Women's Chess World Cup: Divya Deshmukh stuns China's Zhu Jiner; all four Indians enter quarterfinals in Georgia

Divya Deshmukh once again stamped her authority in the ongoing Women's Chess World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, on Friday as the world junior no.1 outplayed China's Zhu Jiner once again to enter the quarterfinals. With an attacking approach right from the onset, Deshmukh won her first rapid tiebreak game against the world no.6 Zhu.

The Indian teen then defended with black pieces to take the lead against the experienced Chinese grandmaster and played a fighting draw with her whites to take the fourth round 2.5-1.5.

Besides Deshmukh, India’s top three ranked players - Koneru Humpy, D Harika and Vaishali Rameshbabu also joined Deshmukh in the final eight. Notably, all four Indians advanced to the next round through the tiebreak route in the shorter rapid and blitz formats. 

Ranked no.1 in the country, Humpy went past Switzerland’s Alexandra Kosteniuk 2.5-1.5 in her first rapid tiebreak game. She utilised her white pieces for an opening advantage and then splitthe point with black bits.