World Rapid Chess C’ship: Koneru Humpy wins silver in women’s event; Vidit Gujarathi finishes fourth

India’s Koneru Humpy, on Thursday, won the women’s individual silver medal at the 2023 World Rapid Chess Championships in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The 36-year-old Indian Grandmaster lost to Anastasia Bodnaruk of Russia in a tie-break sudden death on time to concede the title. With the silver, Humpy has now completed a set of medals at the women’s world rapid championships. She had previously won the bronze medal in 2012 at Moscow, Russia and was crowned the world champion in 2019 at Batumi, Georgia.

Earlier, Humpy had won her last round match against Kateryna Lagno to be level with Bodnaruk with nine points in 11 matches to force a tie-break. The latter drew her final round match against the eventual bronze medallist Lie Tingjie.

The Indian started off well in the blitz tie break, winning the first game with the black pieces. However, with just a draw needed in the next game, Humpy floundered from a better position with the white pieces and allowed Bodnaruk to strike back.

The first sudden death match then ended in a draw as Humpy failed to force a result from a better position with the black pieces and settled for a draw.

The Indian then found herself in tremendous time pressure with the white pieces in the next game and it eventually brought her downfall as the clock ran out and Bodnaruk was crowned the world champion.

Heartbreak for Vidit Gujrathi

Meanwhile in the open section, Vidit Gujrathi suffered heartbreak as he finished fourth with nine points in 13 rounds. The bronze medal winner Yu Yangi too had nine points, but was placed above the Indian with a better tie-break score.

Earlier, Gujrathi was placed sole second and looked all set for a podium finish but an unfortunate blunder in his penultimate round clash against Vladimir Fedoseev from a winning position pulled the Indian back.

That game not only crashed his hopes of winning a medal at the 2023 World Rapid Chess Championships, but also helped Fedoseev to a silver medal finish in the competition.

Gujrathi then played out a draw with the black pieces against Maxime Vachire-Lagrave in his final round match.

The 33-year-old Magnus Carlsen, meanwhile, successfully defended his title as he finished with 10 points after 13 rounds. The Norwegian played out a comfortable draw in final round match against India’s R Praggnanandhaa, who finished eighth with nine points in 13 rounds.