FIDE Women’s World Cup final: Divya holds Humpy, tiebreaker next

Divya Deshmukh held Koneru Humpy to a draw in the Women's Chess World Cup final, forcing a tiebreaker. The winner will be decided in rapid and blitz games on Monday

Batumi (Georgia): International Master Divya Deshmukh gave nothing away and held higher-ranked Grandmaster and compatriot Koneru Humpy to an easy draw, forcing the final of the Women’s Chess World Cup into the tie-breaker here on Sunday.

The tie-breaker, which will be a series of shorter-duration games, will be played on Monday to determine the winner.

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Divya, who did not make utmost use of her promising opening in the first game on Saturday, was far more composed against a Queen pawn opening by transposition employed by her opponent in game 2.

Humpy got the optical advantage with her pair of bishops out of the opening, but Divya knew that if she placed her knights perfectly, White would not be able to create many problems.

As it happened in the game, after two minor pieces, the pair of rooks also changed hands, and the queen-and-minor-piece endgame offered little hope.

Humpy tried to make some headway with a pawn sacrifice in the endgame, but in the process, her bishop pair was gone. Though a pawn up, Divya had to cover some weaknesses.

After the dust settled, Humpy recovered the pawn, and Divya repeated the position through checks to sign peace in 34 moves.

The tiebreaker will see two games of 15 minutes each with a 10-second increment after every move. If the scores are still level, the players will play another set of 10-minute games with a 10-second increment. If the tie doesn’t get resolved, it will be two more games of five minutes with a three-second increment after every move.

Should the deadlock continue, one more set of three-minute games with a two-second increment per move will be played to decide the winner.

During the post-game interaction with the broadcaster, Divya seemed upset with the mistakes she made in game 1 on Saturday, where she said she invariably kept making the wrong choices.

“I was quite disappointed with the first game obviously because I saw everything and I just always ended up making the wrong choice, and it was quite a pity. The first game didn’t go my way and even though it was a draw it kind of felt like a loss. So, I was just trying to recover and today was considerably easier,” said Divya.

“I think I got myself into a mess for no reason. I was trying to see if there was a win, but I just missed this Queen b8. And I was confused if I should go g6 or g5, and I think g5 was better because this Queen b8 doesn’t work against it.”

Asked how a player like her forgets about the previous game and focuses on the next game, she said in a game like chess it was “absolutely necessary” to come out with a fresh mindset.

“Otherwise, you’re not going to perform well in the next game. I just tell myself that I have the rest of my life to be sad about it. So just don’t be sad today and then we can be sad about it afterwards.”

The 19-year-old from Nagpur, who could become a Grandmaster if she wins the title on Monday, said she will try to give it her best shot in the tie-breaker.

“Yeah, of course. I think I’m going to give my best. She’s (Humpy), of course, a really strong player, but I’m hoping things go my way.”

Arjuna awardee Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay said Divya played the opening quickly and seemed better prepared, but a weak 24th move saw the youngster get into some trouble.

“It was a comparatively quieter play (compared to game 1). Humpy, playing white, began with English opening but the game was soon transposed to the Semi-Tarrasch Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined,” said Thipsay.

“Divya played the opening quickly and seemed to be better prepared. On move 9, Humpy had a choice of getting a better pawn structure or getting a bishop for a knight. Humpy chose to go for a bishop, which didn’t turn out to be very productive,” Thipsay opined.

“In fact, Divya correctly gave away her second bishop for her other knight and further simplified the game by exchanging all the rooks by move 20. Humpy created chances by sacrificing a pawn on move 23 and created some serious threats when Divya made a weak 24th move.”

“However, a slight inaccuracy by Humpy on move 28 allowed Divya to improve the position of her queen and force a draw by perpetual check on move 34,” added Thipsay.

Results: Koneru Humpy (Ind) drew with Divya Deshmukh (Ind)