FIDE Women’s World Cup: Vantika crushes Kateryna Lagno; Divya beats Teodora Injac

Indian Grandmasters Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh staked their claims for the pre-quarterfinals after winning the first game of the third round against Kateryna Lagno of Russia and Teodora Injac of Serbia, respectively, in the FIDE World Women’s Chess Cup here on Saturday.

With the knockout event down to the last 32 participants, Vantika crushed higher-ranked Lagno, giving another indication of her fast-growing stature among the Indian women.

Divya was the favourite in her match, and she lived up to the expectations by beating Injac with the black pieces. She is now a firm favourite amongst the five remaining Indians in the fray.

Meanwhile, the highest rated Indian Koneru Humpy settled for a draw with Kulon Klaudia of Poland with white pieces. D Harika also could not win and signed peace with Tsolakidou Stavroula, while another fancied Indian, R. Vaishali, played out a draw with Carissa Yip of the United States.

Top seed Lei Tingjei of China defeated Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria. It remains to be seen how the Bulgarian comes to terms with a situation where she has to beat the highest-rated player in the event to force a tiebreaker.

Another Chinese favourite, Zhu Jiner, put it across Aleksandra Maltsveskaya of Poland to be in the running to win a spot in the last 16.

However, the day belonged to Vantika as she stole the limelight against one of the fancied Russians in the event. As is known, the Russian players here play under the FIDE flag.

What started off with a Grunfeld took shape in a symmetrical pawn structure in the middle game, and Lagno struggled to find the right plan. Vantika was in her elements, though, as she went for complications at the first opportunity, and it was clear that Lagno was no match for the Indian in the tactics that emerged.

An erroneous move by Lagno on her 20th turn gave Vantika an extra piece, and she never looked back. In the return game as black, Vantika just needs a draw to qualify for the next round.

Divya outclassed Teodora Injac from a level-looking endgame arising out of a queen pawn opening. The Serbian was not able to calculate too well, and Divya cashed in without missing much.