Grand Prix Chess | Humpy edges Zhu on tie-break to claim the fifth leg

Koneru Humpy emerges as champion in FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Pune, sharing prize money and Grand Prix points.

They began as the top two seeds, and they finished as the top two.

Koneru Humpy and Zhu Jiner ended with seven points each after the ninth and final round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix at Amanora-The Fern on Wednesday. But Humpy proved more equal, as she emerged champion of the fifth leg of the series on account of a better tie-break score than the second-seeded Chinese. The prize-money and the Grand Prix points are shared though in case of a tie.

This was the last event for Humpy (a player gets to play three), and she has finished her campaign with 279.17 points. She is second in the table at the moment, behind the leader, Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina (308.34), but the standings could change with players like Zhu having one more event to play.

The two-best placed women will qualify for the Candidates, the qualifying event for the World championship.

On the final day here, Humpy, with white pieces, overcame Nurgyul Salimova in 84 moves of Slav Defence. The Bulgarian had been in trouble long before that, but she fought on until Humpy’s two passed pawns in the knight ending threatened checkmate.

It was a long game for Zhu too; she took 76 moves to outwit Polina Shuvalova of Russia. The third place went to Divya Deshmukh, giving some joy to the host State of Maharashtra.

The results (final round): R. Vaishali drew with Salome Melia (Geo); Koneru Humpy bt Nurgyul Salimova (Bul); Divya Deshmukh drew with Alina Kashlinskaya (Pol); Polina Shuvalova (Rus) lost to Zhu Jiner (Chn); D. Harika drew with Munguntuul Batkhuyag (Mgl).