Chess
Chess: Humpy and Harika play out draw in Women's Grand Prix Delhi
Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli played out a peaceful draw against each other in the first round of the FIDE Women's Chess Grand Prix in Delhi.
Dronavalli Harika at FIDE Women's Grand Swiss (Source: ChessBase India/Twitter)
The Indian GMs Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli, on Sunday, played out a peaceful draw against each other in the first round of the FIDE Women's Chess Grand Prix in Delhi.
Harika opted for the Gruenfeld defence against Humpy and the contest soon transposed into a very equal position. Both the players were very solid and easily centralised all their pieces, before the game headed into a rook end-game.
Humpy and Harika shook hands after just 31 moves to take half point each in the tournament.
The other Indian in action, R Vaishali got a full point after her first-round opponent Elisabeth Paethz's last minute withdrawal from the tournament.
The Women's Chess Grand Prix in Delhi started on Sunday after a lot of drama. Two players - Paethz and Zhansaya Abdumalik, pulled out of the tournament being unhappy with the arrangements made by the organisers.
Though the apex chess body - FIDE, apologised unconditionally for the mess in Delhi, the players decided not to take it easy. Another player - Russia's Aleksandra Goryachkina refused to shake hands with the All Indian Chess Federation (AICF) secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan ahead of the first round games on Sunday.
The tournament was earlier scheduled to start from Saturday, but had to be pushed back by a day following Abdumalik's withdrawal.
The second round of games will now be played on Monday. While Koneru Humpy will take on Polina Shuvalova, Harika will face Zhu Jiner. On the other hand, R Vaishali is slated to take on Bibisara Assaubayeva.
