The favorites, grandmasters Divya Deshmukh and Bibisara Asaubaeva, advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship on Friday. Of the two, the winners lost only one game. Divya defeated IM Rose Atwell with an undefeated score of 14-1, while Asaubaeva lost one game in her match with WGM Afruz Khamdamova, which ended with a score of 10.5-3.5.
The next two matches will take place Monday, July 13. The best women’s grandmaster in the world, Hou Yifan, will play against IM Dinara Wagner. 8am ET / 2pm CEST / 5:30pm EST.then MM Polina Shuvalova vs. Anastasia Avramidou on 10:30am ET / 5:00pm CEST / 8:30pm EST..
Women’s speed chess championship grid
Divya 14-1 Atwell
Divya gave one of the greatest performances at the speed chess championships. By almost winning every game, she earns $2,900, while Atwell earns $100 based on her winning percentage.
5+1: Divya – Atwell 5:0
Divya started the match by winning all the games in the first segment.
After an evasive rejection of the Queen’s Gambit, Divya took the lead after breaking through the center with 21.e4?. As sometimes happens, in practice the winning move turned out to be a mistake. 22…Rxe4?? justified White’s idea and 23.Ng5! was an instantly winning move.
In the next game, Atwell had just fought back from a losing endgame, but although the position was equal, she lost in time. And then Divya realized the advantage of the bishop pair in the third game, ending the game with a spectacular pawn promotion tactic. If the bishop is captured, the pawn advances, otherwise Black will have to sacrifice a knight.
Divya won two more games and completed the 5+1 portion with a five-point lead. In the last game, she found the killer between turns. 19.f4! to win a piece.
3+1: Divya – Atwell 5:0
Divya continued to win in the second segment, scoring 10 points to zero.
24…e5! was a devastating move in the first game, forcibly removing the knight from f4 and freeing 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 with an extra pawn for the first time, but with both players down under one minute, Divya turned the tide. 35.Rxb7! there was a blow 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 and started the stage with a double-digit lead.
1+1: Divya – Atwell 4:1
Divya finished the match without allowing a single loss. In the shootout section, she won three games and tied two.
Throughout the match, Divya made it look easy. She won the first game by trading pieces into a winning endgame with a king and a pawn, and won it despite allowing a draw by 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 at this point.
Throughout the match, Divya listened intently to her music, often bobbing her head and singing along. When asked about her playlist, she said that she listens mostly to Indian music. But when asked to recommend music to complement blitz chess, she named Imagine Dragons, specifically the songs “Sharks” and “Whatever It Takes.”
Asaubaeva 10.5-3.5 Khamdamova
Asaubaeva lost one game in the match. The rest of the road to a seven-point win was smooth. She receives $1,125 and Khamdamova earns $375 based on winning percentage.
5+1: Asaubaeva 3.5-1.5 Khamdamova
Asaubaeva finished the first segment with a two-point advantage, having two wins and three draws.
Although on paper the score largely favored Asaubeva, it was Khamdamova who put the pressure on in the first two games. However, they ended in a draw, with Asaubaeva drawing first blood in the third game, which featured a “pin and win” theme. The only defensive move is 18…Qd7! was out of reach in a blitz game, and even if it had been found, White would still have been better.
Asaubaeva scored her second victory in the double-edged Sicilian Dragondorf (a hybrid of Dragon and Najdorf). WITH 34.Rdh2??White went all-in for a mate attack on the h-file, but Asaubeeva destroyed her pawn structure, defended the mate and eventually won a pawn.
In the last game, the players tied, leaving Asaubaeva with a two-point advantage.
3+1: Asaubaeva – Khamdamova 4:1
Asaubaeva won the second segment with four wins and one loss.
After winning the first game, the Kazakh woman’s only loss in the match came from a position where she was, in fact, winning. But in a short time she did not find an adequate way to cope with counterplay on the kingside and burned out (even with the wonderful defense 27.Rb8!!).
But she won the next three games. The most devastating of them was the second, where the opponent blundered a piece in the opening. The game ended in 22 moves.
With another victory, the three-time world women’s blitz champion finished the segment with a five-point advantage – 7.5-2.5.
1+1: Asaubaeva – Khamdamova 3:1
Without allowing another defeat, Asaubaeva finished the match under complete control. She won two games and drew two.
In the last decisive game she won the pawn on c4 and absolutely ruthlessly sold the extra pawn right up to the rook ending.
After the match, Asaubaeva said that she was nervous before the match, since she had not played much online lately. But after surviving a shaky first game, she felt that she had “returned to her form and showed not perfect, but not bad chess.”
She also took losses calmly. “I thought, okay, if I lose the match, I’ll have some free time, but if I win, I’ll keep playing.” She reached the quarterfinals against Divya, a match with a long history. But for her it’s “just another game, one of thousands!”
The 2026 Women’s Speed Chess Championship, which runs from July 6 to 31, is a Chess.com event pitting the world’s top female chess players against each other for a $75,000 prize pool. The Main Event features 16 players competing in a Single Elimination bracket in 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 time control matches.
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