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 of them, the winners lost only a single game. Divya defeated IM Rose Atwell with an undefeated 14-1, while Assaubayeva lost one game in the match against WGM Afruza Khamdamova, which ended 10.5-3.5.
The next two matches will take place on Monday, July 13. Women’s world number-one GM Hou Yifan will play IM Dinara Wagner at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST, followed by IM Polina Shuvalova vs. Anastasia Avramidou at 10:30 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.
Women’s Speed Chess Championship Bracket
Divya 14-1 Atwell
Divya put up one of the greatest performances ever in any Speed Chess Championship. After nearly winning every game, she earns $2,900, while Atwell makes $100 by win percentage.
5+1: Divya 5-0 Atwell
Divya started the match winning every single game of the first segment.
From a cagey Queen’s Gambit Declined, Divya was off to an early lead after breaking open the center with 21.e4?. As sometimes happens, a mistake turned out to be the winning move in practice. 22…Rxe4?? justified White’s idea, and 23.Ng5! was an instantly winning move.
In the next game, Atwell had just fought her way back from a losing endgame, but even though the position was equal, she lost on time. And then Divya converted a bishop-pair advantage in game three, finishing the game with a showy pawn promotion tactic. If the bishop is captured, the pawn promotes, and otherwise Black will have to sacrifice her knight.
Divya won two more games to finish the 5+1 portion with a five-point lead. In the last game, she found the killer in-between move 19.f4! to win a piece.
3+1: Divya 5-0 Atwell
Divya continued to win in the second segment, accumulating 10 points against zero.
24…e5! was a crushing move in game one, forcibly removing the knight from f4 and clearing the queen’s path to the long diagonal. White quickly fell apart.
Three games later, it looked like Atwell was on her way to winning for the first time with an extra pawn, but when both players fell under one minute, Divya turned things around. 35.Rxb7! was a shot from out of the blue, 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, she won three games and drew two.
Throughout the match, Divya made it look easy. She won game one by trading pieces into a winning king and pawn endgame, and won it despite allowing a draw for one move.
It looked like Atwell was going to win the last game of the match when she won a free pawn in the endgame, but the tilt factor was too significant by this point.
Throughout the match, Divya listened intensely to her music, often bobbing her head and singing along. Asked for her playlist, she said she listened to mostly Indian music. But asked for a music recommendation to complement blitz chess, she named Imagine Dragons, specifically the songs “Sharks” and “Whatever It Takes”.
Assaubayeva 10.5-3.5 Khamdamova
Assaubayeva lost a single game in the match. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing to a seven-point victory. She picks up $1,125, and Khamdamova earns $375 by win percentage.
5+1: Assaubayeva 3.5-1.5 Khamdamova
Assaubayeva ended the first segment with a two-point lead, with two wins and three draws.
Though the score on paper reflects heavily in Assaubyeva’s favor, it was Khamdamova who was pressing in the first two games. They ended in draws, though, and Assaubayeva drew first blood in game three with the theme of “pin and win.” The only defensive move 18…Qd7! was out of reach in a blitz game, and even if it were found, White would have still been better.
Assaubayeva picked up her second win in a double-edged Sicilian Dragondorf (a hybrid of the Dragon and the Najdorf). With 34.Rdh2??, White went all in for a checkmating attack on the h-file, but Assaubeyuva ruined her pawn structure, defended the mate, and ultimately won a pawn.
The players made a draw in the last game, leaving Assaubayeva up by two.
3+1: Assaubayeva 4-1 Khamdamova
Assaubayeva won the second segment with four wins and one loss.
After winning game one, the Kazakhstani’s only loss in the match came from a position where she was, in fact, winning. But with little time, she did not find an adequate way to deal with the counterplay on the kingside, and she went down in flames (even if a miraculous 27.Rb8!! defense existed).
But she won the next three games. The most crushing of them was the second, where her opponent blundered a piece in the opening. The game was over in 22 moves.
With another win, the three-time women’s world blitz champion ended the segment with a a five-point lead, 7.5-2.5.
1+1: Assaubayeva 3-1 Khamdamova
Without dropping another loss, Assaubayeva concluded the match in full control. She 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, all the way down to the rook endgame.
Assaubayeva said after the match that she was nervous going into it, as she hadn’t played much online lately. But after surviving a shaky first game, she felt she was “back in my shape and showed not perfect, but not bad chess.”
She had a relaxed attitude toward losing as well. “I thought, okay if I lost the match, I will have some free time, but if I win, I will continue playing.” She’s through to the quarterfinal against Divya, a matchup with a long history. But to her, it’s “just another game, one of the thousands!”
The 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship, which takes place from July 6-31, is a Chess.com event where some of the strongest female chess players in the world battle for a $75,000 prize fund. The main event sees 16 players compete in a single-elimination bracket in matches played at 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1 time controls.
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