Humpy Beats Zhu To Snatch Pune Women's Grand Prix Lead

GM Humpy Koneru is the new sole leader of the 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix on 5.5/7 after beating GM Zhu Jiner in a dramatic round-seven clash. Zhu is now joined half a point back by IM Divya Deshmukh, who won a fourth game of the event as she inflicted a crushing fourth loss in a row on IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul. The remaining three games were drawn, with fourth-placed IM Polina Shuvalova now a full point behind the players in second after a draw against GM Harika Dronavalli.  

Round eight starts on Tuesday, April 22, at 5:30 a.m. ET / 11:30 CEST / 3:00 p.m. IST.

Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 7 Results

There were just two decisive games in round seven, but they came in the games that mattered most in the race to win the event.

Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Standings After Round 7

Humpy has leapfrogged Zhu into sole first place, while Divya has caught Zhu.

All three of the draws in round seven were long and hard-fought, with the quietest seeing IM Nurgyul Salimova and IM Salome Melia playing on to bare kings on move 57, with both players recording an accuracy of 97.6.

In both of the remaining draws, there were fleeting chances for one of the players in the time-trouble phase. With under five minutes on her clock, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu went for 25.Nf5! against IM Alina Kashlinskaya. The Polish IM spent eight of her remaining 10 minutes but found the only defense, 25...h5!. 

It should still have been a tough defense, but in fact Black suddenly found a string of powerful moves and went on to make a relatively comfortable draw—even if it meant playing queen vs. rook and bishop until move 84 in the longest game of the day.

The moment was even more fleeting in Shuvalova-Harika, with the chance coming after 31.Bxc1, when 31...Qe6! would have posed unexpected problems for White.

The key action of the day, however, was in the games of the leaders.

Divya 1-0 Munguntuul

Divya has entered that conversation after scoring her fourth win in Pune, a game that was a tough-to-take fourth loss in a row for her opponent. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Munguntuul, who for the second round in a row was offered a piece by her opponent in a position where she could almost resign on the spot. 

Munguntuul eventually did take the knight on c3, which surprised Divya but was little worse than the other options, and soon Black was horribly pinned while White could simply advance a pawn and win.

Divya has completely locked down Black's army, so the a-pawn can simply march up the board and win the game! pic.twitter.com/V6j9oBaMc2

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 21, 2025

The pawn had reached h7 when Munguntuul finally threw in the towel.

A 4th win in Pune for Divya, and sadly a 4th loss in a row for Munguntuul! https://t.co/a4g6mgK21x pic.twitter.com/k8ysd8TAQR

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 21, 2025

Divya talked about the game afterward, including criticizing four consecutive opening moves by her opponent!

That win briefly made Divya the co-leader, but everything would depend on the clash of the leaders. 

Humpy 1-0 Zhu

This was a fitting clash of the two players of the tournament so far, with the advantage initially seeming to be with Zhu, who played much faster in the opening and got a comfortable position. She lost her way somewhat, however, and Humpy took over, at least until she played 30.Ne5?, which she admitted was "a big mistake."   

Humpy had a grand plan of playing Ne5, Bc1, and Re2 to transfer her pieces to the kingside, but realized she'd started with the wrong move only when Zhu traded on e5 and c2 to reach a level position.  

We'd seen on previous days, however, that Zhu is rarely satisfied with equality, always pushes for more, and sometimes overlooks crucial tactical details. That's what we saw here, as 35...d4?! first unnecessarily weakened a rock-solid position, while 44...Qxb4? was a puzzling move that lost on the spot—in a position where 44...Nd8! would likely have saved the game.

Humpy captured on e6, and no recapture was possible due to the weakness of Zhu's king. Zhu gave a check from her queen on b1 and e4, but when Humpy dodged a queen trade Black's position was hopeless.

That win transformed the tournament situation, with Humpy taking the lead on the scoretable and also on the live rating list, where she climbed to world number-five, while Zhu dropped to number-seven. What will matter, however, is where the players finish after the final two rounds.

Round 8 Pairings

In Tuesday's penultimate round, Zhu has White against the player with whom she shares second place, Divya, while Humpy has Black against Kashlinskaya. Will we see another twist?  

How to watch?

The 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the fifth of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin runs March April 14-23 in Pune, India. Players have 90 minutes, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. The top prize is €18,000 (~$20,000), with players also earning Grand Prix points. Each of the 20+ players competes in three events; the top two qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament that decides the World Championship challenger.

Previous coverage:

• Round 6: Zhu, Humpy Win Again In 2-Horse Race
• Round 5: Vaishali Scores 1st Win, Zhu Survives Salimova's Queen Sac
• Round 4: Zhu Wins Again As Humpy, Divya Stay In Hunt
• Round 3: Zhu Sole Leader At Pune Women's Grand Prix As Humpy Beats Divya
• Round 2: Divya, Zhu Win Again To Lead Pune Women's Grand Prix With 2/2
• Round 1: Pune Women's Grand Prix Takes Off With 4 Decisive Games