Women's World Cup 2025 Round 3 TB: Harika and Vaishali move to Pre Quarterfinals
IM Vantika Agrawal's fantastic run at the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 came to an end. She missed all her chances to win her games and the match against the former three-time World Blitz Women's champion, GM Kateryna Lagno. GM R Vaishali survived two losses before winning the next two games consecutively against IM Carissa Yip (USA) to move to Round 4. GM Harika Dronavalli missed her chances in the first two 15'+10" Rapid tie-break games. However, she managed to seize her opportunity in the next two 10'+10" Rapid games to advance to the Pre Quarterfinal stage. Today is the first of two rest days. Round 4 Game 1 will start tomorrow Wednesday 16th July at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Anna Shtourman
Vantika gets eliminated
Koneru Humpy will face the 12th Women's World Champion, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI) in Round 4. GM Harika Dronavalli and GM R Vaishali will be up against GM Kateryna Lagno and IM Meruert Kamalidenova (KAZ). Vaishali will face quite possibly her biggest challenge of the event as Meruert is in the form of her life. IM Yuxin Song (CHN) scored the biggest upset in Round 3 tie-breaks when she eliminated the previous edition's Bronze medalist, GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR).
Vantika - Kateryna: 2.5-3.5
IM Vantika Agrawal (2306) had the upper hand against GM Kateryna Lagno (2465) in the first 15'+10" Rapid tie-break game, but could not make the most out of it.
Kateryna - Vantika, Tie-break 1
Black needed to play 16...d3 right away. 16...Rxa4 17.Bxa4 d3 did not have the same effect. The game eventually liquidated into an opposite color bishop endgame where draw became the obvious result.
Vantika - Kateryna, Tie-break 2
White needed to play bravely 37.Qb7 to push for a win. 37.Qa2 Rc7 meandered into a draw.
The first 10'+10" Rapid tie-break was an uneventful draw.
Kateryna - Vantika, Tie-break 4
23...Rc4 is what Black needed to play 24.Bxc4 dxc4 and now Nd3 is coming. 23...Kh7? 24.g4 g5 25.hxg6+ Nxg6 26.Nxg6 Qxg6 27.g5 and White went on to win the game. Vantika had her chances in the tie-breaks. She missed them all and went on to lose the match to get eliminated.
Harika - Stavroula: 4-2
GM Harika Dronavalli (2433) first made an inaccuracy which went unnoticed by IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE, 2371) in the first 15'+10" tie-break game. Later the IM made a bigger mistake which Harika almost capitalized until she let the advantage slip by.
Stavroula - Harika, Tie-break 1
37...Rxf1? 38.Qxe8+ Kg7 39.Rxg6+ fxg6 40.Qe7+ and Black cannot get out of perpetual check. Instead, 37...Qe5 would have been winning for Black.
In the second 15'+10" tie-break game, Harika once again did not push for maximum when the opportunity arose. Later, the game ended in a draw via repetition.
Harika converted her advantage in the first 10'+10" Rapid tie-break game.
Stavroula blundered in a completely winning position in the second 10'+10" game, resulting in her elimination and Harika advancing to the next round.
Carissa - Vaishali: 2-4
GM R Vaishali (2326) survived a lost endgame against IM Carissa Yip (USA, 2382) after the latter blundered in the final moments of the first 15'+10" Rapid tie-break.
Carissa once again misplayed in a winning endgame and for the second consecutive tie-break game, Vaishali salvaged a draw.
Vaishali scored a clean victory in the first 10'+10" Rapid tie-break game.
Vaishali won the second 10'+10" Rapid game also convincingly to advance to the Pre Quarterfinals.
Round 3 TB results
IM Vantika Agrawal - GM Kateryna Lagno: 2.5-3.5
GM Harika Dronavalli - IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE): 4-2
IM Carissa Yip (USA) - GM R Vaishali: 2-4
Round 4 pairings
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI) - GM Koneru Humpy
GM Kateryna Lagno - GM Harika Dronavalli
GM R Vaishali - IM Meruert Kamalidenova (KAZ)
Watch Round 3 Tie-break live stream
Replay all Round 3 Tie-break games
Prizes
The total prize fund is US$ 691250 which will be distributed among 107 players. The top three prizes are $50000, 35000 and 25000.
