Women's Candidates Chess: Koneru Humpy inches closer to semifinal

Koneru Humpy, on Friday, drew her third game of the Women's Chess Candidates Pool A quarterfinals against Ukraine's GM Anna Muzychuk. The 35-year-old Indian now needs just a draw in the fourth and final game of the match to advance to the semifinals.

Having held Muzychuk for a draw with the black pieces on Wednesday, Humpy took the white pieces on Friday with the hope of killing of the contest and advancing to the semifinals with a win.

The India number 1, however, almost blundered her rook in the 24th move of the game but soon realised and rectified her error to eventually escape with a draw.

"She almost played Rd1 and I could not believe my eyes as it is losing to Bd4+. But she kept her hand on the piece and I realised she noticed it obviously. Then she moved the rook back to C1," Humpy opponent Anna Muzychuk told FIDE in the post game interview.

The draw in the third game means that Humpy now needs just a draw with the black pieces in the final game of the match on Saturday to advance to the semifinals. The Indian currently has her nose ahead at 2-1 after three games with one win against her name.

Muzychuk, on the other hand, would need an outright win in the final game with the white pieces to even force Koneru Humpy into tiebreaks.