Koneru Humpy - Player Thread

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Sun May 30, 2004 5:37 am

Humpy has so far lived up her top billing winning her first game in Quarterfinals against Xy Yuhua. I am surprised the article does not mention whether she played White / black (though I guess she played white? or did she)

http://www.hindu.com/2004/05/30/stories ... 761900.htm

You can see her player card ,
http://www.fide.com/ratings/card.phtml?event=5008123

Krishnaswamy, Couple of years back there were lot of comments as to how Humpy was overrated from Indian players and I felt that she was not greatly liked by Indian chess fraternity(female players especiallY). Do you have any angle on this?

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Sun May 30, 2004 5:08 pm

Koneru Humpy advanced in style to the Semifinals with a 2-0 victory over Xu Yuhua.. Except for her game, all other matches went to tiebreaker!!!

Some pictures from the website ,
http://wwcc2004.fide.com/main.asp?id=485

V Krishnaswamy · Post by **V Krishnaswamy** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 11:43 am

Humpy, with black, lost her first game in semis to Russian Ekaterina Kovalevskaya in 59 moves. Humpy first lost a minor piece for and then blundered to go a full piece down. SHe struggled for 59 moves before resigning. Before the first time control (40 moves) HUmpy was in a good position.

This is the first she is trailing in any of the mini-matches (2 game matches) in this World championships.

In the other semi-finals, Stefanova Antoaneta of Bulgaria drew with former world champion Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia with the white pieces in a 47-move rook ending.

Today (Tuesday) they will be back for the second game, where Humpy has white pieces. She needs to win to stay in the fight.

By the way, somebody inquired about women's World No. 1 and 2 missing from this championships. Judit Polgar of Hungary, no longer plays women's championships and is now ranked inside top 10 overall. The defending champion and WOrld No. 2, Zhu Chen, is rumoured to be pregnant. SHe is also likely to miss the Chess Olympiad in October, as she is expecting her baby in November.

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Wed Jun 02, 2004 3:42 am

Heartbreak for Koneru Humpy in the tiebreak as she lost the first game of tiebreaker and drew the second game with white pieces to bow out of the World Championship!!!

Still a good show from Humpy. Hopefully she can keep india's flag flying in the olympiad.

Mr.Krishnaswamy, what is the indian woman team for the olympiad? Why was Viji in the field for WCC? Didn't she qualify?

V Krishnaswamy · Post by **V Krishnaswamy** » Wed Jun 02, 2004 6:46 am

BRAVE HUMPY’S CAMPAIGN ENDS IN SEMI-FINAL TIE-BREAKER

KONERU Humpy’s maiden campaign at the Women’s World chess championships came to an end, as she went down in the tie-breaker to Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia in the semi-finals of the Championship being played at Elista, Kalmykia.

Koneru Humpy trailing by a game, having the lost first one with black, put up a brave fight and won the second game with white. But then in the tie-breaker, she went down 0.5-1.5 to Kovalevskaya who now moves into the final.

Humpy made a terrific comeback in classical chess to draw level the scores at 1-1. It was a Bogo Indian game in which Humpy won a pawn and squeezed that into a fine win.

That comeback went in vain as in the first tie-breaker game, Humpy, white, lost an exchange -- a rook for bishop -- in the middle game and failed to recover from there.

In the second game, Humpy won a piece in the middlegame but Kovalevskaya managed to hold out for a draw.

It was World No. 3 Humpy's first appearance in the World Championships and considering her age, it was a great effort.

Kovalevskaya will meet Stefanova Antonaeta of Bulgaria in the four-game finals. Stefanova, won two pawns and a nice game against former champion Maya Chiburdanidze with the black pieces to earn the final spot.

V Krishnaswamy · Post by **V Krishnaswamy** » Wed Jun 02, 2004 6:48 am

Kumar,
Later in the day, I will post the Olympiad team.
About Humpy, I will give some comments later.
Cheers

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 4:20 am

Thanks Krishnaswamy. looking forward to your insight on olympiad team!!!

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 3:32 pm

Sad that Humpy couldn't take the world championship (for which she was top-seeded). She is only 17, of course, and will have many more opportunities to become women's world champion. But as a full Grandmaster, she can continue to hone her game against the men too.

Indian · Post by **Indian** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:30 am

Koneru is playing in the North Urals Cup July 3rd-14th in Krasnoturinsk, Russia, the strongest Women's Chess Tournament.
She is leading with 5/7.

Round 7 Standings: 1. Koneru, Humpy g IND 2531 5.0; 2. Xu Yuhua wg CHN 2480 5.0; 3. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina m RUS 2471 4.0; 4. Galliamova, Alisa m RUS 2453 4.0; 5. Kosteniuk, Alexandra g RUS 2516 4.0; 6. Kosintseva, Nadezhda m RUS 2490 3.0; 7. Chiburdanidze, Maia g GEO 2509 3.0; 8. Stefanova, Antoaneta g BUL 2501 2.5; 9. Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2477 2.5; 10. Zhukova, Natalia wg UKR 2478 2.0;

Official site: http://www.northuralscup.ru/

gansy · Post by **gansy** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:05 pm

Alright, she won the strongest women's tournament outright:

She finished with 6 points. Kosteniuk and Yuhua had 5.5 each. I think she is the strongest women player (bar J. Polgar, of course) in the world right now.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 3:05 pm

Congratulations

Indian · Post by **Indian** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:42 pm

Yes, terrific and mature performace (though expected by rating as she was the top seed) by Humpy. She was always in command throughout the tournament.
She gains around 9 rating points from this and should go to 2540.

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:12 pm

Superb win by Koneru Humpy ... She was top seeded for this tournament, but her recent performance wasn't encouraging .. So this title win without loosing single match (3 wins and 6 draws) help her to build confidence ... Way to go Koneru.

Jaydeep.

Indian · Post by **Indian** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 10:44 pm

Summary article on the tournament in chessbase here.
http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2507

Humpy is slowly emerging as an extraordinary figure in women's chess, quite on the lines of Judit Polgar.

Varma · Post by **Varma** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 6:32 am

It is shocking to know that BOB has decided not to renew their annual sponsorship. Looks like they haven't reimbursed some of this year's expenses either. It is sad that she is facing such a situation while concentrating on preparations for the upcoming World Championships. I hope someone will come forward to sponsor this gifted girl. Here is the related Hindu article:

http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/18/stories ... 211800.htm

- Varma

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