No winner yet as teen Divya defends well to hold Humpy

There was no dearth of fighting spirit but precise play by both Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh had the second game of the final of the Women’s World Cup also ending in a draw in Batumi, Georgia, on Sunday.

Humpy, wielding whites, exhibited her willingness to try and explore winning possibilities in the game which went along equal lines, settling for the draw by repetition of moves only after Divya thwarting all her efforts while defending accurately.

After the two-game final in Classical chess, the scores are tied 1-1 and the tie would be resolved on Monday in the shorter time versions where the winner will walk away with the World Cup. This is the first time in World Cup history that two Indians have advanced to the finals.

The second game was fast-paced as compared to the first where both players, despite pondering a lot, missed promising continuations. In stark contrast the players belted out the Opening moves rapidly on the day, though Humpy did try to steer the game along less trodden lines after starting the English way.

By the 22nd turn, a flurry of piece exchanges saw the game quickly steering to an ending where each had a queen and minor piece with identical number of pawns; a draw looming large. A symmetrical position and the engine evaluation hinted that the position had lost all life.

38-year-old Humpy, the reigning Women’s World Rapid Champion, used her vast experience to craftily create some opportunity with a pawn sacrifice on the 23rd move, indicating that she wanted to squeeze more from the position than possible. At this point, 19-year-old Divya had no chances of any counterplay and had to reconcile to some dour defence to stay in the game.

Humpy tried with her queen and bishop to create some checkmating chances but consumed more time in the process. By the 33rd move Divya appeared relaxed, well aware that a draw was the only result possible and one which was achieved on the 34th move.

GM Pravin Thipsay while summing up the proceedings said: “I expected Humpy to play for better pawn structure as she excels in exploiting pawn weaknesses. On the 9th move, she chose to prefer the bishop versus knight advantage. On the 28th turn Humpy could have regained her pawn and pressed further but the one move delay in capturing the pawn resulted in the draw.”

The first tie-break will be a two-game Rapid affair of 10 minutes each with a 10-second increment per move. If this fails to break the deadlock then further two games of 5 minutes each with a 3-second increment per move will be played. If still tied, then 2 Blitz games of 3 minutes each with a 2-second increment per move. The Blitz game would continue till a winner is determined.

Zhongyi finishes third

In the battle for third place between Chinese compatriots, Tan Zhongyi, former women’s world champion defeated Lei Tingjie with a 1.5-0.5 score after winning the second game.

The top three from this event qualify directly to the 8 player Women’s Candidates.