Humpy Keeps Winning

By Arvind Aaron

She seemed lacklustre on the face of the overall game. But she was still far better of the two and that mattered more on Monday. The see-saw was more between winning chances for Humpy and a draw for Peng. The Vijayawada girl was never in trouble. Facing a Grunfeld defence as white, Humpy's opening play can be best described as unambitious. WGM Peng, a Chinese defector had settled in Rotterdam with her Dutch husband in the early nineties.

A little tactic on move 17 helped Humpy gain a pawn. Thereafter, she allowed counterplay on move 22 when she could have played for advantage with 22.a4, rather than keep the extra pawn. In the rooks and opposite colour bishop ending, Peng could have offered better resistance. Humpy won the game with forceful play to go one up in the best of two round two match. The winner of this match will move to the last quarter finals.

Hosts Russia had a poor day when both their title aspirants, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Alisa Galliamova suffered defeats. Kosteniuk lost a theoretical Sicilian Sveshnikov game with white against Viktoria Cmilyte. Galliamova when down with the black pieces to 26-year old Georgian IWM Maia Lomineishvili. The players will face each other with the reversed colours in the second of round two games on Tuesday.

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