Women's World Chess Championship 2015,Sochi

[Tolamu]

And the two Indians are on a collision course to the SF.

[suresh]

Nice to see Harika upsetting Kosteniuk. Now she get a lower ranked player in the QF and will hopefully make it to the SF.

[Tolamu]

Humpy loses QF game 1 with black while Harika draws with black.

[prashanthm]

Humpy was actually a up a pawn before blundering away, probably under time pressure, and had her queen too far away from the king to be able to defend....

Harika didn't even try much with a quick 15-move draw......

for tomorrow's games to both of them.....

[ajay]

Humpy is in a strong position with white and she should win to take the match into tiebreaker. Harika is also looking like heading to tiebreaker as the current game looks quiet even. Looks like all 4 quarterfinals may head to tiebreakers.

By the way, I was noticing the nationalities of the players in the quarterfinals. There are two Indians, two sisters from Ukraine, and one each from Russia, Georgia, China and Sweden. Not bad for India.

Update: Things are turning around. Harika's opponent is very short on time and may not play the best move to give Harika advantage. Humpy is still very strong. And on other board, there may be a result too. So two matches may be decided today
Update: Humpy wins! Only Harika is still playing and has a chance to finish the match today as she is pawn up with both players having a Rook. Can she convert the pawn? All other three matches have already moved to tie-breaker.

[jaydeep]

As Ajay already mentioned, Humpy bounce back to beat Mariya Muzychuk with White to take this match for tie-break.

Updated - Other hand Harika beats defense of Meri Arabidze in long match to qualify for semis.

[QF-M2] Humpy Koneru (IND,2581) 1-0 Mariya Muzychuk (UKR,2524) 1-1
[QF-M1] Mariya Muzychuk (UKR,2524) 1-0 Humpy Koneru (IND,2581)

[QF-M2] Dronavalli Harika (IND,2492) 1-0 Meri Arabidze (GEO,2374) 1½-½
[QF-M1] Meri Arabidze (GEO,2374) ½-½ Dronavalli Harika (IND,2492)

[ajay]

Jaydeep, Harika wins! She becomes the first women to reach Semi-finals. Looks like Jaydeep mistook the shake hand of Harika as offer of draw.

[jaydeep]

Thanks Ajay, I really mis-took ...
Updated my previous post with correct score.

[suresh]

Wow, Harika in the SF waiting for the winner of the Humpy-Mariya Muzychuk match.

[Tolamu]

Humpy could not convert the advantage and draws tiebreak 1 with black. I hope she wins with white. We will know after a while.

[prashanthm]

Humpy was winning the 2nd tie-break game with a huge advantage after 32 moves, but blundered away to lose.... that's the nature of these rapid games.....

[suresh]

[Saniapower]

Humpy was winning the 2nd tie-break game with a huge advantage after 32 moves, but blundered away to lose.... that's the nature of these rapid games.....

How do you say that! I think the 32nd move(Bxd7) itself was a blunder and after Re3 queen was blocked and it was all over for Humpy. Almost similar thing happened in the 1st game. Once again a crushing defeat handed to Humpy. I think Muzychuk Mariya is extremely talented and she plays brilliant chess. She attacks with precision giving no chance whatsoever to her opponent. She is favorite to win the title.

[prashanthm]

Humpy was winning the 2nd tie-break game with a huge advantage after 32 moves, but blundered away to lose.... that's the nature of these rapid games.....

How do you say that! I think the 32nd move(Bxd7) itself was a blunder and after Re3 queen was blocked and it was all over for Humpy. Almost similar thing happened in the 1st game. Once again a crushing defeat handed to Humpy. I think Muzychuk Mariya is extremely talented and she plays brilliant chess. She attacks with precision giving no chance whatsoever to her opponent. She is favorite to win the title.

How do you say that 32. Bxd7 is a blunder? It takes Humpy an exchange up and with the passed pawn on the 6th rank and double rooks on the d-file supporting the 6th file pawn, it was Humpy's game to win...... After 32... Re3 by Maria, Humpy had even a higher chance of winning it because of the black King's blockade and the possibility of a back rank mate.....

Although, 32... Re3 was blocking the white queen, Humpy had the 33. h4 with precise play and she would have either queened her passed d-pawn or could have ended up having two rooks against the black queen, which would be about equal in the worst case... There was no reason to lose this game from that position........

[Saniapower]

yes h4 could have been an excellent counter attack