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FIDE Women’s World Cup Day 8: Gunina and Lagno fight back
Six matches will be decided in tiebreaks tomorrow at the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025.
Day 8 of FIDE Women’s World Cup of were full of tension and surprises. Some players played solid and careful moves. Others chose bold, tactical attacks. The atmosphere was serious. The playing hall turned silent as elimination was close for many. Some players closed their eyes to focus, while others stared hard at the chessboard.
Lagno’s fighting spirit
Kateryna Lagno showed true fighting spirit. She had lost to Vantika Agrawal yesterday but came back strong today. Lagno arrived early, looking calm and confident. With so much experience, she knew there was no time to think about the past. She proved it on the board.
Top seeds advance
Lei Tingjie, Zhu Jiner, and Mariya Muzychuk won both games and easily reached the Round of 16.
Umida Omonova, Humpy Koneru, Lela Javakhishvili, Tan Zhongyi, and Meruert Kamalidenova also won their second games to qualify.
Divya Deshmukh and Yuliia Osmak drew their second games, which was enough to advance. After her match, Divya said: “I wasn’t too happy about the pairing with Injac—she’s strong—but I got lucky yesterday.”
Strong comebacks
Only two players who lost the first game managed to equalize.
Valentina Gunina played brilliantly today. She prepared a special plan against Nana Dzagnidze’s Caro-Kann Defence. Nana missed a key pawn push and Gunina quickly took control. After 22…Nc5? and 23.Nc6!, Nana resigned.
Gunina shared: “As a Caro-Kann player, I don’t like facing c6 myself, so my coach and I prepared 3.c4.”
Kateryna Lagno used the Saemisch system against Vantika Agrawal’s Nimzo-Indian Defence. In a sharp and tactical battle, Lagno won and forced a tiebreak.
Round of 16 spots still open
Lagno vs. Agrawal and Gunina vs. Dzagnidze will go to tiebreaks tomorrow.
Other pairs fighting for a place in the Round of 16 are:
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Arabidze vs. Kosteniuk
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Song Yuxin vs. Anna Muzychuk
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Stavroula Tsolakidou vs. Harika Dronavalli
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Carissa Yip vs. Vaishali R
Carissa Yip explained she took a short draw yesterday as the opening didn’t have much room to play. Today, she tried hard to win, but Vaishali defended well to secure another draw.
The Round 3 tiebreaks will start tomorrow at 3 PM local time.
About the tournament
The 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup is being held in Batumi, Georgia, from July 6th to July 28th. A total of 107 players from 46 countries are competing. Seventeen of the world’s top twenty women players are taking part. They will battle for a first prize of $50,000 and three spots in the Candidates Tournament. Fans can check the full pairings and daily results on the official Women’s World Cup website.
Photos: Anna Shtourman, FIDE_chess
Source: FIDE CHESS NEWS
