New Delhi: The FIDE Women’s World Cup championship battle between Indian chess players Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy will be decided on a tie-break after the second game ended on a draw in Batumi, Georgia, on Sunday.
A series of repeated check ensured to force the second game to a draw and stretch the match to a tiebreaker. The draw meant that the scores remained level at 1-1.
Grandmaster Humpy played with white pieces and navigated the endgame despite being under time pressure while Deshmukh enjoyed a considerable time advantage.
As both the two matches have been keenly contested with no winner emerging from them, the tiebreaker on Monday is expected to be a closely-fought affair too despite Humpy having more experience and placed higher in the rankings.
🇮🇳 Humpy Koneru and 🇮🇳 Divya Deshmukh will play tie-breaks tomorrow!
Game 1 & 2 ended in draws. Stay tuned!
Tie-Break Start – 12:00 local time 🇬🇪#FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/NFAHGaXdwA
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 27, 2025
In the first rapid game of the tiebreaker, Humpy will play with the black pieces. Two rapid games of 10 minutes each will be played on the tiebreaker, with a 10-second increment per move.
If the score remain tied after the two rapid games, two additional five-minute games with a 3-second increment will be played out. The contest will move to two Blitz games of three minutes each, with a 2-second increment if no winners emerges.
If required, the Blitz games will continue in a 3+2 format until a winner is determined.
Results: Koneru Humpy (Ind) drew with Divya Deshmukh (Ind); Lei Tingjie (Chn) playing Tan Zhongyi (Chn).