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Humpy signs off in style

By Rakesh Rao

Koneru Humpy, who won the Saharanpur International chess tournament at Saharanpur on Wednesday. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

SAHARANPUR OCT. 1. Maintaining her fine run, Grandmaster Koneru Humpy raced away with the Saharanpur International chess title after a resounding final round victory over Himanshu Sharma here on Wednesday.

Humpy's seventh victory in nine rounds gave her a winning tally of eight points. She never trailed in the championship and richly deserved the cash award of Rs. 1 lakh.

This title should rank high on Humpy's list of conquests since she was seeded only fifth behind four overseas challengers in this tough field. After Humpy's bumpy rides in the North Sea Cup and Politikan Cup, in the last two months, she regained her form while finishing runner-up in the tough National `B' championship and winning the toughest-ever Asian women's chess championship. Humpy continued her stupendous show here and gained 14 Elo rating points.

Saidali Yuldashev, the Uzbek GM, took the second spot, worth Rs. 60,000 by taming Diwakar Prasad Singh. Though the undefeated Yuldashev tallied 7.5 points like four others, he headed the pack by virtue of his superior progressive score.

International Master S. Satyapragyan followed in the third place and collected Rs. 50,000. In fact, Satyapragyan who defeated Gajendra Singh, was initially placed fourth, behind Neelotpal Das. But once Somak Palit's protest following his `defeat' to Neelotpal was considered and upheld, the result was changed to a draw. As a result, Satyapragyan, P. Konguvel, Alexander Fominyh and Dmitry Svetushkin went up the revised standing, two hours after the conclusion of the event.

Palit's contention was that the chief arbiter had wrongly rejected his claim for a draw after three repetitions of a particular position. Palit then urged the Appeal's Committee to review the decision of the chief arbiter. After the protest was upheld, Das slipped to the seventh place and Palit moved up to the 14th spot.

Coming back to Humpy's triumph, she was not required to pull off anything spectacular while providing the finishing touches to her campaign. In Slav Defence, an opening in which Himanshu was not fully prepared, Humpy gained the initiative early. She positioned her pieces well and nailed Himanshu with ease. Himanshu's inactive pieces did little as Humpy launched a decisive attack and won in just 30 moves.

If Humpy was quick in dispatching a fellow overnight leader, top seed Svetushkin was quicker in dismissing the challenge of an in-form R. Balasubramanium, the third joint leader before the final round.

Konguvel took the fourth spot and a prize of Rs. 30,000 after winning a long battle against M.R. Venkatesh. Russian Alexander Fominyh played truly like a GM and won after displaying superb technique in an ending involving a minor piece each and pawns against Neeraj Mishra. Young Poobesh did well to hold Uzbek IM Tahir Vakhidov.

The action now shifts to New Delhi where many more Grandmasters and International Masters will battle it out in the first Parsvnath International chess tournament from Thursday.

The results:

Ninth and final round: Koneru Humpy (8) bt Himanshu Sharma (7); R. Balasubramanium (7) lost to Dmitry Svetushkin (7.5); Poobesh Anand (7) drew with Tahir Vakhidov (7); Alexander Fominyh (7.5) bt Neeraj Mishra (6.5); Diwakar Prasad Singh (6.5) lost to Saidali Iuldashev (7.5); Neelotpal Das (7) drew with Somak Palit (7); Gajendra Chauhan (6.5) lost to S. Satyapragyan (7.5); M.R. Venkatesh (6.5) lost to P. Konguvel (7.5); Sriram Jha (7) bt L. Imocha (6); P.D.S. Girinath (6.5) drew with R.B. Ramesh (6.5); Abdul Malek (6.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (6.5); Rishi Pal Singh (6) lost to B.S. Shivanandan (7); Shashikant Kutwal (6.5) drew with Suvrajit Saha (6.5); G.N. Gopal (6.5) drew with T. S. Ravi (6.5); K. Ratnakaran (6) lost to Kanti Lal Dave (7); Anup Deshmukh (7) bt T. Abhay (6); Nirmal (6) lost to Varugeese Koshy (7); Nisha Mohota (6) lost to Y.P. Srivastava (7); K. Nikhilesh Kumar (6.5) drew with Saurabh Kherdekar (6.5); Keshav Shreshtha (6.5) drew with G. Balaji (6.5); S. Arun Prasad (6.5) drew with Tanmoy Pattanayak (6.5); Valay Parikh (7) bt L. Iswarya Shobana (6); Prathamesh Mokal (6.5) bt T.R. Shanmuganathan (5.5); Nassir Wajih (6.5) bt Brijesh Aggarwal (5.5); Nirav Rajasuba (6) drew with Aminul Islam (6); Soumya Ranjan Mishra (5.5) lost to M.B. Muralidharan (6.5); O.T. Anil Kumar (6.5) bt Tejdeep Adabala (5.5); Rohan Shandilya (5.5) lost to Saifuddin (6.5); Santosh Kumar Sinha (6.5) bt K. Ramu (5.5); Sukhpal Singh Kalsi (6.5) bt S.K. Rathore (5.5).

Final standings: 1. Koneru Humpy (8 points); 2-5. Saidali Yuldashev (Uzb), S. Satyapragyan, P. Konguvel, Alexander Fominyh (Rus), Dmitry Svetushkin (Mol) (7.5 each); 7-19. Neelotpal Das, R. Balasubramanium, Himanshu Sharma, Valay Parikh, Tahir Vakhidov (Uzb), Varugeese Koshy, Poobesh Anand, Somak Palit, Anup Deshmukh, Sriram Jha, B. S. Shivanandan, Y. P. Srivastava and K. L. Dave (7 each).

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