Humpy beats Khamdamova, Vantika humbles former world champion Ushenina

India's Koneru Humpy inched closer to the next round by winning with black pieces against Uzbekistan's Afruza Khamdamova while emerging talent Vantika Agrawal humbled former champion Anna Ushenina in the second round of FIDE Women's World Chess Cup here on Wednesday. Grandmaster Humpy, who has been playing top level chess for over a decade, knew her way around as she went for the open Ruy Lopez against Khamdamova and even as an equal endgame was reached, the Uzbek girl was simply terrified of playing such a feared rival.

As it turned out, Khamdamova blundered a pawn and then it was an easy ride for Humpy. If Humpy was a class apart, Vantika displayed her tactical prowess effectively to down Ushenina. The Middle game arising out of a Queen pawn opening was dynamically balanced but Vantika took advantage of her progressed pawn on the queen side to force matter with a knight sacrifice that will haunt the Ukrainian Grandmaster for a long time.

Among other Indians in the fray, D Harika had to work hard despite being a pawn plus before she got the better of compatriot P V Nandhidhaa and Padmini Rout continued to do what she does best and played out a creditable draw with another former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, who has decided to play under the Swiss flag after representing Russia for a long time.

R Vaishali, the other big hope in the Indian camp also started on a positive note, defeating Ouellet Maili-Jade of Canada and so did Divya Deshmukh, who prevailed over Kesaria Mgeladze of Georgia. The party crasher, K Priyanka lived up to her reputation and played out a draw with higher ranked Klaudia Kulon of Poland after her first round victory in the tiebreaker.

There will be a return game on Friday with colours reversed and if the scores are tied the same day will be reserved as the tiebreak day for the second round in this knockout event. The total prize purse is USD 691250 with USD 50000 reserved for the winner, and in addition, the top three will also qualify for the women's candidates tournament for the world championship cycle.

Important and Indian results round 2 game 1: Lei Tingjie (Chn) beat Francisco Guecamburu Candela Be (Arg); Alinasab Mobina (Iri) drew with Zhu Jiner (Chn); Tan Zhongyi (Chn) beat Anastasia Kirtadze (Geo); Afruza Khamdamova (Uzb) lost to Koneru Humpy (Ind); Anna Muzychuk (Ukr) drew with Inna Gaponenko (Ukr); Meruert Kamalidenova (Kaz) beat Aleksandra Goryachkina (Fid); Kateryna Lagno (Fid) drew with Anastasia Avramidou (Gre); Daria Charochkina (Fid) lost to Nana Dzagnidze; Mariya Muzychuk drew with Cervantes Landeiro Thalia (Usa); P V Nandhidhaa (Ind) lost to Dronavalli Harika (Ind); R Vaishali beat Ouellet Maili-Jade (Can); Gulnar Mammadova (Aze) lost to Polina Shuvalova (Fid); Alexandra Kosteniuk (Sui) drew with Padmini Rout (Ind); Divya Deshmukh (Ind) beat Kesaria Mgeladze (Geo); Vantika Agrawal (Ind) beat Anna Ushenina (Ukr); Klaudia Kulon drew with K Priyanka.