FIDE Women's World Cup R2: Kamalidenova eliminates Goryachkina

Tournament Information

OnTheQueenside, who covers women's chess, has published a detailed overview of the 2025 Women's World Cup, including background information on the event and its players and predictions of who will win. Check it out here.

Bracket

The single elimination bracket with the pairings for each round can be found here.

Annotations by WGM Petra Papp

WGM Petra Papp has annotated the following games from round 2 of the 2025 Women's World Cup:

Overview

As the top 21 seeds, and, theoretically, rating favourites, join the bracket, the second round had its shares of upsets, almost-upsets, rising players showing the potential and brilliant games to showcase. Meruert Kamalidenova eliminated Aleksandra Goryachkina in the tiebreaks, after missing the opportunity to secure her ticket for Round 3 already by game two, in a seemingly equal, but easier to play for Goryachkina rook endgame, while the 15-year-old Elnaz Kaliakhmet wins her match vs Nino Batsiashvili, continuing her strong performance. The 2023 Women’s World Cup runner-up Nurgyul Salimova, was not able to repeat her previous World Cup success, eliminated by Bella Khotenashvili. Rout Padmini was on the verge of eliminating the former Women’s World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk, having drawn both classical and both tiebreak 1 games, and winning game 1 of the second tiebreak - however she was unable to hold the draw in a chaotic game 2, and Kosteniuk convincingly won the blitz tiebreaks.

The Classical Upsets

Unlike Round 1, Round 2 had its share of upsets already in the two classical games. Meruert Kamalidenova, preparing a fairly uncommon - and tricky - approach against Aleksandra Goryachkina’s Ruy Lopez, was able to get an advantage early on in the game, maintain it throughout the biggest part of the game, and convert it by finding a beautiful idea with 33. Bxf5!!

IM Meruert Kamalidenova
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

At the end of the combination, Kamalidenova is creating an imbalance by getting two pawns for an exchange; however the bishop on e5 and the connected f-g passed pawns are particularly strong, while Black will have a hard time to contain them without, at the same time, allowing White to make progress on the queenside and in the center, after the pawn structure compromises she needed to do in order to open lines for her rooks. Indeed, Kamalidenova was able to convert her advantage into a win. In game 2, while managing to maintain the equality almost until the end, the resulting rook endgame was practically easier for Goryachkina to handle due to her superior pawn structure, rook and king activity, who was able to send the match to tiebreaks. Kamalidenova won the tiebreak match 1.5-0.5 securing her spot in Round 3.

Elnaz Kaliakhmet was on the verge of making the upset already since game 1 against Nino Batsiashvili, where she managed to get an advantage by being an (outside passed) pawn up. While this advantage seemed promising, and with the passed a-pawn advancing all the way to the 6th rank, Kaliakhmet’s win appeared more likely, Batsiashvili was able to find counterplay, complicating the position.

WFM Elnaz Kaliakhmet and GM Nino Batsiashvili
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

A potential weakness in White’s position is the f2 pawn, which Black’s rook on the 2nd rank targets, while g3 is also temporarily defended only by the king due to the pin, and Black will try to - covertly - exploit it. 44...h4 was an interesting attempt; the most natural, and objectively best, move is to capture by Rxh4. This however allows Kaliakhmet’s to attempt this exploitation, by 45...g5!?. White is still very much winning, however White needs to be particularly careful, as Rh1?? which Kaliakhmet played forces the rook into passivity after Qd4, while an otherwise natural Ra4 would be a crucial mistake as it allows Qg5 Rg4 Qg3, exploiting the pin. The queens were later exchanged, White got an extra pawn but lost the passed a-pawn, and with the opposite coloured bishops and active black pieces it proved difficult to make any progress, with the game ending later in a draw.
Kaliakhmet, was, however, able to complete her upset in game 2, by outplaying her opponent in a - definitely more pleasant for Black to play - endgame, exploiting her strong passed b-pawn, and eliminating one of the rating favourites to advance to Round 3.

The Tiebreak Upsets - and Almost Upsets

Apart from Meruert Kamalidenova successfully completing her mission in the tiebreaks, by building on her edge in middlegame of tiebreak game 1, exploiting her opponent’s mistake in time trouble, converting the advantage into the full point, and holding the draw in game 2 of the tiebreaks, there were a few other players who made the upset and clinched their Round 3 in the tiebreaks, as well as those who got close to the surprise, but eventually didn’t make it, and are worth mentioning.

Umida Omonova, having drawn both classical games, was able to convincingly win the tiebreak match against her opponent Alina Kashlinskaya. In game 1, Omonova was able to get an extra pawn for the proven to be insufficient compensation of the doubled f pawns - which she was later on able to exchange - and converted her advantage into a win. In game 2, on the other hand, Kashlinskaya was able to build significant pressure, and it appeared she had significant chances to equalize the match, sending it to the second tiebreaks. However, Nxg6, sacrificing a knight for two pawns and pressure over the e-file, while a practically interesting idea in this must-win situation, proved to be a bit too rushed and inefficient, as Black is able to coordinate her pieces in time to defend, get out of the pin, and fight having a piece for (later) 3 pawns - in fact Omonova went on to win this game as well, concluding the match 2-0 and qualifying for Round 3.

IM Alina Kashlinskaya and WIM Umida Omonova
Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

Anastasia Avramidou had a very strong performance in her match against Kateryna Lagno and got close - but was eventually unable - to qualify to the next round. Having comfortably drawn the two classical games managed to get a slight edge in game 1 of the tiebreaks, and went on to find an interesting - but complicated to navigate under time pressure - idea with 20...Bxh3; while this move does indeed work, and under different circumstances could favour her in the match, it’s practically speaking not the best approach given her only 26 seconds (plus the increment) left on the clock. After 21. Bd5 Bxg2+ Kg1 she needs to play Qxc2 immediately, however she plays Qd4 instead, possibly aiming to exploit the queen’s overload and pinned bishop, however after the intermediate Rad1 she could not find a good continuation under the time pressure, with Lagno winning the game. Avramidou was able to strike back in the second game; While it seemed Lagno was getting the advantage in this game, capturing the a-pawn too early in a relatively unsuspecting position, allowed Avramidou to find significant active play in the kingside. 31...Kh8 and 32...Ra1 was not an effective defence to Avramidou’s attack, allowing her 33. Nxg7! Nxg7 34. Rf6, winning a queen for a rook and knight while her attack was still ongoing. Avramidou won the game sending the match to the second tiebreaks. However Lagno’s experience prevailed, and Avramidou was not able to get through to the next round.

Puzzle Pack

Enjoy our collection of puzzles from the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025!