the queen's pawn

Divya opens the game up by moving her queen's pawn forward, a slightly more positional approach than the major alternative of the king's pawn push.

A flexible reply, developing the kingside knight before defining what to do with the central pawns.

Divya grabs as much space in the center as possible.

Could we see a Nimzo?

The Nimzo-Indian is one of the most reputable openings in chess, involving pinning White's queenside knight with Black's dark-squared bishop. Kourkoulos-Arditis is hinting at this possibility with his last move.

Divya allows the Nimzo

She develops her queen's knight, meaning we'll most likely get the Nimzo-Indian now. A highly theoretical battle lies ahead!

the nimzo-indian

We arrive at the beginning of this very strategically rich opening, where the Black side aims for speedy development and strong piece pressure in the center. While Divya will be hoping that if she wins the bishop pair, then it will be an asset for her in the long run.

Divya ignores the pin, just focusing on stabilizing her center and preparing to develop the kingside pieces.

Kourkoulos-Arditis continues his speedy development.

Divya seeks out the bishop pair

Targeting the invading pieces is typical in the Nimzo, as the White side looks to claim the two bishop advantage by provoking an exchange of pieces.

take!

Kourkoulos-Arditis makes the trade. Dropping back would make less sense, since then the bishop would be burning a lot of moves jumping back and forth.

Pros and cons

On the one hand, Divya now has doubled pawns and a generally weakened structure. On the other, she has a strong central pawn mass and the bishop pair. This is the foundation of the strategically rich and messy fight that lies ahead.

Dark-squared control

A very typical idea on display, with the point being to plant the pawns in the center along the dark squares. Since Kourkoulos-Arditis gave up his dark-squared bishop, he wants to balance things out by controlling that color with his pawn chain.

Divya develops her knight

A somewhat unusual choice, given that her light-squared bishop is yet to move. But Divya has a clear plan in mind, involving rotating the knight towards the kingside before bringing her bishop out. It's an aggressive system, showing that she has attacking ideas on her mind!

Kourkoulos-Arditis continues with his plan

He brings his queenside pawn forward, contesting the center. At the same time, he fixes the doubled pawns of Divya on the queenside. That's useful, since down the line he'll want to target this weakness.

Divya follows through with her plan, clearing the way for the bishop to enter the game next.

Kourkoulos-Arditis continues his development

The knight steps forward, and in the future may well rotate towards the side of the board in order to target that very weak pawn of Divya's.

Divya goes for a more conservative choice

It's a little concerning for anyone who is a fan of the Indian grandmaster, as she burns a lot of time on her clock before ultimately settling on a pretty tame bishop move. This suggests that she's out of her home preparation, which is a little worrying given how sharp and imbalanced the position is at this early stage.

Kourkoulos-Arditis continues his plan, preparing to bring his last minor piece into the game. He might fianchetto it, but he could also step it towards the edge in order to hit Divya's weak pawn.

Divya castles

She's almost finished her development. Things could heat up quite quickly here, especially if Kourkoulos-Arditis decides to go chasing down the weak pawn. Divya will have to sacrifice it, and try to launch an attack for her troubles!

Kourkoulos-Arditis seeks out the pawn

He does appear to be set on hunting the pawn, and now the question is just how quickly Divya will set her sights on an attack. Usually, that is done by launching the kingside pawn that sits in front of the rook.

Divya prepares the attack!

She opens up the diagonal for her dark-squared bishop, though that is secondary to her main goal of mobilizing her central pawns in order to set up attacking chances. It's a high-stakes strategy, as if her attack fizzles out she will be left down a pawn with little to show for it...

Kourkoulos-Arditis ready to win the pawn

There's nothing to be done about this weakness, as Divya has no pawns or pieces with which she can protect it. So she will have to continue building her attack in the meantime. This will not worry her too much, as this pawn sacrifice is a well-known idea behind the system she chose to play today.

The attack begins!

Divya launches her pawn forward, building up a strong central mass and preparing a pawn break in the near future in order to open up lines of attack.

take!

Kourkoulos-Arditis decides to crack open a file by trading in the center before winning Divya's weak pawn.

Divya takes back with the pawn, conserving her strong center.

Kourkoulos-Arditis nets a pawn

His strategy culminates in winning the 'free' pawn, though now he's going to have to weather the storm on the kingside over the coming moves.

Divya decides to trade bishops herself, likely worried that otherwise Kourkoulos-Arditis could have sought to bring his knight forward with a fork against rook and bishop in the near future.

Kourkoulos-Arditis takes back.

Divya plays the pawn break

She crashes through on the kingside, though now Kourkoulos-Arditis can hope to keep lines of attack relatively locked down by pushing his pawn forward in return.

