1Kourkoulos-Arditis goes for a solid choice
The knight move is flexible and a popular choice when a grandmaster is looking to keep risk to a minimum.
It looks like Divya has decided to go for an early fianchetto opening, that could end up in an opening system that is known as the 'Modern' or 'Modern Defense'. It's a somewhat risky, but also quite ambitious choice. It makes a lot of sense for Divya to go for it, since this opening is statistically one which leads to a lot of decisive results, which is exactly what Divya is looking for today.
2Kourkoulos-Arditis grabs the center
The drawback to Divya's approach is that it doesn't contest the center right away, so her opponent makes use of this and builds up a space advantage here immediately.
Divya continues her development
She brings the bishop on to the long diagonal. The idea is to let her opponent grab the center, and then to seek to undermine it in the future. This way, sharp and messy play is practically guaranteed.
3Kourkoulos-Arditis builds the ideal center
In chess, the ideal center refers to the four most central squares. The Greek grandmaster now firmly possesses control of this, meaning that objectively he stands better. But Divya is happy to give him an advantage in order to guarantee a complex battle.
Divya opens up the vision for her light-squared bishop, while also beginning to influence the center herself.
4Simple development
For the time being, Kourkoulos-Arditis can just choose straightforward developing moves.
Divya brings her kingside knight out, getting ready to castle her king.
5Kourkoulos-Arditis does likewise, stepping out his final minor piece to prepare to castle to the right.
Divya castles
For now, the play is not yet particularly tense. What will define the middlegame will be when Divya begins an active attempt to undermine Kourkoulos-Arditis's central control.
6Kourkoulos-Arditis also castles.
Divya hints at a pawn break?!
She brings her knight out, suggesting that one of her ideas might be to push her central pawn forward in the near future. This style borrows from the kind of play you see in a more popular but similar opening weapon, the King's Indian Defense.
7Kourkoulos-Arditis advances
He sticks with very principled play early in this game, pushing forward and challenging the knight. On the one hand, it forces Divya to retreat (as there are no good forward jumps). On the other, by placing both of his central pawns on light squares, it does allow Divya to try to build an edge along the newly weakened dark squares in the future. A provocative choice by Divya last move!
Divya drops back
On the surface, this maneuvering appears to be a waste of time. But Divya will be hoping that in the long run it pays off for her to have coaxed Kourkoulos-Arditis into pushing the pawn a little too far forward. In effect, Divya is hoping that this will leave her opponent a little overextended.
8Kourkoulos-Arditis cuts out piece trades
Given the way that he has his pawn formation, the one piece that Divya will struggle to get into the game is her light-squared bishop. So he's stopping the bishop from moving forward and possibly trading itself off.
Divya continues to play risky chess
This is definitely an approach to the opening that should not be recommended to beginner, or even intermediate players. Divya has allowed her opponent to take over the center, and is now adding pawn moves to her play before finishing her piece development.
9Kourkoulos-Arditis shuts down a possible push
He may have been worried that Divya would push the pawn forward, and that would allow her to grab space on the queenside and perhaps harass his knight in the future. So he cuts out all of those ideas.
Divya grabs her share of the center
She now has a bit more space in the most important area of the board. The downside for her is that her bishop is now no longer so active. But she couldn't afford to play with so much less space than her opponent for much longer.
10Kourkoulos-Arditis cuts out attacking chances
It may seem strange, but this decision to trade pawns in the center is actually motivated by the Greek grandmaster's fear of an attack down the line. If that pawn had been left there, Divya could have used it to for example support the invasion of her knight on his kingside, or to support a pawn storm on that flank. So he's trying to keep things as safe as possible.
Divya takes back with the bishop
Objectively, Kourkoulos-Arditis's decision to trade pawns was not the strongest. Now she's able to bring her bishop to a good square and will no longer struggle to finish her development.
11Kourkoulos-Arditis finishes his minor piece development
It's been a smart opening strategy from the Greek grandmaster, who is finding natural squares for all of his pieces and still keeps a slight advantage as the only side with a pawn in the heart of the center.
Divya brings out her last minor piece
She's ready to think about contesting the center by pushing her queen's pawn forward next, though a concern with that plan may be that it could lead to a lot of piece trades. And that's something that Divya has to be careful to avoid, since it will make it that bit easier for Kourkoulos-Arditis to guide the game towards the draw that he needs to secure match victory.
