Divya Deshmukh And Zhu Jiner Emerge Joint Leaders After 2 Rounds At FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024-25 Pune 5th Leg 

Pune, 16 April: India’s Divya Deshmukh and Zhu Jiner emerged joint leaders with two points after scoring victories over Vaishali RameshBabu and Munguntuul Batkhuyag after the completion of the second round of the FIDE Women Grand Prix being played at Amanora The Fern. Both players won in contrasting styles with Divya being the first player to post a quick victory today while Jiner scoring the last one in the dying stages of the game. The other three encounters though hard fought ended in draws.

19-year-old Divya Deshmukh, a wild card entry in this tournament is the youngest player in fray. Today a momentary lapse in concentration had Vaishali blundering rather early in the game and Divya wasted no time in pocketing a point,the game barely lasting an hour.

The Ruy Lopez game between Divya and Vaishali was a sharp one and promised an interesting battle. Vaishali kep her King in the centre while Divya had castled on the King-side. Barely had the players warmed up with some quick opening theoretical moves when a deviation by Divya on the 16th turn resulted in a blunder by Vaishali on the very next move.  Vaishali quickly played a bishop move which forced the exchange of queens and had Divya smelling victory as the position promised to net her a bishop in the short run.

Vaishali left with isolated and disconnected pawns after exchange of most pieces and faced with loss of a bishop, Vaishali just prolonged the inevitable loss till the 26th move before resigning

‘I was rather lucky that I glanced through just this variation, five minutes before the game. Didn’t expect the game to get over so quickly “ admitted Divya after the game.

Harika appeared in an attacking move against the King’s Indian defence employed by Alina and made clear her intentions to gun for a victory by keeping the King in the centre. 

Thereafter Play focussed for most part on the queen-side with most pieces positioned there. A balanced position had the players deciding against exploring further and agreed to split the point by repetition of moves. Interestingly all pieces were intact on the board with only a couple of pawns exchanged.

The Scotch game between Melia Salome and Koneru Humpy had both players trying for an initiative throughout but the position remained equal throughout and suddenly after a flurry of exchanges from the 27th turn to the 34th turn took out the fizz from the game and a draw was agreed on the 41st turn when each was left with a King, rook and three pawns.

Zhu Jiner  adopted the Sicilian Defence against Munguntuul and tried to press for initiative at every possible opportunity. A draw appeared a likely result when the game was steered into a double rook and equal pawns ending. Munguntuul with a few inaccurate moves landed in an inferior position and after the exchange of another rook,  Zhu had an extra pawn which tilted the result in her favour. 

Round 2 Results;

IM Melia Salome (2293) -0.5 drew  GM Koneru Humpy (2528)-1

IM Divya Deshmukh(2460) -2 bt GM Vaishali Rameshbabu (2484)-0.5

IM Shuvalova Polina (2500)-1.5  drew  IM Salimova Nurgyul (2402)-0.5

GM Dronavalli Harika (2488)-0.5   drew IM Kashlinskaya Alina (2496)-0.5

IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (2361) – 1 lost to  GM Zhu Jiner(2525)-2