Koneru Humpy finished joint-top along with Zhu Jiner at the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix event in Pune to move to overall second place in the Grand Prix series. It is a significant result for Humpy as it keeps her in contention — as one of the top two players in the Grand Prix Series – to make it to the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates tournament, which will decide the challenger to world champion Ju Wenjun’s crown in 2027.
The Grand Prix series comprises of six events, where each of the 20 players in this series is allowed to participate in three of the six. Each Grand Prix event has a maximum of 10 players. They are given points ranging from 10 to 130 based on where they finish between tenth and first.
Five of the six Grand Prix series events are now completed, with Humpy and Jiner’s joint win in Pune, with one left to go in Austria next month. Humpy has already completed her quota of three events. She finished joint-fifth in Kazakhstan and had a three-way tie for top spot in Monaco, before this two-way tie for top spot in Pune.
As it stands…
Aleksandra Goryachkina leads with 308.34 points after completing her allotted three events. Humpy’s in second place with 279.17 points after her three events. Only three other players can possibly catch Humpy now — Anna Muzychuk, Jiner and Tan Zhongyi. All three of them will be in action in Austria next month.
Jiner currently has 235 points, Muzychuk has 189.17 points and Zhongyi has 170 points.
The final battles in Pune are over-and what a finish! ��
���� Humpy Koneru and ���� Zhu Jiner both won their final round games and ended the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix tied for first, but it’s Humpy who takes the top spot thanks to superior tiebreaks! ����
Here’s how the last round… pic.twitter.com/TWazjcWgYx
– International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 23, 2025
What results does Humpy need in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Austria?
For Humpy to finish in second place, none of Jiner, Muzychuk and Zhongyi should go past her in the Grand Prix series overall standings.
Jiner’s task is the easiest of those with a chance to overtake Humpy. She currently has 44.17 points behind Humpy. So, she will have to finish sixth or higher in Austria to move past Humpy in the standings.
If Jiner finishes lower seventh or lower, then Muzychuk has to finish in the top two, moving past Humpy. If she finishes third, she will be level with Humpy on 279.17 points. In this case, Muzychuk will have to score 6.5 points or more out of 9 while finishing third to finish ahead of Humpy.
For Zhongyi, the task is the steepest, she has to win outright in Austria, while the above results for Jiner and Muzychuk hold. Even a shared first place would mean that she cannot move past Humpy.
Is Humpy the only Indian who can qualify for the Candidates?
Not exactly. Apart from Humpy, no other Indian has a chance to qualify for the Candidates through the Grand Prix series. There are other paths that will present opportunities for the likes of R Vaishali, D Harika and Divya Deshmukh to qualify for the Candidates.
Also, even if Humpy misses out on qualification via Grand Prix series, there will be other opportunities for her as well.
What are the other paths?
The Grand Prix series 2024-25 is one of four routes through to the Candidates. The top two players from here will go through to the Candidates. For the rest, there are two huge events coming up later this year.
First, the FIDE Women’s World Cup in July, which will be held in Batumi, Georgia. It will be a knockout tournament with a 128-strong field. The top three from the World Cup will qualify for the Candidates.
There is also the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss tournament in September, which will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The top two finishers at this event will qualify for the Candidates. In the last world championship cycle, R Vaishali in the women’s section and Vidit Gujrathi in the open section qualified for the Candidates through the Grand Swiss route.
One spot is reserved for the highest-placed player in the FIDE Women’s Events 2025-26 series.
Unlike in the Open, where a large number of different events is taken into consideration, FIDE Women’s Events 2025-26 will focus only on certain major events. Those include the World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2024 and 2025, including both rapid and blitz formats for two consecutive years, Women’s Grand Prix Series 2024-25, the Women’s World Cup and the Women’s Grand Swiss.
Humpy won the World Rapid Championship in 2024, and as it stands, is second in the FIDE Women’s Events 2025-26 series behind world champion Ju Wenjun. So, if she can keep this spot up, she will qualify for the Candidates through this route.
