Indian chess player, Koneru Humpy secured a much needed draw against China's Ju Wenjun in the second game of the quarterfinals to enter the semifinals of the World Women's Chess Championship being held in Hatay, Turkey. Humpy, who had made the semifinals in the last edition of the championship too, will face Yifan Hao of China in the next match. Yifan had ousted her in 2008.
The other Indian in the fray, D Harika was forced into another tie-breaker after she played out a second successive draw with Ruan Lufei of China. Harika will first play two rapid games and if the tied result continues, it will be a blitz tiebreaker to follow. If the deadlock continue the players will play an Armageddon blitz game with five minutes to white and four to black and black will stay on even in case of a draw.
In the other quarterfinal matches, Yifan Hao obtained the draw she was looking for against Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine and won the mini match by a 1.5-0.5 margin like Humpy, while Zhao Xue of China won a tense game to show Almira Skripchenko the exit door. Come what may, the World championship is set to come back to Asia as only players from India and China remain in the fray.
Humpy was made to work hard by Ju Wenjun who played the white side of a Trompovsky opening. The Indian star had to find a few correct moves in the middle game to stay afloat and once Wenjun came up with a queen sacrifice for two pieces, Humpy was already within the striking distance of a draw. Finally it was two rooks versus a queen and a pawn for Humpy and she had little trouble in maintaining the balance. Seeing no way out, Wenjun allowed the repetition of moves and settled for a draw after 60 moves.
{{/usCountry}}Humpy was made to work hard by Ju Wenjun who played the white side of a Trompovsky opening. The Indian star had to find a few correct moves in the middle game to stay afloat and once Wenjun came up with a queen sacrifice for two pieces, Humpy was already within the striking distance of a draw. Finally it was two rooks versus a queen and a pawn for Humpy and she had little trouble in maintaining the balance. Seeing no way out, Wenjun allowed the repetition of moves and settled for a draw after 60 moves.
{{/usCountry}}Harika, on the other hand, played the Sicilian Classical to test Ruan Lufei who played white in the return game. After routine opening manoeuvres, Harika exchanged the queens and was one pawn less but her active pieces compensated for the material deficit.