Kovalevskaya Shocks Humpy

By Arvind Aaron

Move 41 blunders are not uncommon in chess. Top seed Koneru Humpy fell a victim to it after playing a superb game. Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia made use of this catastrophic blunder from Humpy to take a 1-0 lead in the round five best of two match at Elista, Russia on May 31.

Humpy lost a piece as a result of this blunder. She could have won with 41...Bd6 and also offered more resistance on move 44 had she not blundered a rook. From a seat of victory, Humpy, the top seed brought herself down to a must-win situation in the tournament for the first time after this 59-move defeat. Humpy has white in the reverse game and can hopefully keep the seedings right by winning and keep the tri-colour flying in the competition.

In the other semi-finals, Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria drew Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia with the white pieces in a 47-move rook ending. Chiburdanidze won a pawn in the ending when a draw was in sight.

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