 "R Vaishali secures first win at FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Pune; Humpy vs Harika ends in draw")
The high-profile contest between Indian stalwarts Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika ended in a quick draw, even as China’s Zhu Jiner maintained her sole lead in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Pune on Friday.
Overnight leader Jiner offered some dour defence to wriggle out of a difficult position and salvage a draw against Nurgyul Salimova in the fifth round at Amanora The Fern.
Vaishali beats Munguntuul
After a not-so-good start, R. Vaishali got her act together to defeat IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul in a scintillating game, securing her first win. Divya Deshmukh also had to stay content with a draw after a hard-fought outing against Polina Shuvalova.
Jiner continued to be the sole leader with four points and trailing half a point behind her are Humpy and Divya with 3.5 points each. Harika, Polina and Vaishali follow behind with 2.5 points each.
Vaishali and Munguntuul battled it out in a Kings-Indian attack. Vishali was in an aggressive mode and started targetting her opponent’s king by steam rolling her king-side pawns.
After the exchange of queens, it was an engrossing battle between the knights, bishops and rooks in an open board. On the 40th board, Munguntuul erred with a knight move and Vaishali was quick to capitalise and steer to victory after 52 moves.
“After the 40th turn, I started smelling victory. We are playing against strong players everyday and a rest day is welcome,” said Vaishali after the game.
Saturday is a rest day.
Humpy versus Harika
The Humpy versus Harika saw both players adopting a cautious approach and signing peace after the opening stages, the game lasting just 19 moves.
Incidentally, Humpy had defeated Harika in the first round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix at Monaco in February this year after more than eight years of drawn matches.
Both have been India’s top two women players for almost two decades and Humpy later said, “It was quite a solid position and didn’t feel like pressing further.”
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