Tuesday, November 22, 2011

2011 Women's World Chess Championship Match: Press Coverage

From The Times of India

Humpy surrenders two-point lead


CHENNAI: Koneru Humpy courted disaster in Game 6 to hand over a two-point lead to defending champion Hou Yifan of China in the Women's Word chess championship at Tirana ( Albania) on Monday.

The Indian challenger got a playable position and even looked slightly better at times with white when she got into time trouble. She made a few weak moves during a spell of two minutes and quickly lost the position.

With this win, Yifan leads the 10-game series 4-2. The Chinese will have white on Wednesday in Game 7 after a rest day. Hou Yifan's win is all the more creditable as she was battling a severe stomach pain the previous night.

The 17-year-old was taken to the hospital. The doctors checked her medical condition and diagnosed it was a psychological problem as the tests revealed nothing conclusive.

Yifan refused to take any pain-killers, but still turned up for the game in stable condition. And in a couple of hours from then, it was Humpy who looked in pain, of course, as a result of the Chinese's moves.

Humpy could not get any tangible advantage though she got a slight advantage. The Chinese GM managed to equalise and this must have prompted the Indian to try harder.

Humpy kept the bishops against the bishop and knight and tried to find a good sequence of moves in the last five minutes before the first time control. Yifan countered by doubling the rooks in the kingfile.

In time trouble, Humpy wasted a couple of rook moves and allowed the black knight to penetrate into the white kingside. In just three moves, Yifan broke open the position and sacrificed her knight to find a mate-in-four.

It is now imperative that Humpy has to go all out in the remaining four games if she has to reverse the results.

From ibnlive.in.com
Posted on Nov 22, 2011 at 06:03pm IST

Humpy suffers second defeat; trails Yifan 2-4

Tirana: Koneru Humpy suffered her second defeat in six games on Tuesday against defending champion Yifan Hou of China in the Women's World Chess Championship here.

With two losses and four draws so far in the 10-game contest, Humpy is trailing Yifan 2-4.

And now with just four games to go, Yifan has a two-point lead over her Indian opponent.
Yifan yet again capitalised on an erroneous plan by Humpy and went on to record her second win.

The 17-year old Chinese had experienced severe stomach pains the previous night and was immediately rushed to the hospital by the organisers and FIDE officials. The doctors checked her medical condition, but the necessary tests proved there was no other problem, besides psychological pressure.

Humpy, playing with white pieces, came up with a new plan and again had the better position once the opening was over.

She expressed her fears of a draw in the post match conference, "I prepared some line and got a very decent position after the opening. I had two bishops. I wanted to press for a win. At the beginning I had a lot of time but then I was trying to find the best line. I was afraid that some variations would lead to a draw."

As it happened, the advantage slipped out of Humpy's hands in quick time and then in acute time pressure for both players, Yifan managed to snatch the initiative with her offensive manoeuvres.

It was on move 30 that Humpy had her last chance and once she let it slip, Yifan was on top and it took just eight more moves for the Chinese to trap the King.

The seventh game of the 200000 Euros prize money match will be played after the third rest day.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...