Credit: X
Koneru Humpy entered the record books as she became the first Indian woman to advance to the semi-finals of the FIDE Women's Chess World Cup. At the event being held in Batumi, Georgia, the Indian Grandmaster booked her spot for the final-four round after a stalemate against China’s IM Song Yuxin in the second contest of her quarter-finals. Humpy settled for a draw after picking up the lead earlier in the quarter-final by winning the first match of the two-game series on July 19. Before this game, Humpy beat Russian-Swiss Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk by 1.5-05 to break into the quarter-finals.
This is the first time that India’s four players reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Besides Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, and Divya Deshmukh also registered their presence in the quarter-finals. Following the game against Song, Humpy spoke to the media and expressed joy on reaching the semi-finals but regretted that she couldn’t be at her best against her Chinese counterpart. “It feels happy to qualify for the semifinal without playing tiebreaks. I could have played better, but in time trouble, I slipped. I will utilise the rest day in preparing as my semifinal is going to be very tough. Being a top seed, she is one of the strongest opponents,” said Humpy.
Harika Dronavalli and Divya Deshmukh engage in a tie-break
In game 2 of the quarter-finals, Harika Dronavalli and Divya Deshmukh gave a stiff competition to each other. The match concluded in a 60-move stalemate and the outcome will now be extracted from the contest, set to be played in the rapid and blitz formats with different time controls.
Another India player Vaishali Rameshbabu failed to hold her nerves against China’s World No.8 Tan Zhongyi. In a marathon 88-move Semi-Slav Defense, Vaishali failed to defend with her black pieces. With this defeat, she got eliminated from the quarter-finals 0.5-1.5.
