A draw would have sufficed but Grandmaster Koneru Humpy showed no mercy and recorded her second successive win against Shen Yang of China to storm into the semifinals of the World Women's Chess Championship in Nalchik.
In the second quarterfinal match, Humpy displayed top form yet again and Yang, once again, proved no match for the vastly superior Indian.
In the first game of the quarterfinals too, Humpy had comprehensively beaten Yang and her second straight victory over the Chinese will also help the Indian add some valuable Elo points in her present rating.
In the semifinals, Humpy will be up against another Chinese player, Yifan Hao, who eliminated Lilit Mkrtchian of Armenia in the quarterfinals.
In the other quarterfinals matches, Pia Cramling of Sweden played out a draw with Antoatneta Stefanova of Bulgaria to win by 1.5-0.5 margin while Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia outplayed Anna Ushenina of Ukraine to qualify for the semifinals.
Humpy played the Nimzo Indian defence with her black pieces in the return game and equalised fairly easily early in the middle game. Yang was obviously under pressure to level the scores but her plan to pursue for a victory was not adequate.
Humpy got advantage after Yang went for unwarranted complications and seized the initiative decisively once her queen got to the seventh rank. Yang lost two rooks for two minor pieces in trying to find some defensive resources and it was all over in 42 moves.
{{/usCountry}}Humpy got advantage after Yang went for unwarranted complications and seized the initiative decisively once her queen got to the seventh rank. Yang lost two rooks for two minor pieces in trying to find some defensive resources and it was all over in 42 moves.
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