"VAN" (Sports Desk - 18.07.2025) :: Refreshed after their rest day, the sixteen qualifiers returned to the Grand Bellagio venue for the first of the two-game Round of 16 matches that will determine who advances to the quarterfinals.
The round was formally opened by the Head of the Sports Department of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, Irma Nizharadze, who welcomed the players and wished them good luck. She then performed the ceremonial first move on Lei Tingjie’s board, marking the official start of the round.
Seeded number one and a former Women’s World Championship challenger, GM Lei Tingjie opted for a solid approach against her young opponent’s tactical prowess.
It wasn’t their first encounter. “I played a blitz game against Omonova two years ago at the World Blitz and Rapid Championship and noticed that she’s a very talented and resourceful player,” said Lei after the game. “So, I decided not to waste too much time on the clock.”
“It worked out very well for her when WIM Umida Omonova, perhaps slightly out of her depth, made a couple of positional mistakes and quickly found herself in a desperate position. Omonova attempted an exchange sacrifice to generate counterplay, but it ultimately proved ineffective.
‘I don’t necessarily think that I am in the best form of my life. Every game seems normal, and I just wait for my opponent to make a mistake,’ Lei explained after the game.”
IM Divya Deshmukh delivered a fantastic performance this afternoon, decisively overcoming an opponent who had posed significant challenges in recent tournaments, including two previous losses at the Nicosia and Pune 2025 Women’s Grand Prix legs.
“I didn’t prepare specifically for this game. Since I had a poor score against GM Zhu Jiner, I thought it might be some sort of mental block. So, I decided to focus on playing against the pieces instead, and once the game started, it didn’t matter who I was playing,” explained Divya in her post-game interview with FIDE’s Star Interview host, WIM Charlize van Zyl.
Divya’s strategic handling of the Najdorf, especially seizing control over the d5-square, shows deep positional understanding. Dominating that square in the Sicilian often means restricting Black’s counterplay and securing central control.
By forcing principled exchanges, she clearly transitioned into a favorable good knight vs bad bishop endgame — a textbook example of converting a small edge into a winning position. Those endings are notoriously difficult for the defender, and her tactical precision in the final phase just capped off a well-played game.
China’s GM Tan Zhongyi took revenge for her loss in the 2020 Online Olympiad against Ukraine’s IM Yuliia Osmak. “I think my performance has been average, especially in the second round where there were some issues,” Tan explained after the game.
It was a strong performance by the former Women’s World Champion, and one of the players here, who already knows what it feels like to finish among the top spots in this event.
Under pressure for most of the game, Osmak finally succumbed on move 31, despite the draw being within reach. When asked afterward about how she personally handles pressure, Tan responded, “I think there’s nothing you can really do about it; it’s something every player has to endure.”
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