Humpy Wins Pune Women's Grand Prix, Zhu Closes On Candidates

Indian GM Humpy Koneru has won the 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix after beating IM Nurgyul Salimova in 84 moves in the final round to finish on an unbeaten 7/9. GM Zhu Jiner also won, against IM Polina Shuvalova, but missed out on first place on tiebreaks for a second Grand Prix in a row.

Zhu still earns the same €15,500 ($17.6k) and 117.5 points as Humpy, leaving her well-placed to qualify for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament via the final Vienna Grand Prix. IM Divya Deshmukh took third, a full 1.5 points behind the leaders and a point ahead of GM Harika Dronavalli and Shuvalova in 4th place.

Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Round 9 Results

The action in the final round took place in the two games that mattered most.

Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix Final Standings

Humpy finished first on the tiebreak of playing more games with the black pieces, though earnings and points are shared among players on the same points. SB is the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreaker. 

As so often on the final day of a tournament, the players who weren't in the running for the top spot left the limelight to the leaders. Divya, who could only finish top if both leaders lost, was content with making a quiet draw against IM Alina Kashlinskaya, who stabilized with five draws after losing three of her first four games. Divya clinched third place.

Harika shared fourth after a tournament where she began with a loss to Zhu before scoring one win and seven draws. In the final round she played solidly against IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul, who ended with two draws after a nightmare sequence of four losses in a row.

The other draw saw IM Salome Melia make what on paper was a good draw with Black against GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, though it's notable that Black was close to winning in the final position where the players repeated moves.

That left the two runaway stars of the tournament, who matched each other to the very end! 

Humpy 1-0 Salimova

Humpy's victory was richly-deserved, since she beat Zhu in their individual game and was the only player to remain unbeaten—after a scare against Kashlinskaya. 

Humpy dominated the final game from start to finish, showing herself to be much better prepared in an Exchange Slav with the relatively rare 7.Qb3. When Salimova failed to castle and allowed a bishop to reach h6 the writing was on the wall, with the breakthrough 19.e4! the moment at which White's advantage had become decisive.

It looked like we were in for a fast knockout, but Salimova survived to an endgame and forced Humpy to grind out an 84-move win in what ultimately became a knight endgame with two extra pawns for White. Despite the length of the game, the outcome seldom looked in doubt and only delayed the coronation!

Humpy beats Salimova to win the 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix! https://t.co/D2hLl5L6b0 pic.twitter.com/gvXhTSKwI3

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 23, 2025

Humpy commented, "It’s been a long time since I did well in a classical tournament, and here I’m also gaining rating points, so I feel very good!"

As well as taking first place, Humpy moved up to second on the overall Grand Prix standings, which, for now, would mean one of the two spots in the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament.

FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-5 Standings After Pune

The problem, however, is that Humpy did relatively poorly in Shymkent and has now completed all three of her Grand Prix events. Zhu has one to go, in Vienna, and can overtake Humpy with 50 points for sixth place. GMs Anna Muzychuk (max possible score 319.17) and Tan Zhongyi (300) can also overtake Humpy.

So the Indian star's spot is precarious, though it's noteworthy she has another possible route via the FIDE Women's Series, where the overall Grand Prix standings will count as, for instance, does Humpy's victory in the 2024 Women's World Rapid Championship.    

🇨🇳 Ju Wenjun sets the pace in FIDE Women’s Events 2024–25

Fresh off her fifth world title, Ju Wenjun tops the leaderboard in the 2024–25 women’s series, setting an intense pace for her rivals.

The highest-placed player of FIDE Women’s Events qualifies for the FIDE Women’s… pic.twitter.com/AUayGFRi5t

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 22, 2025

Humpy is in fact leading that race, since GM Ju Wenjun, as reigning women's world champion, won't play in the Candidates Tournament to select her challenger.

Shuvalova 0-1 Zhu

Zhu is only playing the Grand Prix as a late replacement for Chinese colleague GM Lei Tingjie, but she couldn't have done more to seize her chance. She lost out on first place on tiebreaks in Nicosia to Anna Muzychuk, and while it's somewhat cruel that history has repeated itself in Pune, she is, as we've seen, perfectly placed to take one of the top-two spots in the series.

Zhu's tournament was in some ways even more spectacular than Humpy's, featuring six wins and a powerful comeback after the one setback against the winner. 

Zhu had the harder task in the final round, playing with the black pieces, but she equalized against Shuvalova by move 10, and then pounced on the chance to fully take over with 30...Bxf3! and 31...d5!.

If Zhu has shown a weakness in Pune it's been sometimes over-pressing in equal positions and overlooking tactics, but in this case she was right to hunt down chances and kept finding resources to preserve her edge, with 42...Nd5!, relying on the threat of back rank checkmate if the knight is captured, a nice moment.

As in the other game, however, the tactics ultimately came down to exactly the same thing—a two-pawn-up endgame with rook + knight vs. rook + knight. Zhu managed to get the job done first, with Shuvalova resigning after 76...Rb2.

Humpy and Zhu are just as hard to separate on the live rating list, with both climbing above recent world championship challenger Tan.

So that's all from India, but the FIDE Women's Grand Prix will draw to a close in just two weeks' time in the Vienna FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Austria, where the battle for Candidates spots will go down to the wire. As well as the 10 players, leaders GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and Humpy will be looking on nervously.   

How to review?

The 2025 Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix was the fifth of six legs of the 2024-2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 10-player round-robin ran March April 14-23 in Pune, India. Players had 90 minutes, plus 30 minutes from move 40, with a 30-second increment per move. The top prize was €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 8: Zhu Hits Back To Beat Divya As Humpy Escapes
• Round 7: Humpy Beats Zhu To Snatch Pune Women's Grand Prix Lead
• 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