12A useful move, bringing the rook towards the central file and preparing to perhaps support his pawn by slotting his bishop back next.
Divya drops her knight back, re-opening the vision of her bishop on the main diagonal. She might also think about driving the knight forward along the queenside, in order to pressure Kourkoulos-Arditis's central pawn.
13A quiet improving move from Kourkoulos-Arditis, as he connects his rooks and also sets up a bishop-queen battery that might prove useful later on.
Still a lot of tension
This is the biggest achievement for Divya so far in this game. After a dozen or so moves, there remains a lot of tension on the board. The main reason for this is that no piece trades are yet to take place, something that plays into Divya's strategy of making the fight as complex and unbalanced as possible.
14Kourkoulos-Arditis brings his last piece to the center
On the surface, the move makes a lot of sense. Though it does leave the left-hand pawn a little less well-covered than before. That's something that Divya might be able to take advantage of down the line.
Divya sets up possible threats
The move makes a lot of sense. While it will always be risky to play bishop takes knight (as her kingside dark squares would be weakened), it's still a lingering threat that might be worth pulling the trigger on down the line. Kourkoulos-Arditis has to be careful at every turn for now.
15Kourkoulos-Arditis drops his bishop back, ensuring his central pawn isn't at risk of being captured in the case that Divya were to play bishop takes knight at any moment.
Divya shuts down the diagonal
It seems strange to go for a move that blocks the path of your own bishop, and from a computer standpoint it is far from the strongest path available. But it's a good practical choice, as it secures the central square and further imbalances the fight.
16Kourkoulos-Arditis pushes the pawn forward, grabbing some space and using tactics to indirectly defend it. If Divya plays knight takes pawn, then Kourkoulos-Arditis would be able to fork both of Divya's knights.
Divya drops her bishop back, stabilizing her position a little and also opening up the vision of her rook. Besides this, she now opens up the door for her knight to drop to the freed up square and hit Kourkoulos-Arditis's bishop.
17Kourkoulos-Arditis drops back
He anticipates Divya's plan of moving her knight towards the central file and targeting the bishop. For now it's very cagey chess from both sides, with Kourkoulos-Arditis seeking to keep things stable and simple while Divya tries to avoid piece trades to ensure a complicated struggle.
Divya with a risky choice!
A dangerous approach, weakening the structure around her king. But there's no way to make progress against a solid opponent without taking some risk, and it looks like Divya is hoping to bring her bishop to bear down on Kourkoulos-Arditis's central pawn.
18Kourkoulos-Arditis drops his knight back, freeing up the path for his pawn to lend support to the center if needed.
Divya takes care to move her king to a safer square, anticipating that the position is likely to blow open sooner or later. The reason is that one of the main plans available to her is to push her kingside pawn forward to re-activate her dark-squared bishop.
19Kourkoulos-Arditis supports his pawn
A useful move, defending the center and at the same time making room for his bishop to drop back. That would immediately put Divya's central knight under pressure.
Divya felt her knight was no longer effective on this square, so she begins to reroute it towards an even more central post.
20While Divya controls much of the dark squares, it's clear that Kourkoulos-Arditis's main advantage lies on the light. So he anchors his knight on a very strong central square.
Divya completes the piece maneuver, though she remains without any real threats. Kourkoulos-Arditis has been doing an excellent job of containing any possible counterplay that Divya is searching for, at least until now.
21Kourkoulos-Arditis jumps his knight forward, looking to both pressure Divya's pawn and also keeping the option open of maneuvering the knight towards the center. From there, it would take aim at Divya's weak light squares on the kingside.
Divya tries to find a more active square for her bishop, though she continues to struggle to identify any strong plan. One problem for her is that now Kourkoulos-Arditis can just focus on building up space on the queenside, given that he's got an iron clamp over the center.
22Kourkoulos-Arditis drops his knight back, likely to guard against a possible pawn break from Divya.
A pawn break refers to a pawn push that makes contact with an enemy pawn.
Divya drops back her own knight, pressuring Kourkoulos-Arditis's central piece and at the same time renewing the possibility of pushing her pawn forward. She would like to do this in good circumstances, as it would bring her bishops to life.
