Press trust of india
Sochi, Mar 22: Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy made it to the last 16 stage of the world women chess championship outplaying Chinese Tingjie Lei in the second game of the second round here Sunday.
Going in to the return game of the second round of this knockout championship with a point lead thanks to her victory in the opening game, Humpy won her fourth game on the trot to also keep a clean slate in the championship thus far.
Grandmaster D Harika was stretched to the tiebreaker by her American counterpart Irina Krush after the second game between them also ended in a draw. Harika will now play a set of two rapid games with 25 minutes each to determine the winner in this contest.
Humpy proved a class act once again. Playing the white side of a Grunfeld defense, the Indian went for the Fianchetto variation that is in vogue. The position oscillated between equal and slightly better for Humpy and the exchange of pieces did not deter her to push for a decisive advantage.
The tide tilted firmly in Humpy’s favour when Lei missed the thread and lost pawn on move 30, although the Chinese was able to recover the lost material a few moves later the resulting Knights and pawns endgame was completely lost. Humpy wrapped the issue in 42 moves to set up her next match against Alisa Galliamova of Russia who got past Tatiana Kosintseva.
Harika came within striking distance but could not convert a difficult but better position against Irina Krush. It was an English opening by the latter that gave Harika enough play in the middle game to knock down a pawn. The ensuing position had Bishops of opposite colours on board and though she remained better for the rest of the game too, Harika could not force matters and will now play the tiebreak games.
