Humpy wins against Yifan, match goes to tie-breaker

NALCHIK: Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy rose to the occasion defeating Yifan Hao of China in the return game and forced the mini-match in to a tie-breaker in the ongoing World Women's Chess Championship here.

Humpy, who lost the first game as black, won the second game of the two-game mini-match and will now have to play the tie-break games on Friday.

The highest rated woman player after Judit Polgar of Hungary played imaginatively to beat Yifan, a 14-year-old sensation, who has been training hard and playing well against high opposition for past couple of years.

Meanwhile, in the other semifinal of the day Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk made sure she did not make mistakes in her quest for a berth in the finals and held Pia Cramling of Sweden to a draw to win the match by a 1.5-0.5 margin. In the first game of this semifinal, Kosteniuk had won with white pieces.

Humpy rose back in style to draw level in the second game. Starting with a knight manoeuvre on the first move, the Andhra girl transposed to a position akin to the Accelerated Sicilian Dragon and Yifan was in troubles early looking out for best ways to counter the opening.

While Yifan spent a lot of time in the opening, Humpy saved it for the crucial middle game stage where she had to find some tricky manoeuvre to avoid an equal position. As a result, both players fell in acute time pressure and the nerves played a crucial role.

Yifan could have defended better but the clock was ticking away and it was on the 32nd move that the Chinese blundered decisively and allowed Humpy to get a crushing attack on her king. The game ended just four moves later giving Humpy a chance to remain in the match and now in the tie-break the Indian will be a big favourite to win the match.

In the tie-breaker the players will first play a 2-game rapid match and if the scores are tied there will be two more games under blitz chess rules. If still tied the match will go in the sudden-death stage where white will get a minute extra on the clock with no increment and will have to win in order to qualify to the next stage.

Kosteniuk did many things right in order to gain a draw against Cramling. Her opening choice of Queen's gambit accepted proved correct, the concentration along the central squares was excellent and when the opportunity arose, the calculation was perfect.

Cramling on her part tried hard but Kosteniuk, despite being lower on rating, was simply the better player in this match. The game was eventual drawn vide perpetual checks. If Cramling had tried to avoid that the scoreline would have read 2-0 instead of 1.5-0.5.

For the records this will be Kosteniuk's second appearance in the final of the World Women's Championship. The last time she went to the finals was in 2000 at Moscow, where Zhu Chen of China had beaten her comprehensively to win the crown.

Results of game 2 semifinal with final score in the end: Koneru Humpy (Ind) beat Yifan Hao (Chn) 1-1 goes to tie-breaker; Pia Cramling (Swe) drew with Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) 0.5-1.5, Kosteniuk goes to the finals.

Humpy fights her way back, takes match into tie-breaker

Koneru Humpy came back into contention as her young Chinese opponent Hou Yifan blundered in the crucial stage of the Women’s World chess semi-finals Thursday. Humpy won the second game to get back into the match. Humpy, who had lost the first game with white thus equalised with black to send the match into a tie-breaker. He won in 36 moves after an opening in the English Symmetrical.

In the other semi-final Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) needing only a draw to get onto the final stage of the Women’s World Chess Championship played a solid game with no surprises or novelties to beat Pia Cramling of Sweden. The game was in Queen’s Gambit declined and lasted 40 moves.

Kosteniuk made the final after seven years and she will now play the winner of Humpy-Yifan match in the final.

The 21-year-old Humpy favourite and top seed here came out with a slight advantage from the opening phase but could not find a strong continuation despite the desperation to win. Yifan pushed the pawn to d5 and gave a chance for exchanging the light pieces which could have been a nice way for a possible draw.

Humpy took her chance and avoided the full exchange and took a risky line but after that her position started to gradually loose momentum and deteriorated.

But her luck into came play as Yifan blundered and provided a chance for White to mate. Hou resigned after a few more moves as Humpy saw the line and went for it.

Humpy and Yifan will now clash in a tie break on Friday.

In the first game, Yifan played maturely to score an upset over the top-seed. Humpy played the first part of the game in her usual manner but out of the blue things changed greatly. Having captured a “poisoned pawn” Humpy lost her way and the game.

So upset was she that she kept sitting at the table for five minutes after the match trying to find a reason for her poor play.

Women World Chess CUP Semifinals:Kosteniuk in the final, Koneru-Hou tie break

What a turn around !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KONERY HUMPY WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After winning yesterday against Cramling`s French defense, Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) needed only a draw to get onto the final stage of the Women`s World Chess Championship. In a solid game with no surprises or novelties but with a strong fight, she made it and after seven years, she will play for the title again.

Koneru (India) came out with a slight advantage from the opening phase but could not find a strong continuation although she had to win after the loss of yesterday. Her Chinese opponent pushed the pawn to d5 and gave a chance for exchanging the light pieces which could have been a nice way for a possible draw. Koneru avoided the full exchange and took the risky Bb5 move after which her position started to gradually loose momentum and deteriorated.

In a worse position, Caissa run in to support her: Hou Yifan made a blunder with Na5, thus the position provided the chance for White to mate in 8 moves and Hou resigned after a few more moves. We are looking for a tie break tomorrow between Koneru, Humpy and Hou, Yifan. Please, follow the line on the official site.