A Disappointing Loss for Koneru

There was plenty of game by game coverage in the Indian press during the Women's World Chess Championship as several Indian players participated in the knock-out event. The highest rated player at the WWCC and the second highest-rated female player in the world (behind only Judit Polgar), GM Koneru Humpy, lost during a second round of play-off games to 14 year old GM-elect Hou Yifan of China:

• Humpy out of world championship (9/12/08) - Grandmaster Koneru Humpy bowed out of the World Women Chess Championship succumbing to 14-year old Yifan Hao of China in the blitz tiebreak games of the semi-finals
• Yifan in final (9/13/08) - Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan inflicted a heart-breaking twin-defeat on second seed K. Humpy in the two five-minute blitz games for a 4-2 victory in the semifinals of the Women’s World chess championship...

It seems probable at this point that Hou will overtake Koneru on the women's ratings list by the end of 2008 and will storm toward 2700, much as another teen "prodigy" has - Magnus Carlsen (now storming toward 2800). Will Hou be unstoppable? If she wins the women's title, will she gun for the "men's" title? Hey Topalov, Aronian, Carlsen, Anand, et al., watch out boys!

Well, okay, maybe not. I don't think Hou is the best female player in the world - she's still extremely unseasoned and she hasn't had enough experience playing against higher-rated male players. Her results over the past couple of years have been highly inconsistent. Let's see what happens over the next three years or so.