A good reaction

Kourkoulos-Arditis is for now doing all the right things. He pushes forward in order to keep the file in front of Divya's kingside rook shut down. There is however one problematic issue for Kourkoulos-Arditis, and that is that Divya can now move her bishop forward and create a very uncomfortable pin of the knight against queen.

Divya holds off on the pin

Instead, she targets Kourkoulos-Arditis's knight. Likely though, this is just a move designed to improve her piece coordination a little, before going for the knight pin on the next move.

Kourkoulos-Arditis defends his knight

After a bit of a think, he ultimately settles on covering the knight with his pawn instead of his rook. It makes sense, as it's the best way of clamping the knight down on what is a strong advanced square.

Divya goes wrong!

This could get very dangerous for her, as she chooses to release the central pawn tension and go for the exchange. The reason this is a mistake is that now Kourkoulos-Arditis has more wiggle room for his queen, which takes the sting out of Divya's plan of pinning down the kingside knight.

Kourkoulos-Arditis quickly recaptures, opening up his queen and threatening a nasty check in the center.

Divya targets the undefended pawn

The move makes a lot of sense, since she also sidesteps the threat of a queen check that would have forked her king and corner rook. But the problem remains: she's down a pawn, with little to show for it.

Kourkoulos-Arditis goes for the most natural option, sliding his rook one square to the right in order to protect his attacked pawn.

Divya shelters her king

It was on an open and dangerous diagonal, as Kourkoulos-Arditis may step his queen towards there at any moment. It's a useful move, but the risk is that defensive moves like these will make it easier for her opponent to organize his forces and fully consolidate his extra pawn.

a good move

Kourkoulos-Arditis continues to play excellently, and with his last move he shuts down the potentially irritating pin on his knight by Divya's bishop.

Divya maintains hope of an attack

She lifts her rook up, which adds protection to her left-hand pawn. More importantly perhaps, is that Divya is entertaining a possible rook slide to the right hand side in the future. She'll need to rustle up an attack if she wants to turn this game around!

Kourkoulos-Arditis goes for a similar idea

In his case the rook now covers the kingside from the side, while also hinting at a possible rook-queen battery along the central file in the future.

Divya goes for a pawn break, hoping to dismantle Kourkoulos-Arditis's strongly supported knight.

Kourkoulos-Arditis pushes his pawn up in return, covering against the threat.

take!

Divya's pawn could be captured at any minute, so she feels it's best to trade it off right away.

Kourkoulos-Arditis takes back, and now his extra (passed) pawn on the queenside is going to be a long-term concern for Divya.

??MISTAKE??

Divya continues to struggle to get into this game, and unfortunately her last decision allows Kourkoulos-Arditis to pick up the strong bishop. This cuts out almost all of the risk for her opponent, while leaving Divya struggling to contain the passed pawn on the queenside.

take!

Kourkoulos-Arditis is happy to get rid of the piece immediately, as after this trade there are no longer any serious attacking chances for Divya.

Divya recaptures her piece, keeping an eye on the opponent's rook with her queen.

LOW ON TIME!!

Divya is in huge trouble in this one. Not only is she down a clean pawn, she is also down to less than four minutes on the clock! And we're still 15 moves away from move 40, which is when the players will receive an extra 30 minutes on the clock. A huge uphill battle from here if she wants to try and save the game.

Kourkoulos-Arditis takes over the central file, and to add to Divya's problems he now has some possibility to give a nasty check at the right moment. This would exploit Divya's back-rank weakness.

Divya lifts her pawn up, taking away the danger of tactics along the back rank.

A difficult choice

Kourkoulos-Arditis presents Divya with a tricky decision. On the one hand, it will be tempting for her to simplify things (given she's so low on time) by trading queens. On the other, that guides the game towards an ending that she may not feel at all confident she can hold.

Divya makes the trade

She decides this is the lesser evil, transitioning into a very difficult but not completely hopeless rook endgame.

Kourkoulos-Arditis takes back! 😅

There was a slight delay there, as we waited for the broadcast to correct itself! Unfortunately for any Divya fans, Kourkoulos-Arditis did indeed recapture his queen (unlike what the board showed for a couple of minutes!)

Divya moves her rook forward, aiming for counterplay against her opponent's vulnerable pawns.

A little impatient

Kourkoulos-Arditis seems to be rushing towards a pure rook and pawn endgame, but the thing about those is that they can often be very difficult (if not impossible) to win even when up a pawn!

Divya takes the pawn, and to be honest she can be quite happy with the recent string of moves. She's much more alive here than she was just a handful of moves ago!

take!

