India’s Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh started off with victories in the first game of Round 3 at the 2025 FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup in Batumi, Georgia on Saturday.

While Agrawal took down a higher rated Kateryna Lagno, Deshmukh got the better off Serbia’s Teodora Injac to put themselves in a drivers seat to advance to the next round.

Agrawal, playing with the white pieces, managed to press for victory after Lagno misplayed her pawn to the B4 square in the 19th move. The engine evaluation, which was almost equal up to the point decisively shifted in favour of the Indian and she played accurately for the win.

For Agrawal, the win over Lagno came just a day after a hard fought tiebreaks win over former world champion Anna Ushenina.

“I was just happy that I did not crack under pressure yesterday and managed to qualify for the third round. That’s what boosted my confidence and even though I felt very tired, I just kept going,” Agrawal said after her win over Lagno.

Meanwhile, Deshmukh and Injac were in locked in an equal battle for most of the game but a slight inaccuracy with the white pieces on the 31st move from the Serbian handed Deshmukh a chance.

The Indian grabbed the opportunity with both hands to emerge victorious.

13-move draw for R Vaishali

Elsewhere, Vaishali Rameshbabu played out a quick 13-move draw with USA’s Carissa Yip on Saturday.

Both the players were happy to share the points as they repeated their moves thrice in what was the quickest game of the day.

The two Indian veterans – Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli – also played out contrasting draws.

Humpy was in a completely lost position with the white pieces against Klaudia Kulon but managed to survive and hung in for a draw.

Harika, meanwhile, missed good opportunities to go for a win and settled for a draw against Stavroula Tsolakidou.