World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship: Koneru Humpy loses final round to finish fifth

Warsaw: India’s top player Koneru Humpy finished fifth in the women’s event of the FIDE World Blitz championship while her compatriot R Vaishali, who was in second spot after nine rounds, slipped to 14th in Warsaw. Humpy scored 11.5 points from 17 rounds to take the fifth place after finishing equal on points with two others. A loss to Polina Shuvalova (Russia) in the final round hurt Humpy’s chances of a better finish. Vaishali also went down to Olga Girya (Russia) in the last round to slip out of the top 10. In the open section, Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi was the best Indian performer, taking 18th place with 13 points, while Nihal Sarin, who also scored 13 points, finished one spot lower. Eighteen-year old GM Arjun Erigaisi, who had held world No 1 Magnus Carlsen to a draw, finished 24th with 12.5 points. Teenager GM D Gukesh, who had finished 9th in the Rapid event, wound up with 12.5 points and finished 32nd. All other Indians in the Open event finished outside the top 50 with P Harikrishna, the highest-ranked from the country in the tournament, taking the 84th place and Harsha Bharathakoti (11 points) securing the 68th spot. Among the women, Vantika Agrawal (9.5 points) finished 30th and Padmini Rout with 8.5 points took the 55th place. France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave edged out Poland’s star player Jan-Kryzstof Duda in the tie-break to emerge champion while 17-year old Bibisara Assaubayeva dominated the Women’s Championship and captured the title with a round to spare. Carlsen, who was the defending champion in both the Rapid and Blitz events, lost both the titles.