Humpy bounces back

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, who suffered a shock defeat in the first game of the world chess championship semifinal, bounced back superbly bea...

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, who suffered a shock defeat in the first game of the world chess championship semifinal, bounced back superbly beating Woman Grandmaster Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia in the second game to push the match into tie-breaker here today. The tiebreaker will be played later tonight under rapid chess rules.

In the other semifinal, Grandmaster Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria advanced to the final ousting former world women champion Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia.

After squandering a winning chance in the first game, the Indian was back to her basics and played the do-or-die second game with absolute concentration.

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It was a Bogo-Indian Defence that gave Humpy, playing White, a tangible advantage and slowly she started exerting pressure on the queenside after trading the queens in the early opening.

Though the queen-less middle game offered sufficient counterplay to Kovlevskaya, Humpy was instrumental in forcing the Russian to part with a pawn.

Thereafter, Kovalevskaya played quite well and had enough compensation for the lost material. But with the clock ticking away she committed a positional blunder on the 27th move that spelt her doom.

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