Chess Queens: What to expect from our top female grandmasters at the World Cup

The Women's World Chess Cup starts in Batumi on July 5, which will last until the end of the month. In the prestigious knockout system competition, the world's strongest chess players are not only playing for almost $700,000, but also three places in the 2026 candidates tournament (its winner will compete in a match for the chess crown with Ju Wenjun). The world champion from China skips the Cup, but seven representatives of the top 10 are in the ranks at once. The starting list is headed by Lei Tingjie, and the current World Cup winner Alexandra Goryachkina received the highest seeding from the Russians — the sixth. Immediately behind her is Ekaterina Lagno, who sensationally lost in the first match two years ago. Russia will also be represented by Polina Shuvalova (12th seed), Valentina Gunina (25th), Anna Shukhman (27th) and Daria Charochkina (72nd).

A miraculous escape

Two years ago, the World Cup was held in Baku, and Alexandra Goryachkina won it in a brilliant style. During the tournament, she beat Lisandra Ordaz Valdez, Divya Deshmukh (starting number 34), Nino Batsiashvili (15), Harika Jonavalli (10), Tan Zhongyi (6) and Nurgul Salimova (29) in the final. The Bulgarian chess player, who became the main opening of the tournament, was beaten in a tiebreak.

After a miraculous rescue following the results of two classic games, the Russian was able to beat her opponent in rapid. Moreover, she had a very difficult time in the first game, but in the second Alexandra made an excellent white attack, forcing Salimova to make one mistake after another. Thus, the second Women's World Cup in history once again went to a Russian woman. In 2021, Alexandra Kostenyuk celebrated her victory in Sochi (the 12th world champion, now playing for Switzerland, beat Goryachkina in the final).

Interestingly, Alexandra played in the Azerbaijani capital without a personal coach. Now the situation has changed, since the beginning of 2025, the strongest Russian chess player of recent years has been working with the senior coach of the junior national team, Evgeny Tomashevsky.

"The fact that Alexandra qualified for the candidates tournament (through the Grand Prix series) will help her play more freely at the World Cup," Evgeny Tomashevsky told Izvestia. — Nevertheless, it reduces the psychological burden and, most importantly, gives room for maneuver when planning tournaments. When you have a distant but very important guideline, you can adjust your training to it, and it's a little easier for you in other tournaments. But, again, the World Cup is a very significant start in itself. No one will play it carelessly.

A total of six Russians competed at KM-2023. Leia Garifullina was eliminated in the second round by Badelko, and Olga herself (who has represented Austria since last year) failed to create a sensation in the next round in a duel with third seed Hampi Koneru. Alina Bivol lost to Medina Varda Aulia from Indonesia in the third round, and Ekaterina Lagno (who had the fourth starting number) unexpectedly stumbled in the first match with Marie Ann Gomez from India. Polina Shuvalova was able to win her section, but the Russian lost to Salimova in the quarterfinals.

A gift from fate

This time, six Russians will also play in the tournament. Lagno, Daria Charochkina and Goryachkina earned tickets through the Superfinal 2024 of the Chechen Republic (held in Barnaul). Considering that Alexandra was selected in Tbilisi according to the rating, the third ticket went to the fourth-place Shuvalova. At the end of June, it became known that the current U-20 world champion Anna Shukhman would play at the tournament. This became possible after the victory of the Russian over the representative of Kazakhstan, Ksenia Balabayeva, in a mini-match that took place in Astana. Finally, one of the most decorated chess players of our time, Valentina Gunina, received a special invitation to the tournament. She was personally nominated for the wild card by the President of the Asian Chess Federation, Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan.

According to Gunina, due to her illness, she practically stopped playing classical chess (the athlete suffers from a severe systemic autoimmune disease - in 2023, doctors confirmed her diagnosis of lupus), but this year it will be her third tournament with this control. After the Asian Individual Championship and the Czech Team Championship.

"This is a pleasant surprise for me, a great gift from fate," Gunina said in an interview with Izvestia. — I flew to Georgia with my coach a little in advance to better prepare for the World Cup. In 2021, I played well in the first KM in Sochi, reached the quarterfinals, where I lost to the future winner Sasha Kostenyuk. Repeating this achievement, of course, will not be easy. Firstly, my main debut, Caro-Kann, is not very suitable for the knockout system, and secondly, I am currently taking new drugs and cannot yet understand how the body will behave under such a load. If two or three laps go by, it will be great.

A total of 107 chess players will take part in the World Cup. 78 athletes play in the first round, and from the second round, 21 favorite ratings are added to the 39 participants who won. In the first round, Gunina will face 16-year—old Isabelle Yixuan Ning from New Zealand, Shuhman will face Ruelle Canino from the Philippines, Charochkina will face Pauline Guichard from France. Goryachkina, Lagno and Shuvalova will start their performances from the second round.

A total of seven rounds will be played, including the final and the match for the third place. Each round consists of two games with classic color-changing time control and a tie-break if necessary.

The competition is part of the World Championship cycle and is a qualifier for the FIDE candidates tournament: the participants who take the first or third places go there. So far, only Zhu Jin'er and Goryachkina have qualified for the candidacy.

The Men's World Cup will be held in India from October 31 to November 27.