
Humpy, Divya hold firm with draws in semifinal first games
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.
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.
If the results remain tied in this $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.
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).
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Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday. The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner. Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle. Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation. What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks. "The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn, which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm. "However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead. "Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay. "Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy's King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added. In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen's gambit declined game. The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands. With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026. Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).


Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
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Mumbai: Moments before Divya Deshmukh shook hands with Koneru Humpy, she sat pressing her eyes and covering her face with her left hand for a few seconds. Quite visibly and evidently, the 19-year-old wasn't too pleased about the end result of the opening game of the FIDE Women's World Cup all-India final in Batumi, Georgia on Saturday. Koneru Humpy. (HT) A draw isn't the worst outcome for the youngster playing with white, but Divya could look back with a sense of missed opportunity after she couldn't manage to press home the advantage from an aggressive opening. Instead, a draw after 41 moves ensued, which would give the seasoned Humpy a slight advantage going into Game 2 of the title clash on Sunday. The two-time World Rapid champion will play with white in the second classical game and press for a decisive result. Should the deadlock remain on Sunday, tie-breaks will have to be unlocked on Monday to determine the new World Cup champion – who, either way, will be an Indian. Divya had her chances to make a critical push towards that, and even Humpy, 38, admitted she came out of that contest having avoided a potentially tricky slope. Asked in the official post-match interview by FIDE if she felt she had overcome a very complicated situation, Humpy said, 'Ya, I agree', before highlighting the 'clearly better position for white'. Divya placed herself in that better position after a Queen's Gambit Accepted opening. 'I think she prepared for my game, which I played earlier. I just misplayed in the opening and she got into an advantage,' Humpy said. By the 12th move, the teen had gained a positional advantage, as was reflected in the evaluation bar. The key miss came on the 14th move, for which Divya took significant time and was even seen smiling a little while staring at the board. Instead of pressing the attack by developing her queen, Divya traded on b7 and then played It pulled her down on the evaluation bar and brought Humpy back on level terms. Both players then made little inaccuracies. Divya was also now battling time pressure, constantly looking at the clock as it came down to below 15 minutes. Time pressure can often lead to blunders but Divya did not let the clock unsettle her into making one. Humpy, who had plenty more time, remained good in defence. Both players could have agreed to a draw much earlier but carried on looking for any kind of opening. The position was fully balanced once Divya, whose body language remained more animated, came down to under five minutes on the clock. With the black secure and Humpy feeling 'out of danger' after a point, she sat composed. Soon, after another three-fold repetition, the players shook hands.