23Kourkoulos-Arditis continues to play solid chess, dropping his bishop back to a more active diagonal.
Divya brings her queen to a more active square, connecting her rooks in the process.
24Kourkoulos-Arditis decides to keep things simple, trading off knights to make it unrealistic for Divya to go for that pawn break she's been hinting at for the past few moves.
Divya takes back with the rook, ensuring that her queen stays covering the light squares where her weaknesses lie.
25Kourkoulos-Arditis expands on the queenside
His position is very stable, so he has the time to grab more space. Overall, he maintains a pretty big advantage here due to the effect that the pawn structure has on Divya's pieces, which remain very passive for now.
Divya struggling for moves
She drops her queen back, as she continues to search for active play. But for now, there is nothing on the horizon. Kourkoulos-Arditis continues to have great control over the position, and perhaps now is a good time for him to expand further on the queenside.
26Prophylaxis is the name of the game
In chess, prophylaxis refers to any move that focuses on cutting out opponent threats rather than creating threats of your own. Here, it seems that Kourkoulos-Arditis is looking to completely shut off any possible pawn advance, by bringing his queen to bear on the diagonal that runs towards Divya's kingside.
Divya expands on the kingside
Though the move doesn't create any immediate threats, it does set up a possible pawn break in the future if she is able to time it well.
27Kourkoulos-Arditis opens up lines
He has more space on the queenside, so it makes sense to try to play directly on that part of the board. It's a good move, as his pieces are better coordinated, so an open battle should work in his favor. Still, for Divya it's not bad to see the game finally opening up, as this is where her chances of generating counterplay will lie.
Unfortunately, she doesn't react in the best way against the pawn move. Now, Kourkoulos-Arditis can bump up the pressure by moving his queen forward to target the left-hand pawn. It's going to be very difficult for Divya to hold her weakened queenside together...
28Kourkoulos-Arditis keeps things simple, choosing to trade in order to leave Divya with an isolated pawn at the end of the sequence.
Divya takes back with the pawn, aiming to keep as many pieces on the board as possible.
29Kourkoulos-Arditis drives his knight onto the outpost, targeting Divya's rook.
Divya quickly slides the rook to the right, away from the attack by the knight.
30Kourkoulos-Arditis continues to play methodically
It has to be said that he's played excellently throughout not just this game, but this match. The Greek GM has made no significant mistakes at any point, and in this second game his approach has been very effective in keeping risk to a minimum.
Divya moves her bishop onto a new diagonal, x-raying the enemy queen. She will have to be very careful on the clock over the next 10 moves, as she is down to under 4 minutes. The players will both receive an extra 30 minutes on the clock once move 40 is reached.
31Kourkoulos-Arditis takes over the open file
It's the only one of the position, so Kourkoulos-Arditis places his rook along the file in order to seize control of it.
Divya lifts her king up, protecting the bishop
Her idea is that now she can threaten the pawn push, which would open up an attack against Kourkoulos-Arditis's queen.
32Kourkoulos-Arditis guards against the threat
He moves his own bishop forward, opposing Divya's and blocking her threat of pushing the pawn.
Divya quickly drops her bishop back
With just under two minutes on the clock, her focus is likely on trying to play reasonable moves and survive until the time control.
33A nice practical choice, hitting Divya's rook and asking the tricky question of where exactly she should move the piece.
Divya lifts it up, avoiding a rook exchange as in the case that she had moved it one square to the left instead. But the problem is that now her back rank becomes very weak. That's something that Kourkoulos-Arditis may be able to exploit over the coming moves.
34Kourkoulos-Arditis continues to play for a safe approach, but now Divya can finally go for that pawn break she's been threatening for some time. Will she pull the trigger?!
She instead brings her queen to support the pawn push, likely hoping to play it under slightly better conditions next move. But now Kourkoulos-Arditis has the chance to create play of his own, with one strong idea being to push his right-hand pawn forward!
The reason the edge pawn can be pushed safely is that if Divya were to take it, then the other pawn would push forward (as shown by the arrows) and that would target the knight. And if the knight were to move, that pawn could keep pushing to hit the bishop!
