Women Speed Chess Championships: Koneru Humpy beats R Vaishali to enter quarter-finals

Chennai: World champion Koneru Humpy outplayed young Grandmaster R Vaishali 7-3 in a battle of Indians in the first round of the third leg of Women Speed Chess Championships on Wednesday. D Harika too notched up a thumping 11.5-2.5 victory over Tatev Abrahamyan to join Humpy in the quarter-finals. Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) and Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) also reached the final eight. Humpy, the world number two, jumped to an early lead against her compatriot and sealed an easy win in the FIDE Chess.com event. The Chennai-based WGM had reached the semifinals of the opening leg before losing in the quarterfinals in the second leg. In the Harika-Abrahamyan encounter, the Indian was in dominant form and romped to win after taking an early lead. In other matches, Kateryna Lagno defeated Bibisara Assaubayeva 7.5-3.5, world number one Hou Yifan thrashed Munkzhul Turmunkh 11-3 and current world champion Ju Wenjun beat Gunay Mammadzada 7.5-2.5. The Grand Prix consists of four legs with a total of 21 participants. Each of the 21 players participates in three out of four Grand Prix legs. Each GP is a 16-player knockout event. In each Grand Prix leg, every player scores cumulative grand prix points according to the position in the final standings. The two players who score the highest number of cumulative grand prix points in all three Grand Prix legs qualify for the Super Final to be held on 20 July.