Humpy under pressure in World Chess Championship
PTI | Nov 20, 2011, 01.02PM IST
TIRANA (Albania): Grandmaster Koneru Humpy is facing the heat but needs just one good game to be back in hunt in the Women's World Chess Championship match against defending champion Yifan Hou of China.
After the first four games of a 10-game match, the Indian trails 1.5-2.5 with one loss and three draws and will need to pull her act together in the remaining six games.
It was a bright start that went haywire in the third game that Humpy lost and in the fourth game again she was made to defend for a long time before the draw was achieved.
Yifan, on the other hand, showed that her skills are beyond her age. At 17, the world champion displayed remarkable acumen to come up triumphant in extreme complexities in the third game.
The Chinese has been a picture of confidence and her approach has been simple in this match - to strike whenever the opportunity presented itself.
To sum up the match thus far, Humpy was on the offensive but could not get any decisive foray in the first two games and her over-ambitious play in the third game did not come good.
Even as there are six games to come, Humpy will be hoping for an early revival in her fortunes to get a chance to have a go at the title.
If the results are tied after 10 games, shorter duration games will be played to determine the winner in the 2,00,000 Euros championship.
For Humpy there is an added bonus as it will be a rare double for India with Anand already world champion since 2007.
From the look of it, there is enough optimism in Humpy's camp for the fifth game after the second rest day. It remains to be seen though how far it would translate in the games to come.
From The Hindu
Fifth game drawn
NEW DELHI,November 21, 2011
K. Humpy did not have to work too hard to force a draw with black pieces against champion Hou Yifan in the fifth game of the women's World chess championship at Tirana, Albania, on Sunday. The 43-move deadlock kept Yifan 3-2 ahead in the 10-game match.
The battle in Ruy Lopez saw the queens coming off the board by the 15th move. Yifan tried to create some complications for the black's castled king with the help of the bishop-pair but without much success. Yifan established a central pawn to restrict space for Humpy's pieces but again, the Indian smartly neutralised it.
For some time, Humpy's dark-squared bishop had to assume a defensive role while Yifan enjoyed more space and looked at more options. Slowly, the exchange of bishops and pawns did not leave any player with any decisive advantage.
From The Times of India
TNN | Nov 20, 2011, 11.13PM IST
The 10-game series stands 3-2 in favour of Yifan, who had won the third game. The sixth game with Humpy having white will be played on Monday.
Humpy defended well after a well-analysed Ruy Lopez opening got simplified into an ending quickly. The queens got exchanged after 14 moves and both the players tried to test each other in a rooks and same-coloured bishop ending.
Though Humpy was in time pressure, it was not severe enough to land her in trouble. Eventually, after reaching dead end they shook hands.
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