Humpy pulls off incredible win to reach semis of chess World Cup

V Subrahmanyam in Hyderabad

Sixteen-year-old Grandmaster Koneru Humpy on Wednesday pulled off an incredible victory against Li Ruofan of China in a tie-breaker to reach the semi-final in the women's section of the second World Chess Cup in Hyderabad.

She will now meet defending champion Xu Yuhua who beat S Meenakshi earlier in the day.

Humpy staged a superb fightback after the match went into the tie-breaker stage on Wednesday when she lost the second round of her quarter-final match to Ruofan after winning the first round.

In the tiebreaker, Humpy playing white won the first game with ease but was pushed into a tight corner in the second game by Ruofan who played a Petroff opening.

The Chinese had passed pawns well ahead on the board but overlooked the fact that her king lacked mobility and support, which the Indian teenager capitalised on in amazing style.

In the men's section, defending champion Viswanathan Anand beat Russia's Vladimir Malakhov 1.5-0.5 to advance to the semi-finals.

Anand would now take on Alexy Dreev (Russia) who cut short the English challenge defeating Nigel Short in a tie-breaker.

PTI