FIDE Chess World Cup: Seventeen-year-old Indian chess prodigy Divya Deshmukh will face world number three and second seed Aleksandra Goryachkina in the third round of the FIDE Chess World Cup on Saturday.
Deshmukh, who is currently ranked 2400 Elo, has been in impressive form in the tournament so far, defeating WIM Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahraa of Malaysia and Hungarian GM Hoang Thanh Trang to reach the pre-quarterfinals.
Goryachkina, on the other hand, is a much more experienced player, with a peak Elo rating of 2557. She is a three-time Russian champion and was once the fourth highest rated woman in chess history.
The match between Deshmukh and Goryachkina is sure to be a close contest, but the Indian youngster will be hoping to cause an upset and reach the quarterfinals.
The match will be played over two games, with the winner being decided on a best-of-three basis. The first game will be played on Saturday, with the second game to be played on Sunday. If the match is tied after two games, a tiebreak will be played on Monday.
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Deshmukh will be looking to build on her recent form and cause an upset against Goryachkina. If she can do that, she will set up a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash against either world number one Magnus Carlsen or Chinese GM Ding Liren.
The FIDE Chess World Cup is a knockout tournament that features the top 128 players in the world. The winner of the tournament will qualify for the Candidates Tournament, which is a two-stage tournament that determines the challenger for the world chess championship.
The third round of the FIDE Chess World Cup will be played from August 5-7 in Sochi, Russia.