"VAN" (Sports Desk - 24.04.2025) :: It couldn’t have been scripted better. Three inconsequential games ended quite fast, leaving the two main actors battling it out on the top boards, right until the final moments of the round.
After a very stressful afternoon for everyone, Indian number one Humpy Koneru claimed victory in the Pune Women’s Grand Prix, edging out Chinese prodigy Zhu Jiner in the tiebreak. Both of them won their final games, totalling seven points apiece. Third place goes to Divya Deshmukh, who drew with Alina Kashlinskaya in their last-round game.
Humpy recognized that luck had played a big part in her victory: “I haven’t been doing very well lately in classical chess, but here I have recovered my rating points and with the exception of yesterday’s game against Kashlinskaya, I think I have played quite well”.
Both Zhu Jiner and Humpy will share the WGP points – they receive 117.5 each. For Humpy this will probably not be enough to contend for the second candidates spot, but Zhu Jiner will have another chance at qualifying for the Candidates in the final leg of the series, to be played in Großlobming, Austria, from the 5th to the 16th of May.
With these results, Alexandra Goryachkina leads the WGP with 308.34 points (three events played), followed by Humpy Koneru with 279.17 points (three events played) and Zhu Jiner with 235 points (two events played). Anna Muzychuk is just behind with 189.17 points and has also only played two events.
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