FIDE Women’s World Cup Day 3: Umida Omonova, the rising Uzbekistani chess talent, eliminates IM Sophie Milliet
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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arrccj3ScmY 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! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc10CKIfn84 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlj1SfzVP8k 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. The full list of tiebreak matches can be found on the official website. 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. The full pairings tree and day-by-day results can be found on the Women’s World Cup website.
FIDE announces the list of players at the 2025 Grand Swiss
The new elite players dominate the list as young stars pack the field, vying for the top spots leading to the 2026 Candidates. Scheduled to take place from September 3 to 16 in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), the strongest-ever Swiss system tournament – the FIDE Grand Swiss – returns for the fourth edition, after previous events in the Isle of Man (2019 and 2023) and Riga (2021) The Grand Swiss is one of the most significant tournaments in the chess calendar, also serving as a pathway to the Candidates tournament. The 11-round Swiss format tournament will see 172 players take part – 116 in the Open and 56 in the Women’s tournament. As per regulations, the top two qualifiers in both the Open and the Women’s competition will qualify for the 2026 Candidates tournament, where the challenger for the title of World Champion will be determined. Apart from serving as the qualifier for the Candidates, the 2025 Grand Swiss also features a notable prize fund, which has been significantly increased from the last edition. The prize fund in the Open is $625,000 (increased from $460,000 in 2023) and in the Women’s competition features a $230,000 prize fund (up from $140,000 in 2023). The Open tournament Among 116 players in the Open, 101 have qualified by rating, with the remaining spots allocated to Continental representatives, six FIDE wildcards and five are nominated from the local organiser. Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz Young Indians headline the list of the Open competition, with Arjun Erigaisi (21; pictured above) and World Champion Gukesh D (19) seeded as the top two, while Praggnanandhaa R (19) is ranked fourth, just behind Nodirbek Abdusattorov (20). Another star youngster, 22-year-old world number eight, Alireza Firouzja is ranked fifth. The remainder of the top ten is made up of more seasoned Grandmasters – two-time world champion candidate Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Fedoseev. Further bolstering the young presence at the event are Hans Niemann (22), Vincent Keymer (20), Javokhir Sindarov (19), Nihal Sarin (20) and Awonder Liang (22), who are all among the top 20. Former candidate for the title of World Champion Boris Gelfand, as well as former Women’s World Championship challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured below) will also play in the Open, after receiving wildcard invitations. Photo: Niki Riga The rule requiring 30+ classical rated games between July 2024 and June 2025 has excluded several high-profile names, including two former world champions – Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, as well as heavyweights who participated in previous Grand Swiss tournaments – Le Quang Liem and Peter Svidler. Although qualifying by rating, former World Champion Ding Liren will not be participating in the event. Fabiano Caruana – who played in all three previous Grand Swiss tournaments – will also not be taking part, having already secured a spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament by winning the 2024 FIDE Circuit. The full list of participants of the Open Grand Swiss can be found here. The Women’s tournament In the Women’s Grand Swiss, 44 players have qualified by rating. Four additional players are joining them from Continental spots, four via FIDE wildcards, and another four as nominations from the local organiser. Photo: Przemek Nikiel Former Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi (pictured above) is the top-rated participant in the Women’s Grand Swiss, followed by seasoned elite world players – Humpy Koneru, Anna Muzychuk and Kateryna Lagno. The 2023 winner, Vaishali Rameshbabu (24) is also taking part. Lei Tingjie (who won the inaugural Women’s Grand Swiss, in 2021, in Riga), is also playing, after receiving a wildcard invite from FIDE. The Women’s Grand Swiss will also see emerging talents take part, such as world junior champion and runner-up, Divya Deshmukh (19) and Lu Miaoyi (15) and Leya Garifullina (20). The full list of participants of the Women’s Grand Swiss can be found here: Open: grandswiss2025.fide.com/open-event-participants/ Women: grandswiss2025.fide.com/women-event-participants/ About the FIDE Grand Swiss Held every two years, the FIDE Grand Swiss brings together many of the strongest chess players in the world, playing in a classical 11-round Swiss system tournament. The first Grand Swiss took place in 2019 in the Isle of Man and was won by GM Wang Hao, who scored 8/11. The 2021 edition was moved from the Isle of Man to Riga due to Covid restrictions on the island and was won by GM Alireza Firouzja in the Open and Lei Tingjie in the inaugural Women’s event. The 2023 Grand Swiss was won by India’s Vidit Gujrathi in the Open and Vaishali Rameshbabu in the Women’s competition. More information about the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss can be found on the official website.