FIDE Women’s WC to have Indian winner for first time

Batumi: In a first for Indian chess, the FIDE Women’s World Cup will have a winner from the country with Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh set to fight it out in what could be anybody’s game in the grand finale here on Saturday.
It’s the first in the event’s history that two Indians are facing each other in the final. Both Humpy and Deshmukh have qualified for the Women’s candidates’ tournament next year after reaching the final here. On pure experience of playing big games, Humpy goes in the final as the favourite against compatriot Deshmukh.
Humpy held her nerves to score a come-from-behind victory in the semifinals over Tingjie Lei of China in the tiebreaker on Thursday, while Deshmukh defeated former world champion Zhongyi Tan -- also of China -- in the second game of the last-four stage match.
Grandmaster Humpy, 38, was the winner of the world women’s rapid tournament and also tied for first at the women’s grand prix in recent times and she has proved yet again that age is just a number. Her grit and determination has not faded one bit in the past many years.
“It’s one of the happiest moments for chess fans because now the title will go to India for sure. But of course, as a player, tomorrow will be quite a tough game as well -- Divya has played tremendously well in this whole tournament,” Humpy told FIDE website.
At half the age of Humpy, International Master Deshmukh has already stunned as many as three players ranked in top ten in the event. Her first victim was second seed Jiner Zhu of China, before ousting D Harika.

