Kourkoulos-Arditis follows through on his idea of guiding the game towards a rook and pawn endgame. But it's going to be tricky to win here, as his extra pawn is very difficult to advance much further.

Divya takes back her knight.

Kourkoulos-Arditis looks to try to push the pawn forward as much as possible.

Divya blocks the pawn

The computer was screaming that a check on the last rank was the more precise move, as it would have forced Kourkoulos-Arditis's king to a more passive square. But that kind of nuance is very tricky to pick up on when down to minutes on the clock.

Kourkoulos-Arditis lifts his rook up, in order to protect his second rank pawns.

Divya can't improve her piece coordination much further, so she brings her rook to the left hand side. It's a relatively safe move when down to little time on the clock.

Kourkoulos-Arditis might be looking to clamp down on Divya's kingside pawn chain by pushing his pawn one square further next. It's difficult to suggest moves here for Divya, in practice the position is very very tricky to defend.

Divya tries her best to muddy the waters, pushing her pawn forward in order to open up the vision of her rook.

Kourkoulos-Arditis must advance, since this is the only way he can avoid Divya's threats of pawn takes pawn and rook takes pawn!

Divya looks to drive the king towards the corner, preparing to launch one final assault on it.

The king steps out of the way of the check.

A desperate attack

Divya recognizes that passive defense is starting to feel hopeless, so she 'goes all-in' with an assault against the enemy king. So long as Kourkoulos-Arditis is able to maneuver safely here over the next 3-4 moves, then he will bring home the full point. The attack is dangerous, but can be parried successfully with precise play.

!!GREAT MOVE!!

Kourkoulos-Arditis recognizes that the attack isn't overly scary, while his pawn is now already close to unstoppable.

Divya threatens checkmate

She's threatening to give checkmate along the back rank on her next move.

Kourkoulos-Arditis runs his king forward, in order to escape the net.

Divya brings her rook back, to cut off the escape route and renew the threat of checkmate.

Kourkoulos-Arditis lifts his pawn forward, to create space for his king if it is checked. Unfortunately for Divya, her attack has run out of steam.

Divya is left with no choice but to guard against her opponent's threats. The pawn is marching forward quickly, so she drops back to stop it.

The pawn reaches the seventh rank, making it almost impossible to entertain any other outcome but a win for Kourkoulos-Arditis here. Such pawns are just too venomous.

Divya plants her rook in front of the pawn. It's of small consolation to her that she is likely to make it to move 40 where she'll receive an extra half hour on the clock. The problem is that there's just nothing to do but sit passively here while Kourkoulos-Arditis picks up her advanced pawn on the kingside, and quickly converts the full point from there.

Kourkoulos-Arditis threatens to bring his rook down, which would win the game on the spot.

Divya has to stop the threat, but now the problem is that both of her rooks sit paralyzed along the first rank. From here, Kourkoulos-Arditis will soon round up the weak pawn on the kingside and be two to the good.

Kourkoulos-Arditis about to win a second pawn

Things are getting worse for Divya, as she's about to lose her most advanced pawn. There's little to do here, as Kourkoulos-Arditis can add to the pressure against that pawn with one of his rooks if needed.

Divya fights on

She knows that she will be down two pawns, but such endgames can sometimes present unusual opportunities at the last second. It's an outside shot at best, but it may prove worth testing Kourkoulos-Arditis's endgame technique for a few more moves.

Divya resigns

A testing start for Divya Deshmukh.

The 2025 Women's World Cup winner was thrown into the fire in this stacked field, as she faced off against the strong Greek player, GM Kourkoulos-Arditis.

She went for a very sharp line against the Nimzo-Indian, but one that contains a huge amount of risk. It's a system where the White side allows one of their pawns on the queenside to become very weak, in order to try to set up a pawn storm on the center & kingside.

That kind of all-in strategy can work exceptionally well at times, and net you a fast win. But when it backfires, you can find yourself down a pawn with little to show for it. And in this game, it was the latter scenario that played out.

Kourkoulos-Arditis handled the opening in a very principled way, targeting that weak pawn and winning it cleanly early into the middlegame.

Although from there things were still far from clear, the problem is that Divya immediately found herself needing to play one precise move after another...just to hold the balance!

That proved too tricky in practice, and she settled on a series of moves that were just a little ineffective against Kourkoulos-Arditis's setup.

From there, the Greek grandmaster proved to be quite clinical in his conversion. He guided the game towards a rook and pawn endgame that maybe could be defended by a top computer, but certainly not by a human player down to just minutes on the clock.

Divya is not yet out of the tournament, but she's going to need to win on demand tomorrow, if she is to bring her round 1 match into the tie-break day.

See you tomorrow for day 2!