Chess | Women’s World Cup: Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh seal pre-quarter berths | Chess News
India No. 1 Koneru Humpy and reigning world junior champion Divya Deshmukh recorded victories in contrasting fashion to confirm their last-16 berths in the FIDE Women’s World Cup in Batumi on Sunday.While Humpy registered a crushing win with black pieces against Polish IM Klaudia Kulon to win 1.5-0.5, Divya drew her second classical game to defeat Teodora Injac of Serbia 1.5-0.5. R Vaishali, D Harika and Vantika Agrawal, the other Indian players in the fray, drew both their classical games to enter the tiebreak rounds on Monday.A day after world No. 5 Humpy was held by the lowerrated Klaudia, the India No. 1 secured a 44-move win while defending with black. On Klaudia’s King’s Pawn opening, Humpy chose the Giuoco Piano Game. In the mid-game, Humpy laid a trap with her bishops, and Klaudia’s position became a bit shaky.The 38-year-old Humpy converted the advantage by lining up her pieces and the Indian GM was a rook up by the 40th move. With an extra piece, Humpy prevailed over Klaudia four moves later.
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Earlier, Divya became the first Indian to qualify for the fourth round when she played out a quick 30-move draw with Teodora. On the King’s Pawn opening of Teodora, Divya chose the Alapin Sicilian defence as the Rook-Bishop and Knight equal ended.On Saturday, Divya had taken the decisive advantage by winning the first classical game while defending with black. Divya said, “Today (Sunday) was tougher than yesterday (Saturday) because I absolutely just wanted a draw to qualify. But my mind could not search for ways on how to make a draw.”Harika played out her second successive draw with Greek IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, while Vantika suffered a 43-move defeat to higherranked Ukrainian GM Kateryna Lagno with black pieces to be 1-1 (on Saturday, Vantika had surprised Lagno). Vaishali was the last to finish her game and produced a draw with American IM Carissa Yip in 48 moves.On Monday, Harika, Vantika and Vaishali will try their luck in the tie-break rounds to be played in the rapid and blitz formats.
