Indian Chess Supergirl Humpy wins Tashkent Grand Prix Easily, Harika 5th

Indian chess' supergirl Koneru Humpy has just won the Tashkent leg of the Women's Chess Grand Prix series. She picked up her second tournament victory, in as many events of the Grand Prix, with eight points out of 11. Bela Khotenashvili and Kateryna Lagno shared 2-3.

 

The winner's mother Koneru Latha and 

Harika Dronavalli with her grandmother Koganti Sudeshna behind.

India's Harika Dronavalli had a great run with strong chess leading the tournament right behind Humpy all along, but she self-destructed towards the end finishing the event at fifth place. 

Humpy started the tournament with three straight wins against Ju Wenjun, Elina Danielian and Alexandra Kosteniuk. She then drew her next games with Kateryna Lagno, Antoaneta Stefanova and Harika Dronavalli before beating Nafisa Muminova. She drew Xue Zhao before a shock loss to Bela Khotenashvili. However, Humpy was way ahead of the field already and convincingly beat Nakhbayeva Guliskhan in the next round. Koneru finished the tournament with a draw with Olga Girya.

 

Humpy is a strong contender to win the Series and, once again, take a crack at the Women's World Chess Championship. Her main rival Hou Yifan has played only one stage and gathered only 45 points to Humpy's 320 points. If Hou has to play the next World Championship, she will either have to win this Grand Prix series or the knockout Women's World Chess Championship next year. 

 

The official closing ceremony of tournament took place in the Gallery of Fine Art of Tashkent on 30th of September. One of the stages of Men's Grand Prix Series 2014-15 will be held in Tashkent again. (Photos: WFM Maria Emelianova)

Read more »

Anna Ushenina is New Women's World Chess Champion

After a 2-2 deadlock in the normal games, the stage was set for an exciting finale in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia and Ushenina came up triumph winning the second game under rapid time control after the first game had ended in a draw. The Ukrainian won 60000 USD for her efforts in the championship and gets to play the next World Championship against Yifan Hou of China next year as part of the new cycle in the women’s World Championship.

The 64-players championship ended in a tie-break much like the men’s World Championship earlier this year where Vishwanathan Anand won defeating Boris Gelfand of Israel in the rapid tie-break. The Indian challenge in the championship had lasted till the semi-finals where D Harika went down to Stefanova after an intense struggle.

Speaking about the match, Ushenina did not mince words while calling it a gruelling schedule. “The match was very interesting, but we were clearly tired and made many mistakes. In the third and fourth games we exchanged blows -- first I took the lead, then Antoaneta equalised the score. In the first tie-break game white stood better, but I held a draw. In the second game black was slightly worse, but Antoaneta was very short on time, defended inaccurately and gave me a chance to win,” said the new women’s world champion.

Read more »

Khanty-Mansiysk Women's World Chess Championship 2012: Humpy vs Zhukova, Harika vs Danielian in Round 2 Today

RUSSIA: India's GM Koneru Humpy will take on Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine in the second round of the Women's World chess championship now in progress.

After winning the first round with an easy 2-0 whitewash against lower ranked Denise Frick of South Africa, Zhukova will be a much tougher challenge for Humpy with better practice as she beat World junior girls' champion Guo Qi of China in the first round.

 

GM D Harika will also face a tough opponent in Elena Danielian of Armenia after beating compatriot Soumya Swaminathan in the first round. Danielian showed excellent nerves in her come-from-behind victory against Sopiko Khukhashvili of Georgia.

Read more »

Khanty-Mansiysk Women's World Chess Championship 2012: Humpy, Harika Sail into Round 2

KHANTY MANSIYSK (RUSSIA): Koneru Humpy effortlessly defeated Denise Frick of South Africa while D Harika outplayed compatriot Soumya Swaminathan to move to the second round of the World Women's Chess Championship 2012 on Monday. Humpy scored an easy win, though Harika had to struggle a bit against Soumya. The other higher-ranked players also cruised to the second round and topping the list was reigning world champion Yifan Hou of China who scored easily over Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka, former Women's World Chess Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk and Antoaneta Stefanova. 

Amongst the fancied, Ju Wenjun of China was the only exception as she suffered a reversal against Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran and the two will now battle it out in the tie-break games of shorter duration.

