Indian chess stalwart Koneru Humpy settles for bronze after coming close to World Rapid title; Erigaisi finishes third
Humpy, who won the world rapid championship in 2019 and 2024, came to the top with 8.5 points after the 11th and last round, with Chinese Zhu Jiner and Russian Grandmaster Aleksandra Goryachkina.
However, according to the international chess federation’s (FIDE) tiebreaker rules for ranking players with the same score – namely Buchholz Cut 1, Buchholz and Opponents’ Average Rapid Rating – Humpy fell behind Zhu and Goryachkina to settle for third place after coming so close to securing his third world rapid title.
While Humpy had scores of 69, 74 and 2335 in the above-mentioned parameters, Zhu (72.5, 77.5 and 2410) and Goryachkina (71.5, 77 and 2360) finished higher in the fight for the top.
Goryachkina, the highest-rated Russian woman in chess history and winner of the 2023 Women’s Chess World Cup, defeated Zhu 1.5/0.5 in the tiebreak to clinch her first world rapid title and the 40,000 Euro prize purse.
Her compatriot and former World Rapid bronze medalist, young B Savitha Shri, put up a spirited fight against Humpy to share a point in the 11th and final round.
Had Humpy scored full points, he could have finished the race with nine points and made history by winning his third world rapid championship; This was something no female actor had ever achieved. Humpy missed the winning line and the 18-year-old Chennai chess prodigy ended the game in a draw after 64 moves, playing with the white pieces.
Savitha (8 points) came fourth while R. Vaishali (8) came fifth. Women’s World Cup champion Divya Deshmukh (7.5) was eighth and D. Harika (7) was 19th.
Magnus Carlsen is at the top
===========================
World number 1 Magnus Carlsen demonstrated his superiority by clinching his sixth World Rapid championship in the ‘Open’ category, in addition to the championships he won in 2014, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023. He earned 70,000 euros for the win.
The Norwegian, who did not take his loss to Vladislav Artemiev in the seventh round lightly, won three consecutive matches on the last day to gain a one-point lead, and then drew his 13th and last match with Dutch GM ANish Giri, finishing with 10.5 points.
While Russian GM Artemiev (9.5) came second, Arjun Erigaisi beat Russian GM Aleksandr Shimanov and rose to 9.5 points and won the bronze medal ahead of American Hans Niemann (9.5) and Cuban-born American Leinier Dominguez (9.5).
World champion in classical chess D. Gukesh (8.5 points) came 20th and Nihal Sarin (8.5 points) came 19th. R. Praggnanandhaa also placed 27th with 8.5 points.
The World Blitz Championship will kick off on Monday with eight-time champion Carlsen the favorite in the event.
Results: Open – 1st Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 10.5, 2nd Vladislav Artemiev (FIDE) 9.5, 3rd Arjun Erigaisi (9.5). Women – 1st Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE) 8.5 (Tiebreaker 1.5), 2nd Zhu Jiner (CHN) 8.5 (Tiebreaker 0.5), 3rd Koneru Humpy (IND) 8.5.
