Humpy Takes Crucial Point

By Arvind Aaron

Humpy may have won what may be the most crucial point of the event. Winning with the black pieces, Humpy took an important point from Tatiana Kosintseva of Russia with the black pieces. Now, she needs a draw with the white pieces to enter the last eight.

Wednesday's results favoured the more experienced players. Humpy played the modern defence with the black pieces to win in 61 moves when Kosintseva resigned while unable to avoid mate.

Kosintseva failed to use the space advantage that she got from the opening. The knight sacrifice by Humpy on move 17 confused the smooth developing white player. Not finding the right response, white lost the advantage and a pawn in the next two moves. Having wrested the advantage, Humpy made winning look easy.

The winner will become world women's champion. The title holder Zhu Chen of China is not competing. She won it in Moscow in December 2001. Humpy had won the World Junior girls title and is looking for her maiden women's title. She is ranked No.3 in the world.

Here are the results from the FIDE website:

Kosintseva, Tatiana       0-1   Koneru, Humpy              
Lomineishvili, Maia       0-1   Dzagnidze, Nana            
Jackova, Jana             0-1   Chiburdanidze, Maia        
Bojkovic, Natasa          0-1   Kachiani-G., Ketino        
Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina   1-0   Lahno, Kateryna            
Cramling, Pia             1/2   Cmilyte, Viktorija         
Zhukova, Natalia          1/2   Stefanova, Antoaneta       
Paehtz, Elisabeth         1/2   Xu, Yuhua                  

Games

Back To News Page