Divya Deshmukh defeats Harika Dronavalli in all-Indian clash to make her way to FIDE Women's World Cup semifinals
Much like Saturday's 31-move encounter, both players avoided significant risks on Sunday, though their 60-move duel lasted nearly twice as long before ending in an agreed draw, clearly conserving energy for the decisive tiebreaks.
On Sunday, Koneru Humpy played out a fine counterattacking game to hold International Master Yuxin Song of China and march into the semifinals.
Having won the first game with white pieces, Humpy was only a draw away from reaching the last four stage, and she achieved it after a keenly contested second game against the Chinese.
With fourth place assured, Humpy will get two chances to reach the top three which will also guarantee her a place at next Women's Candidates' tournament for which the top three from here qualify.
Grandmaster R Vaishali ran out of luck as she lost from slightly better prospects against former world women's champion Zhongyi Tan of China. Vaishali who had drawn the first game lost by the same score as Song.
Apart from Tan, top seed Tingjie Lei of China also made it to the semifinals at the expense of Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia.
Yuxin Song had to win to stay in the hunt against Humpy and her preferred choice was the Jobava's London, an opening that is fancied these days by many strong Grandmasters. Humpy equalised without much ado but then sacrificed two pawns in tandem to give white some hopes.
However, Song's pawn structure was really broken with three pawns standing on a sole file and Humpy found her counter play in the centre. Recovering the pawns Humpy was happy to lead the game to a level rook and pawns endgame. Song tried in vain for 53 moves before splitting the point.
(With agency inputs)
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The Hindu
5 hours ago
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FIDE Women's World Cup: Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh stay unbeaten after semifinal openers
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Time of India
9 hours ago
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FIDE Women's Chess World Cup: Humpy, Divya hold firm with draws in semifinal first games
Grandmaster Koneru Humpy held China's Tingjie Lei to a comfortable draw with black pieces, while Divya Deshmukh 's solid defence frustrated former women's world champion Zhongyi Tan in the first game of the FIDE Women's World Cup semifinals here on Tuesday. With two Indians and two Chinese making up the final-four, the Asian dominance in women's chess remains undisputed. But it's now a battle of nerves for the final two spots. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Technology Leadership Cybersecurity Project Management Product Management Healthcare healthcare Others CXO Finance PGDM Management Public Policy Design Thinking Artificial Intelligence MCA Operations Management Data Analytics Data Science Data Science others MBA Degree Digital Marketing Skills you'll gain: Duration: 12 Weeks MIT xPRO CERT-MIT XPRO Building AI Prod India Starts on undefined Get Details From the look of it, the two Indians have had a great beginning drawing with black and in the return game both will play as white. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Top 15 Most Beautiful Women in the World Undo If the results remain tied in this USD 691,250 event, then the games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner. Also, three spots are up for grabs for the next Women's Candidates Tournament -- ensuring at least one Indian will qualify. Live Events Divya was the first to get off the hook against Zhongyi Tan who boasts of a remarkable resume as a woman chess player. The former world champion did not find any flaws in Divya's opening repertoire as the game embarked on a queen's gambit declined opening path. Divya exchanged pieces almost at will and Zhongyi also did not seem averse to equalising against an active position for black forces. In the end the players were left with just a rook and a minor piece each with three pawns on the same flank when nothing could have happened other than a drawn result. India's top woman player, Humpy, came up with a huge opening surprise for Lei that has not been seen at top level chess regularly. The Chinese did not know what hit her as early as on move four and even her best resources were not enough to combat Humpy into equalising. The players fought on post the exchange of queens in the middle game but the presence of opposite coloured Bishops ensured that Humpy was never in any danger. Results (Semifinal Game 1): TIngjie Lei (CHN) drew with Koneru Humpy (IND); Zhongyi Tan (CHN) drew with Divya Deshmukh (IND).