35Kourkoulos-Arditis, who has been playing so patiently throughout, goes for an uncharacteristic choice here. Now the center is suddenly much less stable for him, and Divya has realistic chances to complicate matters for the first time in the game!
Divya quickly takes the pawn, since not only was her knight under fire, but if the pawn could move one more square up then her light-squared bishop would have been trapped.
36Kourkoulos-Arditis recaptures with his knight, since taking back with the queen would have run into a skewer on his rook by Divya's dark-squared bishop.
Divya finds the right way to continue, pinning the opponent's knight against his queen. Suddenly that's a little uncomfortable for Kourkoulos-Arditis.
37Kourkoulos-Arditis breaks the pin, but now Divya can win a pawn by taking in the center! It's far from a disaster for her opponent, but it's exactly the kind of messy position that she's been hoping to get!
Unfortunately, she decides that taking the pawn in the center was a little too risky. This move, giving up the bishop pair, seems problematic for her as it's going to be hard to drum up winning chances from here.
38The problem for Divya is that now Kourkoulos-Arditis has a lot of things in his favor: the safer king, the bishop pair, and the slightly healthier structure.
The match concludes in favor of the Greek grandmaster, Kourkoulos-Arditis, who showed excellent play throughout both classical games.
The problems started very early on for Divya, as she essayed a risky opening system against the Nimzo-Indian in yesterday's game. The variation she chose is well-known, but it involves sacrificing a central pawn very early in exchange for an attack.
The risk of such an approach is that, if the attack fizzles out, then the Black side is left a pawn to the good while the White side has little to show for it. Unfortunately for Divya, this is exactly what happened early into that game, with Kourkoulos-Arditis showing excellent technique to bring home the full point.
From there, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for Divya, as the only way for her to stay alive in the match meant pushing for a win with the Black pieces in today's game.
Divya chose a combative weapon involving an early fianchetto of her dark-squared bishop, eventually getting into a position that somewhat resembled a King's Indian Defense.
But, ultimately, Kourkoulos-Arditis was the one whose strategy worked best today. He worked to keep the position as simple and controlled as possible at all times, and Divya never looked to be close to victory.
In the end, Kourkoulos-Arditis was even able to close the game out with a win, though that is unlikely to have happened had Divya not overextended towards the end in her search for an unlikely victory.
Congratulations to Kourkoulos-Arditis as he progresses to the second round.
There is no way for Divya to stop Kourkoulos-Arditis from making a queen by force in the coming moves, as her king is too far away from the pawns.
Kourkoulos-Arditis knows that his connected passed pawns will decide the outcome, so he immediately eliminates Divya's own strong pawn.
Kourkoulos-Arditis brings his king up, supporting the advance of the pawns.
Kourkoulos-Arditis will probably have to give up his rook for this strong pawn, but his own connected pawns will be enough to win.
Divya sets up some checks from the side, but Kourkoulos-Arditis can prepare to escape these by moving either of his pawns forward.
Kourkoulos-Arditis looking to close out this endgame with a win, as his two connected pawns will overwhelm Divya's rook in the coming moves.
Kourkoulos-Arditis defends the pawn, suggesting that he's looking to play for the full point.
Divya tries to find a draw
She recognizes it's no longer possible to play for a win, so she invites Kourkoulos-Arditis to take her left-hand pawn in exchange for one of his passed pawns on the kingside.
Divya recognized the threat, and so she immediately captured the left-hand pawn. But now Kourkoulos-Arditis is able to pick up one of her queenside pawns.
A very clever plan from Kourkoulos-Arditis. His idea is that if Divya spends another move to bring her king to defend the pawns, then he'll post his rook on a square from where it defends the pawn from the side!
Divya needs to spend a couple of moves bringing her king over to the queenside in order to defend the pawn, and be able to try to win the pawn without losing any of her own.
Kourkoulos-Arditis is going to make it as difficult as possible for Divya to pick up the pawn without losing her own.
Divya targets the weak pawn
She needs to win this one in order to try to begin rolling her pawns up the board.
Kourkoulos-Arditis can take the pawn, securing an endgame where he'll be a pawn to the good. Divya might be able to win his left-hand pawn in the future, which means her position isn't hopeless. But overall, there's very little risk here for the Greek grandmaster.
