Chess
Pune Women’s Grand Prix: Koneru Humpy, Harika lead Indian charge – Preview
All you need to know about the fifth leg of the 2024-25 FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Pune.
Koneru Humpy (Photo credit: FIDE)
The fifth leg of the 2024–25 FIDE Women's Grand Prix gets underway in Pune on Monday.
India’s top female players including Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Divya Deshmukh will take part in the event in front of the home crowd.
Humpy is the best placed Indian on sixth spot with 161 points from two events in the Women's Grand Prix stadings. Pune will be the reigning world rapid champion's third event after Shymkent and Monaco.
Harika (12th), Divya (14th) and Vaishali (18th) will also be looking to accumulate points to improve their ranking.
With four of the five legs completed, Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina is leading the Grand Prix standings with 308 points. She won the Shymkent and Monaco legs, along with a third-place finish in Cyprus.
The final event will be played in Austria from May 5-16. Top two players with most cumulative points in the series will qualify for the FIDE Women Candidates Tournament 2026. T
he total prize fund for each one of the four events is EUR 80,000, with another EUR 120,000 being distributed among the top 10 finishers in the overall standings for the Grand Prix series.
In Pune, there will be several players in contention for the second qualification spot. China's Zhu Jiner and Alina Kashlinskaya are riding high on their triumph in Cyprus and Tbilisi, respectively. Both are in clear contention for qualification, having scored 100+ points in their first event.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova will be looking to improve as Salome Melia and Polina Shuvalova make their debut in the 2024-2025 season. They replaced Lela Javakhishvili and GM Kateryna Lagno, who withdrew due to personal reasons.
First round pairing
Munguntuul Batkhuyag vs Salome Melia
Zhu Jiner vs Dronavalli Harika
Kashlinskaya Alina vs Shuvalova Polina
Salimova Nurgyul vs Divya Deshmukh
Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Koneru Humpy
Schedule
The fifth leg of the FIDE WGP 2024–25 will take place in Pune from April 13 to 24.
Live Streaming
The event will be livestreamed on the official YouTube channel of FIDE.
