FIDE Women’s World Cup to have an Indian winner for first time

Batumi: In a first for Indian chess, the FIDE Women’s World Cup will have a winner from the country with Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh set to fight it out in what could be anybody’s game in the grand finale here on Saturday.

It’s the first in the event’s history that two Indians are facing each other in the final. Both

Humpy and Deshmukh have qualified for the Women’s candidates’ tournament next year after reaching the final here. On pure

experience of playing big games, Humpy goes in the final as the favourite against compatriot Deshmukh.

Humpy held her nerves to score a come-from-behind victory in the semifinals over Tingjie Lei of China in the tiebreaker on Thursday, while Deshmukh defeated former world champion Zhongyi Tan -- also of China -- in the second game of the last-four stage match.