Divya is down to just seconds on her clock, as Kourkoulos-Arditis thinks about what exact rook and pawn ending he wants to try to force on the board. One option is immediately hunt down Divya's central pawn, while another approach is to try to get perpetual check against the king.
Divya trades bishops, as there was no way to avoid this.
Divya can win a pawn on the queenside, but Kourkoulos-Arditis will immediately win one back.
This is a real problem for Divya, as now the bishops are coming off the board. And soon after that, we'll see a lot more pawns being traded. Divya needs a miracle to stay alive in the tournament.
Divya goes after one of Kourkoulos-Arditis's undefended pawns. The problem however, is that now her opponent can force a favorable bishop trade. And the resulting rook and pawn endgame is going to be close to impossible to try and win...
Kourkoulos-Arditis takes a different approach, avoiding the rook trade for now. Likely, he was afraid of Divya being left with a somewhat dangerous passed pawn in the center (if he had gone for the line mentioned in the previous note).
Divya recovers her pawn, though now her bishop is overloaded. This means that Kourkoulos-Arditis can once again go a pawn up by either swapping rooks first in the center, or immediately taking the right-hand pawn.
Kourkoulos-Arditis covers the left-hand pawn, while offering further piece trades.
Kourkoulos-Arditis seizes his chance to get the queens off the board, as we reach a fairly balanced rook and bishop endgame.
Divya takes back, with her point being that now it's not possible for Kourkoulos-Arditis to defend both his left-hand pawn and the one in the center.
A surprising choice
While Divya's move is objectively one of the best in the position, the offer to trade queens is something that Kourkoulos-Arditis is likely to be quite happy to see.
I'm surprised by this choice of move from Kourkoulos-Arditis, who surrenders his pawn on the left hand side without need. All of a sudden, Divya can just snap it off and level the position up!
For the price of a pawn, Divya has taken away the sting of Kourkoulos-Arditis's bishop pair. Plus, she has now improved her coordination and is able to create some pressure against her opponent's position. The problem however is that one pawn is a bit too heavy a price to pay for these benefits.
Kourkoulos-Arditis emerges up a pawn after the series of trades.
Divya recaptures, taking away Kourkoulos-Arditis's bishop pair.
Kourkoulos-Arditis goes for the win of the pawn.
Divya offers up a pawn
It's an understandable move, since trying to defend against the attack with her king looked far too passive and unlikely to ward off the pressure for long. But the problem with this is that now Kourkoulos-Arditis can win a pawn while trading pieces, which will make it very hard for Divya to generate winning chances.
Kourkoulos-Arditis takes some time to settle down after the time scramble. He's found the best option in the position, targeting both of Divya's weak kingside pawns.
Both sides will now receive an extra half hour on the clock (in addition to the 30-second increment per move). This one is likely to last quite a lot longer from here, as Kourkoulos-Arditis remains ahead with his bishop pair and slightly healthier pawn chain. But Divya is still very much alive, and it could all come down to who makes the first big mistake.
Kourkoulos-Arditis reaches the time control
He'll be quite happy to have managed to reach move 40 without his position degrading. He keeps a comfortable advantage, and it's going to be a lot of hard work for Divya to turn things around from here.
Divya is very close to reaching the 40th move, and for now doesn't want to make any sort of committal move, so she shuffles her queen.
Kourkoulos-Arditis moves his rook back towards the central file, as that is where all the action is unfolding with both sides having weak pawns arranged along those files.
A must-win for Divya!
It's looking like an uphill battle for the 2025 Women's World Cup winner, Divya Deshmukh, as she prepares for the second game of her mini-match against Greek grandmaster, Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis.
Her loss yesterday means that today she has the unenviable task of needing to win with the Black pieces, in order to force play offs and take the match into tomorrow's tie-breaker day. Anything else, and she will be out of this year's FIDE World Cup.
It's a tough hurdle to overcome, but certainly not out of the question. Divya has shown incredibly high opening preparation throughout 2025, and an ability to consistently score points against elite players from both the White and the Black side.
No doubt that her opponent will be aiming to neutralize the game and keep risk to a minimum. But sometimes it is precisely this approach that leads to play that is too timid, and that might create a window of opportunity for Divya to take over the initiative and fight for the full point.
Let's see if Divya is able to keep her chances alive today!