Pune Women's Grand Prix Takes Off With 4 Decisive Games

The 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix saw an action-packed first round on Monday with four decisive games. GM Zhu Jiner, IM Polina Shuvalova, IM Divya Deshmukh, and IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul all won against GM Harika Dronavalli, IM Alina Kashlinskaya, IM Nurgyul Salimova, and IM Salome Melia, respectively.

The all-Indian encounter between GMs Vaishali Rameshbabu and Humpy Koneru ended in a draw. Round two starts on Tuesday, April 15, at 5:30 a.m. ET / 11:30 CET / 3:00 p.m. IST.

A video report by FIDE on Sunday's opening ceremony.

The Pune leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the fifth of six taking place between 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 Pune

Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 1 Results

Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Standings After Round 1

Twenty-two-year-old Zhu tied for first place with GM Anna Muzychuk at the previous Grand Prix in Cyprus and started this leg strongly. The grandmaster from Jiaxing was the first to score the full point in this first round, as she beat Harika convincingly.

Black's decision to take on h5 on move 26 was surprising, since she was left with a worse pawn structure and a fatally weak pawn on f5. After carefully navigating her way through some of the tactics Harika put on the board, Zhu easily converted the point.

The second winner of the day was 24-year-old Shuvalova, who beat Kashlinskaya in a long and tough game that started as an Anti-Marshall. It was more or less decided on the infamous 40th move, when the Polish GM went for an unnecessary pawn push. It seemed that the c2-pawn was a problem, but the engine finds an elegant solution.

While Vaishali and Humpy signed a peace treaty today, the third Indian participant started with a win. Divya showed her game in the live broadcast (hosted by our own IM Rakesh Kulkarni), where she explained that her trainer had prepared her quite a bit for the London System.

It was a very complicated game overall, with the evaluation shifting several times, but eventually Divya played strongly in the final phase while Salimova failed to find the best defensive moves.

In the final game of the day, a Kalashnikov Sicilian that lasted 85 moves, Munguntuul defeated Melia. The endgame looked drawish for a long time, but Melia erred on move 78, after many hours and with just 58 seconds on her clock. It was an instructive moment with the theme of a bishop dominating a knight.

Round 2 Pairings

How to watch?

The 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the fifth of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs March April 14-23 in Pune, India. 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:

• Anna Muzychuk Wins Cyprus Grand Prix On Tiebreaks
• Goryachkina Wins In Monaco, Takes FIDE Women's Grand Prix Lead
• 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