Dec. 15: 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 here. 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 the Indian in 2008.
The other Indian in the fray, Dronavalli Harika was forced into another tiebreaker 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.
Should 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. 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.