Nagpur: World Junior Champion Divya Deshmukh scripted history by becoming the first Nagpur master to make it to the final four of the Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, on Monday. In an all-Indian quarterfinal, the 19-year-old International Master (IM) Divya defeated experienced GM D Harika in the first set of tie-breaks played in Divya’s favourite rapid format. The win saw her take a bold step towards qualifying for the Women’s Candidates tournament.From Tuesday, the semifinal battles will be played between India and China. Divya will face China’s World No. 8 Tan Zhongyi, and Koneru Humpy will be up against top seed Lei Tingjie. With the top three finishers qualifying for the Women’s Candidates tournament, both Humpy and Divya can earn the right to fight in the event from where the World Champion Challenger will be identified.A day after both Divya and Harika drew their classical games, tie-breaks in the rapid and blitz formats in different time controls were played to identify the semifinalist. Divya won both her games played with the white and black pieces to clinch the quarterfinal 3-1.On her plans against Tan in the semifinals, Divya said, “I always wanted to avoid tie-breaks, but it’s not in my hands. I just want to forget everything and eat now. After that, I will start preparing.”As a 15th seed, the 2463 Elo Divya started the World Cup by winning the second and third rounds 1.5-0.5 against Georgia’s Mgeladze Kesaria and Serbian IM Injac Teodora respectively. In the pre-quarterfinals, Divya was up against China’s World No. 6 Zhu Jiner. For the first time in her career, Divya defeated the in-form Zhu when she utilised her opening advantage with the white pieces to surprise the China No. 4 in 49 moves. In the following classical game, Divya failed to defend with the black pieces, and Zhu brought parity with a 57-move win.Divya then made the most of her favourite rapid format to again surprise Zhu and take the lead before she ended the Chinese GM’s campaign by playing out an entertaining draw while defending with the black pieces.Nagpur: World Junior Champion Divya Deshmukh scripted history by becoming the first Nagpur master to make it to the final four of the Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, on Monday. In an all-Indian quarterfinal, the 19-year-old International Master (IM) Divya defeated experienced GM D Harika in the first set of tie-breaks played in Divya’s favourite rapid format. The win saw her take a bold step towards qualifying for the Women’s Candidates tournament.From Tuesday, the semifinal battles will be played between India and China. Divya will face China’s World No. 8 Tan Zhongyi, and Koneru Humpy will be up against top seed Lei Tingjie. With the top three finishers qualifying for the Women’s Candidates tournament, both Humpy and Divya can earn the right to fight in the event from where the World Champion Challenger will be identified.A day after both Divya and Harika drew their classical games, tie-breaks in the rapid and blitz formats in different time controls were played to identify the semifinalist. Divya won both her games played with the white and black pieces to clinch the quarterfinal 3-1.On her plans against Tan in the semifinals, Divya said, “I always wanted to avoid tie-breaks, but it’s not in my hands. I just want to forget everything and eat now. After that, I will start preparing.”As a 15th seed, the 2463 Elo Divya started the World Cup by winning the second and third rounds 1.5-0.5 against Georgia’s Mgeladze Kesaria and Serbian IM Injac Teodora respectively. In the pre-quarterfinals, Divya was up against China’s World No. 6 Zhu Jiner. For the first time in her career, Divya defeated the in-form Zhu when she utilised her opening advantage with the white pieces to surprise the China No. 4 in 49 moves. In the following classical game, Divya failed to defend with the black pieces, and Zhu brought parity with a 57-move win.Divya then made the most of her favourite rapid format to again surprise Zhu and take the lead before she ended the Chinese GM’s campaign by playing out an entertaining draw while defending with the black pieces.