Read more »

Humpy Wins Bronze at Batumi Women's World Rapid Chess Championship 2012; Harika Creditable Sixth

Congrats to Humpy
for winning bronze

Bulgaria's former women's world chess champion has won the Batumi Women's World Rapid Championship with another former women's world chess champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk, winning the silver. India's Koneru Humpy, the challenger to the women's world chess champion title, finished a creditable third. India's other player, Harika Dronavalli, finished with a great show at sixth place.

The Women’s World Rapid and Blitz Championship 2012 was held from May 30 to June 6 at the Sheraton Hotel, Batumi, Georgia. It was an 11 rounds Swiss tournament with time control 25 mins + 10 sec per move. Every woman chess player with an elo of 2500+ in one of the official FIDE rating lists as well as all former World Chess Champions and Olympic Chess Champions had the right to participate in the Championship.

Final Standings

1		GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	BUL	2518	8.5	61.5
2		GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	RUS	2457	8.0	61.5
3		GM	Koneru Humpy	IND	2589	8.0	60.5
4		GM	Lahno Kateryna	UKR	2546	8.0	57.5
5		GM	Muzychuk Anna	SLO	2598	7.5	59.5
6		GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2508	7.5	53.0
7		GM	Dzagnidze Nana	GEO	2547	7.0	53.0
8		GM	Cramling Pia	SWE	2478	6.5	57.5
9		GM	Zhao Xue	CHN	2549	6.5	56.0
10		WGM	Guo Qi	CHN	2360	6.5	56.0
11		IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	GER	2491	6.5	54.5
12		WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2430	6.5	54.0
13		IM	Javakhishvili Lela	GEO	2449	6.5	52.0
14		GM	Zhukova Natalia	UKR	2442	6.5	52.0
15		GM	Zhu Chen	QAT	2491	6.5	52.0
16		GM	Kosintseva Tatiana	RUS	2532	6.5	48.0
17		WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2417	6.0	62.5
18		IM	Khurtsidze Nino	GEO	2456	6.0	58.5
19			Wang Jue	CHN	2364	6.0	55.5
20		IM	Gunina Valentina	RUS	2530	6.0	54.5
21		IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	ARM	2449	6.0	51.0
22		IM	Ushenina Anna	UKR	2454	5.5	52.0
23		GM	Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan	SCO	2426	5.5	51.0
24		WGM	Batsiashvili Nino	GEO	2436	5.5	50.0
25		IM	Melia Salome	GEO	2410	5.5	46.0
26		WGM	Pogonina Natalija	RUS	2447	5.5	46.0
27		GM	Danielian Elina	ARM	2484	5.5	45.0
28		IM	Khukhashvili Sopiko	GEO	2414	5.5	43.0
29		IM	Gvetadze Sofio	GEO	2338	5.0	53.0
30		IM	Muzychuk Mariya	UKR	2456	5.0	51.0
31		GM	Chiburdanidze Maia	GEO	2500	5.0	49.5
32		WGM	Cori T Deysi	PER	2386	5.0	47.5
33		WGM	Ding Yixin	CHN	2353	5.0	45.0
34		IM	Purtseladze Maka	GEO	2348	5.0	44.0
35		IM	Krush Irina	USA	2457	5.0	43.0
36		IM	Lomineishvili Maia	GEO	2366	5.0	41.5
37		IM	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	RUS	2417	4.5	48.5
38		GM	Socko Monika	POL	2484	4.5	48.0
39		WGM	Mammadova Gulnar	AZE	2345	4.5	47.5
40		IM	Matnadze Ana	ESP	2446	4.5	44.0
41		WIM	Mikadze Miranda	GEO	2323	4.5	41.5
42		WIM	Arabidze Meri	GEO	2351	4.5	41.0
43		WGM	Charkhalashvili Inga	GEO	2334	4.5	41.0
44		WIM	Janjghava Natia	GEO	2306	4.0	42.0
45		IM	Klinova Masha	ISR	2318	3.5	46.0
46		IM	Khotenashvili Bela	GEO	2500	3.5	44.5
47		IM	Gurieli Nino	GEO	2329	3.5	40.5
48		WIM	Umudova Nargiz	AZE	2231	3.0	39.5
49		WIM	Bezgodova Svetlana	RUS	2120	2.5	44.5
50		GM	Gaprindashvili Nona	GEO	2356	2.0	39.0

Read more »