The favorites, GMs Divya Deshmukh and Bibisara Assaubayeva, advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship on Friday. Between the two, the winners only lost one game. Divya defeated IM Rose Atwell with an undefeated 14-1, while Assaubayeva lost a game in the match against WGM Afruza Khamdamova, which finished 10.5-3.5.
The next two games will be played on Monday July 13. Women’s world number one GM Hou Yifan will play IM Dinara Wagner in 8 am ET / 2:00 pm CEST / 5:30 pm ISTfollowed by IM Polina Shuvalova against Anastasia Avramidou in 10:30 am ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 pm IST.
Women’s Speed Chess Championship Draw
Divya 14-1 Atwell
Divya put in one of the best performances ever in any Speed Chess Championship. After almost winning every game, he earns $2,900, while Atwell earns $100 per winning percentage.
5+1: Divya 5-0 Atwell
Divya started the match by winning all the games in the first segment.
From a cautious Queen’s Gambit Reject, Divya took an early lead after opening the center with 21.e4?. As sometimes happens, a mistake turned out to be the winning play in practice. 22…Rxe4?? justified White’s idea, and 23.Ng5! It was an instant winning move.
In the next game, Atwell had just recovered from a losing end, but although the position was even, he lost in time. And then Divya took advantage of a bishop pair advantage in the third game, ending the game with an eye-catching pawn promotion tactic. If the bishop is captured, the pawn is promoted and otherwise Black will have to sacrifice his knight.
Divya won two more games to end the 5+1 portion with a five-point lead. In the last game, he found the killer intermediate move. 19.f4! to win a piece.
3+1: Divya 5-0 Atwell
Divya continued to win in the second segment, accumulating 10 points to zero.
24…e5! was a crushing move in the first game, forcibly removing the f4 knight and clearing the queen’s path to the long diagonal. The target quickly crumbled.
Three games later, it looked like Atwell was on track to win for the first time with an extra pawn, but when both players fell below the minute mark, Divya turned things around. 35.Rxb7! It was an unexpected shot and, if not for this move, Black would have won. But in chess you only need one good move.
Divya won again to start the bullet segment with a double-digit lead.
1+1: Divya 4-1 Atwell
Divya finished the match without allowing a single loss. In the bullet section, they won three games and tied two.
Throughout the match, Divya made it look easy. He won the first game by exchanging pieces in a winning king and pawn ending, and he won it despite allowing a tie on one move.
It looked like Atwell was going to win the last game of the match when he won a free pawn in the endgame, but the tilt factor was too significant at the time.
Throughout the match, Divya listened intently to his music, often bobbing her head and singing along. When asked about his playlist, he said he mostly listened to Indian music. But when asked for a music recommendation to complement blitz, he named Imagine Dragons, specifically the songs “Sharks” and “Whatever It Takes.”
Assaubayeva 10.5-3.5 Khamdamova
Assaubayeva lost only one game in the match. Otherwise, everything was smooth sailing until a seven-point victory. She wins $1,125 and Khamdamova wins $375 by winning percentage.
5+1: Assaubayeva 3.5-1.5 Khamdamova
Assaubayeva finished the first segment two points ahead, with two wins and three draws.
Although the score on paper clearly reflects in Assaubyeva’s favor, it was Khamdamova who put the pressure on in the first two games. However, they ended in draws and Assaubayeva drew first blood in the third game with the “pin and win” theme. The only defensive move 18…Qd7! was out of reach in a blitz game, and even if it had been found, White would have been better off.
Assaubayeva took her second victory on a double-edged Sicilian Dragondorf (a hybrid of Dragon and Najdorf). With 34.Rdh2??White moved all in for a checkmate attack on the h-file, but Assaubeyuva ruined his pawn structure, defended the mate, and eventually won a pawn.
The players tied in the last match, leaving Assaubayeva ahead by two.
3+1: Assaubayeva 4-1 Khamdamova
Assaubayeva won the second segment with four wins and one loss.
After winning the first game, the Kazakh’s only loss in the match came in a position where she was actually winning. But with little time, he did not find a suitable way to deal with the kingside counterplay, and went down in flames (even if there was a miracle defense 27.Rb8!!).
But he won the next three games. The most crushing of them was the second, where his opponent made a mistake in the opening. The game ended in 22 moves.
With another victory, the three-time women’s blitz world champion finished the segment with a five-point lead, 7.5-2.5.
1+1: Assaubayeva 3-1 Khamdamova
Without losing another defeat, Assaubayeva concluded the match in full control. They won two games and drew two.
In the last decisive game, she won a pawn on c4 and was absolutely ruthless in her conversion of the extra pawn, right up to the rook endgame.
Assaubayeva said after the match that she was nervous because she hadn’t played much online lately. But after surviving a shaky first game, he felt he was “back on form and showed not perfect chess, but not bad either.”
She also had a relaxed attitude toward loss. “I thought, okay, if I lose the match, I’ll have some free time, but if I win, I’ll keep playing.” She has reached the quarterfinals against Divya, a matchup with a long history. But for her it’s “just another game, one of thousands!”
The 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship, taking place from July 6 to 31, is a Chess.com event where some of the strongest female chess players in the world battle it out for a $75,000 prize pool. In the main event, 16 players compete in a single-elimination bracket in matches played with 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1 time controls.
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