to wrap it up. After 22… Nc5? 23.Nc6! Nana threw in the towel.
Kateryna Lagno essayed Saemisch system against Vantika Agrawal’s Nimzo-Indian and prevailed in a sharp tactical melee leveling the score and sending their match to a tiebreaker.
Round of 16 on the line
Lagno – Agrawal and Gunina – Dzagnidze will join the pairs Arabidze – Kosteniuk, Song Yuxin – Anna Muzychuk, Stavroula Tsolakidou – Harika Dronavalli, Carissa Yip – Vaishali R (who drew both games) to contest for a place in the round of 16.
In her short interview after the game Carissa explained that she took a quick draw yesterday because there’s not much available in the line. She pressed hard today but Vaishali played and defended really well to secure a draw.
The Round 3 tiebreaks will be played tomorrow starting at 3 PM local time.
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