Nicosia Women's Grand Prix: Divya and Harika play out a draw

India's Divya Deshmukh and Harika Dronavalli played out a draw against each other to start the fourth leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024–25, which started in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Saturday.

This is the second appearance on the 2024-25 Grand Prix season for both Divya and Harika.

Divya returned to the circuit after finishing sixth in the Shymkent Grand Prix last year, while Harika is playing in her second consecutive leg.

As always in the first round of a Grand Prix, players from the same country were paired against each other.

Hence, Divya Deshmukh and Harika Dronavalli were competing against each other, but despite a great fighting spirit from both the Indians, their game never sparked into life.

However, they played the longest game of the day, which lasted for 50 moves before the two players accepted a draw on three-fold repetition.

Stavroula Tsolakidou of Greece and Zhu Jiner of China were the only two players who managed to register a win in the opening round of he competition.

Divya will now take on the experienced Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine in the second round, whereas Harika is set to take on the current leader Stavroula Tsolakidou of Greece on Sunday.