FIDE Women's World Cup R1: Favorites Rest as Gaal & Beydullayeva Get Eliminated

Tournament Information

OnTheQueenside, who covers women's chess, has published a detailed overview of the 2025 Women's World Cup, including background information on the event and its players and predictions of who will win. Check it out here.

Bracket

The single elimination bracket with the pairings for each round can be found here.

Overview

With the top 21 seeds getting byes and directly qualifying for the 2nd round, the chances for upsets were much reduced. Having said that, it would not be a World Cup if no rating upsets occurred. 2090-rated WIM Priyanka K's win against 2383-rated WGM Zsoka Gaal and 2143-rated WIM Anahita Zahedifar's victory over 2371-rated WGM Govhar Beydullayeva were the biggest upsets of round 1. Meanwhile, 2007-rated WIM Tania Miranda had 2406-rated IM Klaudia Kulon on the edge of defeat, but Kulon was able to come back in the tiebreaks.

Annotations by WGM Petra Papp

WGM Petra Papp has annotated the following games from round 1 of the 2025 Women's World Cup:

Classical Upsets

Round 1's two classical games did not see any significant upsets — the bigger upsets occurred in the tiebreaks, in fact. Of note, 2226-rated WFM Kesaria Mgeladze dismantled 2357-rated IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham's London System-esque opening in round 1 and drew the 2nd round game comfortably:

WFM Kesaria Mgeladze
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

2229-rated WIM Chuqiao Wang also had a strong opening position against 2354-rated IM Deysi Cori T.'s King's Indian Defense. She converted after some adventures and also drew the second game:

Tiebreak Upsets

There were two notable upsets in round 1: 2090-rated WIM Priyanka K's win against 2383-rated WGM Zsoka Gaal and 2143-rated WIM Anahita Zahedifar's victory over 2371-rated WGM Govhar Beydullayeva.

Gaal was off to a shaky start as she was worse out of her chosen English Opening. However, in a pawn-up endgame, Priyanka missed a tactic and blundered a piece.

WGM Zsoka Gaal and WIM Priyanka K
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

Priyanka had to win as White on the next day, which she was able to pull off as she played a one-sided game in the Winawer Variation of the French Defense.

In the first game of the 15+10 tiebreaks, Priyanka was able to repeat the same performance with the White pieces. This time, she made short work of Gaal's Caro-Kann Defense, playing a scintillating attacking game in the aptly named Tal Variation of the Advance Variation.

Gaal was able to bounce back in the second game, sending the match into the second round of tiebreaks, which features two 10+10 games.

After two nerve-racking 10+10 games, which ended in draws, it was time for the 5+3 blitz tiebreaks.

Gaal's 1. c4 against did not serve her well; even though the game eventually transposed into a Queen's Gambit Declined, Priyanka once again won against Gaal's English.

Priyanka then clinched the match as she won a topsy-turvy game against Gaal's Alekhine Defense.

Zahedifar's match against Beydullayeva was similarly exciting and saw both players trade blow for blow. Zahedifar won a slugfest of a game in the (Pseudo-)Catalan and was able to draw the next game to secure match victory.

Other small upsets included 2211-rated WIM Umida Omonova defeating 2355-rated IM Sophie Milliet and WGM Thalia Cervantes, at 2278, winning against 2332-rated WGM Nadya Toncheva.

Near-Upsets — The Tiebreaks

2007-rated WIM Tania Miranda caused a big scare to 2406-rated IM Klaudia Kulon as the former was able to win on demand in game 2 in what was a rather one-sided affair.

IM Klaudia Kulon and WIM Tania Miranda
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

After a close victory in the first round of the tiebreaks, where Kulon was even lost at some point,

Kulon found her footing with a powerful attacking display.

Honorable Mentions

2009-rated CM Isabelle Yixuan Ning's draw against 2416-rated GM Valentina Gunina and 2106-rated WGM Alserkal Rouda Essa's draw against 2376-rated GM Irina Krush must not have been too pleasantly received by the two GMs.

GM Valentina Gunina and CM Isabelle Yixuan Ning
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

However, on the next day, both Gunina and Krush were able to win their games and seal off the match in their favor.

The Pragmatists

The big rating favorites who won in the first round understandably took draws in the second round to ensure their match win. However, while some games, such as that of IM Alice Lee against WIM Devindya Gunawardhana, were truly equal draws, others saw the stronger player offer a draw in a much better or even winning position. Both IM Stavroula Tsolakidou and GM Anna Ushenina were much better when they decided to offer draws — which were, of course, accepted because of the ensuing rating gain —, though 2396-rated IM Lilit Mkrtchian was even winning when she offered a draw to her 2055-rated opponent, WIM Lina Nassr.

IM Lilit Mkrtchian
Photo: Andrei Anosov / FIDE

Puzzle Pack

Enjoy our collection of puzzles from round 1!