Humpy, Harika among Indians advancing to third round of FIDE Women's World Cup; Vantika held to tie-breaks by Ushenina

Indian Grandmasters Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and R Vaishali advanced to the third round of the FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup in Batumi, Georgia on Thursday while International Master Vantika Agrawal’s second-round clash against Ukraine’s Anna Ushenina has gone into the tie-breaks after the latter bounced back following a stunning defeat in the opening game.

Humpy, Vaishali, Vantika and Divya Deshmukh needed a draw to advance to the third round after winning Game 1 of their second-round clashes on Wednesday. And world rapid champion Humpy did precisely that against Uzbekistan’s Afruza Khamdamova, holding her opponent to a draw while playing with white pieces to win the second round by a 1.5-0.5 scoreline.

IM Divya triumphed over Georgia’s Kesaria Mgeladze by an identical scoreline, having also played out a draw in her second game after winning the first.

Vaishali, meanwhile, did one better and advanced to the next round with a 2-0 victory over Maili-Jade Ouellet after winning her second game against the Canadian, this time with black pieces.

Harika wins all-Indian clash against Nandhidhaa

Harika, meanwhile, defeated PV Nandhidhaa in an all-Indian encounter by a 1.5-0.5 scoreline after she won Game 2 – which had become something of a shoot-out after the two played out a draw on the previous day.

The 34-year-old, a two-time World Cup bronze medallist, used her experience to keep Nandhidhaa’s white pieces at bay and force a stalemate, resulting in the latter becoming only the second Indian after Kiran Manisha Mohanty to bow out of the event.

Vantika, meanwhile, faces former women’s world champion Ushenina in the tie-breaks after finishing on level terms at the end of the two Classical games. The tie-breaks will get underway with two 15-minute Rapid games with a 10-second increment and will be two more games with 10+10 time controls.

In case the scores are still tied, the two players will compete in two 5+3 Blitz games, which then will be followed by 3+2 games until one player finishes on top.

Also competing in the tie-breaks on Friday is Padmini Rout, who was held to a second consecutive draw by Switzerland’s Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Round 3 of the ongoing tournament gets underway on Saturday, 12 July.