FIDE Women's World Cup last: Humpy attracts with Divya in first sport

File picture of Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh Photo: @AmitShah/ANI Photo

Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to carry stalwart Koneru Humpy to a attract sport 1 of the FIDE Women’s World Cup last, with each gamers having their share of alternatives to take the lead right here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going within the second and last sport underneath the classical chess guidelines within the two-game mini-match, and may the impasse proceed, video games of shorter period might be performed to find out the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen’s gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a reasonably fascinating sport proper out of the opening as Divya, 19, got here up with a bit sacrifice early to disclaim the black king the correct to citadel.

Humpy was the primary to err and, in line with computer systems, Divya had issues underneath management on the 14th transfer. However in her bid to get better the additional materials, the Nagpur lady, who has secured a spot within the Candidates event along with her sterling efficiency right here, missed a promising continuation.

What adopted the alternate of all minor items and the following queen and rook endgame gave sufficient counter play to each gamers. The sport was finally drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to drive perpetual checks.

“The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn, which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white,” mentioned Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the primary Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

“However, as an alternative of creating the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on transfer 10, giving enormous positional benefit to Divya. Divya may have gained enormous positional benefit on the twelfth transfer by transferring a rook. However, she selected to play for King facet assault by sacrificing a bit as an alternative.

“Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece,” mentioned Thipsay.

“Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check,” he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese gamers Zhongyi Tan, the previous ladies’s world champion and prime seed Lei Tingjie additionally determined to separate factors out of a Queen’s gambit declined sport.

The opening raised visions of a detailed contest between the 2 however having been knocked out of title race within the earlier spherical, none of them wished to take any enormous threat. It was nonetheless a center sport when the gamers shook arms.

With the highest two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the subsequent Candidates can be assigned, whereas the participant ending third may even get an entry to the premier occasion scheduled for 2026.