Humpy, Lagno Beat Compatriots As Monaco Grand Prix Begins

GM Koneru Humpy defeated fellow Indian GM Harika Dronavalli and GM Kateryna Lagno took down GM Aleksandra Goryachkina in round one of the 2025 Monaco FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The day's other winner was IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul, who beat former Women's World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in a wild game.

Round two starts on Wednesday, February 19, at 3 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 1:30 p.m. IST.

The Monaco leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the third of six taking place in 2024 and 2025.

FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-5 Schedule

Each player competes in three legs, where they battle for a maximum 130 points and €18,000 ($18,900). The points are combined, with the top two players at the end of the series qualifying for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament that will select the next world championship challenger.  

FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-5 Standings Before Monaco

IM Alina Kashlinskaya won the first leg in Tbilisi, but did it as a wildcard and is currently not expected to play in more legs of the series.

Goryachkina then won in Shymkent, while IM Bibisara Assaubayeva finished second and third to top the overall standings. The 20-year-old is the one player who will be playing her third and final Grand Prix in Monaco, while Harika is playing her first.

Now let's get to the action from round one, that had looked likely to be quiet when we got two Petroffs and a Four Knights in the openings, but ultimately featured three decisive results that could have been four.

Monaco FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 1 Results

The three decisive results mean the players are already separated in the standings.

Monaco FIDE Women's Grand Prix Standings After Round 1

In round one of the Grand Prix, players from the same country play each other, with the aim of deterring any potential collusion at the end when only one of them might be in a position to win the event. Fellow countrywomen might also be thought likely to make quiet draws with each other at the start, but not on this occasion! 

Lagno 1-0 Goryachkina

Goryachkina was unbeaten and posted a five-game winning streak to win the Shymkent Women's Grand Prix, but in Monaco she was immediately taken down in a remarkable game. Lagno came prepared, playing the already rare Center Game with 1.e4 e5 2.d4 before meeting 2...exd4 with 3.Bc4!?, sometimes called the Center Gambit. 

Goryachkina chose a modest response, and after 9...Be6 Lagno was able to capture and leave her opponent with an isolated pawn on e6. She commented: "When she played Be6 I think I’m a little bit better because of the pawn structure, but still nothing really special, but she had to defend and somehow she was short of time at some point and she made several mistakes, so I managed to win."

Until late in the game, there were still chances for Goryachkina, but in the end the game became an example that not all rook endgames are drawn!

The other clash of two players from the same country was Humpy vs. Harika, which saw Humpy continue her excellent form after winning the 2024 FIDE Women's World Rapid Championship.

Harika 0-1 Humpy

In light of the result, Harika could have regrets about rejecting a draw by repetition on move 30, though the computer approves of her decision. Humpy also felt her opponent could have tested her much more by repeating with 57.Ng5+ near the end, since after 57.Nf6?! she knew she was winning. The finish was crisp.

The day's final win was wild.

Munguntuul 1-0 Kosteniuk

Mongolian IM Munguntuul made just one draw in the Shymkent Grand Prix, and she got off to another fiery start in Monaco. Kosteniuk played the rock-solid Petroff Defense, but a rare 10th move by Munguntuul soon saw the game leave the trodden path. Munguntuul could have been cruising after 16.Qd3!, but 16.Bd3? invited a sacrifice on f2. She still won in the melee that followed, though Kosteniuk also had chances.

The remaining two games were drawn, with the quietest a 25-move draw by repetition between GMs Elisabeth Paehtz and Tan Zhongyi. 

Paehtz ½-½ Tan Zhongyi

Tan will play a world championship match against Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun in a month and a half, and could have overtaken her rival with a win to become the highest-rated active female player, but instead took a draw in a position the computer evaluates as better for Black.

Paehtz said afterward, however, that she already felt the final position was more comfortable for White, but she was happy simply to have drawn the game after losing to the same opponent in the first round in Shymkent. The German grandmaster noted that since then she'd lost five kilos, before adding, "I even saw some kind of mental coach, to discuss a little bit the psychology."  

She said it was helpful, pointing out that it comes naturally to some players: "I consider Aleksandra and Tan Zhongyi mentally very strong personalities, and usually whenever it’s important they would score." She described World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju as "very wise" for using a mental coach before the match in Singapore, and summed up: "Sometimes mental strength is the only difference between top-level chess players, because by knowledge they know all of them probably equally good chess-related stuff."

Sometimes mental strength is the only difference between top-level chess players.

—Elisabeth Paehtz

The final draw was also between players who had met in round one in Shymkent, with Assaubayeva beating IM Sara Khadem. This time we almost got the opposite result.

Assaubayeva ½-½ Khadem   

Both players explained afterward that they'd mixed up their openings, but it went most badly wrong for Grand Prix leader Assaubayeva, who was effectively busted, both on the board and on the clock. Khadem, whose loss to Assaubayeva in Shymkent had been one of three losses in her first four games, was on the brink of a great start, but suddenly she exchanged her powerful bishop on f3 and the advantage vanished.

There are eight rounds to go in Monaco, with big clashes in round two including Goryachkina vs. Kosteniuk and Lagno vs. Assaubayeva. 

Round 2 Pairings

How to watch?

The 2025 Monaco FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the third of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs February 18-27 in Monaco. Players have 90 minutes, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. The top prize is €18,000 (~$20,000), with players also earning Grand Prix points. Each of the 20+ players competes in three events; the top two qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament that decides the World Championship challenger.

Previous Coverage:

• Goryachkina Wins Shymkent FIDE Women's Grand Prix
• Kashlinskaya Wins Tbilisi Grand Prix, Earns 2nd GM Norm
• FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-2025: All The Info