Harika Dronavalli vs Kateryna Lagno - Women's Chess World Cup 2025

Chess in India is growing rapidly, especially women’s chess, and it is a great pleasure to see it grow. In a historic moment for Indian Chess, four players qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2025 Women’s World Cup - Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, and Divya Deshmukh. The achievement drew special praise from the CEO of FIDE, who said, “All four Indian players make it through tie-breaks. Quite a Feat! Congrats to Humpy, Divya, Harika, and Vaishali!

Harika Dronavalli was particularly impressive in her match against Kateryna Lagno in the Round 4 match. It was an intense game with both players doing their best to outdo each other. In the first 15/10 rapid game, Harika tried to surprise Kateryna by playing the rare Ulvestad variation of the two Knights defense, but Lagno was well prepared and followed the theoretical moves, and she took the advantage. She kept up the pressure, and the game swung in her favour. 

And then Harika made a blunder by attempting to simplify by exchanging queens and converting her extra pawn in the endgame. Lagno, however, amazingly lost a chance to win. She may have used 45…Rxd5 to capture the bishop instead of 45…Qe7?? If 46.Qxd5, 46…Qxf2 threatens mate with 47…Qh2#, but 46…Nxf6 protects the rook and keeps a commanding lead. Harika remarked that she still had a chance to make a comeback.

In the third tie-break, the 10/10 rapid section, Lagno pressed throughout the game, creating a powerful passed d-pawn. It was looking like she had the advantage, but the presence of opposite-colored Bishops meant that victory was far from guaranteed.

The fourth game was a rapid masterpiece as Harika kept up relentless pressure, but she needed another blunder from Lagno to finish out the game. Lagno committed an unfortunate Queen exchange, and that sealed the match for Harika with a beautifully executed Bishop endgame.