Women's Candidates Chess: Koneru Humpy forced into tiebreaks in quarterfinal

Koneru Humpy, on Saturday, lost her final game of the quarterfinal final match against Ukraine's Anna Muzychuk at the ongoing Women's Candidates Chess. The 35-year-old needed just a draw in the game to move into the semifinal.

Playing with the black pieces, Humpy was put under time pressure early on by her opponent. The Indian soon went into an inferior position after misplacing her queen in the 30th move, which in turn left her king vulnerable. 

Humpy, however, seemed to have a chance to fight back around 10 moves later, but failed to find the perfect move under time pressure. The game ended with the World Number 3 resigning in the 58th move.

"It was a very complicated game. I was not sure what was going on," Humpy's opponent Anna Muzychuk was heard saying in the post-match interview with FIDE.

This loss means that Koneru Humpy will now have to play the tiebreaks on Sunday to earn a spot in the Pool A semifinals against China's Lie Tingjie.  

The tiebreaks, which will be played in the Rapid time control with 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment will consist of 4 games. If the scores are tied after the four games, the tiebreaks will move into two Blitz games.

Humpy and Muzychuk will battle it out in the quarterfinal tiebreaks on Sunday from 6:30pm IST.