Thanks to Viswanathan Anand and the generation of players known as his ‘children’, India has won almost everything at the highest level. After the five-time world chess champion cut down on competing, the country has found a Candidates and world champion in D Gukesh. The men’s and women’s teams have won the Olympiad gold. Even the world junior (U-20) champions are Indians.
The biggest prize missing is the women’s world championship crown in the classical format. Progress in this section has been slower compared to the rapid strides made in the open segment. Koneru Humpy came the closest but lost to China’s Hou Yifan in the championship duel in 2011. The only Indian to have topped the women’s rankings, she has been in the top 5 or thereabouts for years.
The 38-year-old remains India’s biggest hope at the ongoing Women’s World Cup in Batumi in Georgia. It’s a knockout event from which the top three will make the Candidates 2026 cut. Humpy, the fourth seed, has reached the last 16. Tenth seed D Harika, 11th seed R Vaishali and 15th seed Divya Deshmukh have also reached the pre-quarters, beginning on July 16 (Wednesday).
The World Cup offers the maximum number of Candidates qualifying spots. There are two from the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series, sealed already by Zhu Jiner of China and Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina, who finished first and second. Two more will be selected from the Women’s Grand Swiss meet and the last and eighth one will be the topper of the Women’s Series events in 2025-26. The winner of the Candidates will earn the chance to challenge world champion Ju Wenjun of China.
Tied second with Vaishali and a Chinese player in last year’s Candidates, Humpy skipped the Olympiad but has been on song since. She won her second world rapid crown in December and displayed consistency in the classical format. Humpy won one of the six legs of the Grand Prix and finished second in another.
Up next for the first Indian woman to become a Grandmaster is former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. Humpy is the world No. 5 and the Russian who represents Switzerland is 16th. Both received byes in the first round. While Humpy posted two outright wins after that, Kosteniuk came through two tie-breakers.
Vaishali should not face a lot of trouble against Meruert Kamalidenova. The 19-year-old from Kazakhstan is the player with the second-lowest rating in the round of 16. Vaishali has done well by making progress in the ranking charts and this is an important outing for her as far as going further is concerned. At least in this round, she shouldn’t face a great deal of difficulties.
Harika and Divya are up against tougher opponents. The former faces World No. 9 Kateryna Lagno of Russia. The Indian is not far behind at 12. Lagno defeated India’s Vantika Agarwal in tie-breaker after losing the first of the two classical games in the previous round. Divya, the reigning world junior girls’ champion, takes on world No. 6 Zhu Jiner of China, who is the second seed in Batumi.
Going by form, experience, skills and the confidence that comes from a string of good performances starting with the world rapid triumph, Humpy is clearly India’s best bet. She finished fourth in the overall Grand Prix standings, from where the top two made it to the Candidates. The biggest constant in Indian chess after Anand has to win three more games to seal that.
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India’s domination in Chess.